vandykeu Reviews

Baldur's Gate III (2023 Video Game)

Incredible. Epic. Unmatched. Cinematic.

[10/10 · 14 May 2024]

I'm about 90% of the way through my first play of this game, and it has become not only my favorite videogame of all time, but is easily in my top 5 of narrative/storytelling experiences. Forget videogames, there are few books, movies, TV shows, or just stories in general that have the dramatic narrative impact that this game does. It is, at turns, successful at being inspiring, hilarious, tragic, horrific, hells just say whatever adjective you want. It is all of the good ones.

And the amazing thing is that it is essentially a choose-your-own-adventure experience in a way that games can be but no other narrative medium can. The amazing success of BG3 is that it succeeds in this way beyond most other attempts. That little choice you made on day one of your game? Yeah it might come back to impact your story over 100 hours later in a way you just had no way to see coming.

There are experiences here that had me on the brink of tears. And then, a few days later, experiences that had me gobsmacked in disbelief by the reveal that I just was not expecting. I am not experienced in the DnD universe, so maybe some of this is just my naivety, but the game is so deep in its narrative that if you spend the time to really get to know the story, the characters, and the world, it will reward you in ways you probably have never experienced in a narrative medium like this.

And more- you can go back and play the whole game all the way through and make entirely different choices and get an entirely different story.

The capacity to do this, and do it so well, is an incredible achievement. The creators, voice actors, game designers, and animators have just done a tremendous job. The only way I can see this ever being surmounted for its depth and optionality is if you could somehow work AI into creating a truly customized narrative based on your choices. The flowcharts that this game must have relied on boggle my mind. The detail and work they must have put in to script it in the way they did, and then build in such engaging dialogue and settings along with it, must have taken years (granted, it was an 8 year production). I just can't see it ever being topped without some sort of AI mechanism.

I wish that people outside of gaming knew about this. It should be mentioned in the same breath as the true classics of books, movies, and TV. I feel as if most of the people who worked on it will never be known outside of a relatively niche audience, and that is supremely unfortunate given the talent they displayed in creating BG3. It's an incredible achievement.

If any part of you has an interest in this game, get it.

Shōgun (2024–2026)

Incredible performances and production, but confusing

[6/10 · 26 April 2024]

I found Shogun to be a frustrating watch. The performances and production were uniformly outstanding across the entire show. It gripped me from episode 1, and I thoroughly enjoyed what it was trying to do. However, by the end I was left with far too many questions about the main plot. Some of this is intentional- Toronaga's plot is convoluted, and the main character is arguably Mariko rather than Blackthorne. However, there is enough that is left unresolved in my opinion that I had a hard time accepting that episode 10 was the finale.

So, in broad strokes, Toronaga's plan clearly works. Mariko's story is completed in a way that I could follow. The things I couldn't figure out were:

1) How did Ochiba really fit into this. I know the show went through some of the story, but it was so subtle that I could not fully understand her turns. From reading commentary on the book, it feels like the show left out some details on her relationships with both Mariko and Toronaga, and with Taiko. She seems to be pulling all of the strings, but those strings are certainly not clear.

2) In episode 10, what were the scenes of Blackthorne as an old man meant to convey? He is shown almost seeing the history as a flashback from England, with a rosary that I presume is meant to be Mariko's... but then we learn that he gives it to the sea in remembrance, and there is every hint that Toronaga never lets him leave Japan.... so why these scenes? Are they dreams he is having in the moment of an old age he will never see? I just didn't get it.

3) It is heavily implied at the end that not all of the story was actually Toronaga's plotting, and moreso that he was simply supremely effective at making use of the events that transpired. I think this is the easiest of my concerns to rectify as it shows him more as amazingly adaptive than particularly plotting, which is a very zen move. Still, and perhaps I am not appreciating the subtlety enough, I found it a bit frustrating. The mystery left hanging is perhaps most upsetting from Hiromatsu's perspective from several episodes previous. He kills himself in a display that reinforces everyone's faith in Toronaga, and it is implied that this was part of Toronaga's plan and his sacrifice was part of the scheme. But then if Toronaga is taking advantage of events as they come, then was this planned? If not, then it makes little sense, as Hiromatsu is shown from the first moment to hold an unquestioning, unwavering loyalty just like Mariko.

In short, I felt like the show was trying to have it both ways- Toronaga is either a master planner or a master user of events. He can't be both, and some of his vassal's actions only make sense if he is one or the other, and those do not really align together to either tell a uniform story or to hold true to each of their characters as presented to us.

Maybe it is meant to ask these questions and I missed something in my watch. It is good enough that perhaps I should give it the benefit of the doubt, but I wish it had given us just a little bit more.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021–2024)

It's just too dark

[6/10 · 12 April 2024]

I'm about halfway through season 2 of Bad Batch, and I have very mixed feelings about it. On one hand, I really like the story concept. Pairing with shows like Andor and Rebels, it is neat to see the immediate post-republic Empire. I like the concepts they are addressing here, and the Batch is a good way to do it. I like how they show the galaxy through Omega's eyes as a child, but also don't hide things from her. I also like how we are getting to see the consequences of the war for the Clones, and getting a pretty good backstory as to how the empire transitions from clonetroopers to stormtroopers. The implications for broader society are interesting as well, with the crime bosses and syndicates seeming to become more prevalent. Finally, I love the inclusion of some of the legends material here, which only makes sense given some of the other characters 'resurrected' from the old EU.

But, the show is just so dark. And I don't mean darkly themed- although it is that sometimes (which is good!). The animation is just so dark. It is hard to tell what is actually happening. I would say a good 3/4 of the show takes place at night, in a darkened tavern, or in a darkened spaceship of some sort, or simply underground.

I assume this is to save money on animation, or to help the animation look better, but it really takes me out of the show when I can't really see the action. It ends up feeling like a radioplay or audiobook sometimes. I also don't understand why it is necessary, when Rebels was so good despite its animation being definitely worse than Clone Wars.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Wow

[9/10 · 16 March 2024]

The first time I saw Dune part 1, it didn't really grab me. Maybe it was because I was on a trans-pacific flight, or maybe it was because my Dad had just died. I dunno. It just missed me.

I re-watched it before seeing Dune 2 in the cinema, and I'm really glad I did. Dune 2 picks up right where 1 ended, and there's no way I would have understood 2 if I hadn't seen 1 right before.

Dune 2 is masterful. It's one of the best film experiences I've had in a very long time. The acting, music, cinematography, everything is just beautiful in its art. I loved the way the story moved the characters. It made their choices, especially the difficult ones, believable. I also love how the story subverts one's expectations. I won't spoil it, but I really enjoy the 'grey' in Paul's character by the end. This is a story of wheels within wheels.

Maybe because I'm a huge fan of Rebecca Ferguson, the Bene Gesserit story, blended with the 'going native' approach Paul takes, I found to be particularly compelling. Here, we have a 'hero' leading an oppressed yet skilled and proud people to 'freedom', but with a price. Jessica's role in shaping Paul's future is fascinating here.

When the Bene Gesserit start talking about how Paul is one of many people they produced, it made me think back to 2 and how Paul was supposed to be female. When Feyd gets introduced as another person they are cultivating, and there is the reveal of Jessica's true parentage, it reeeeeaaly made me wonder if the plan had been for her daughter to eventually link with Feyd. Incestuous though it would be, the open binding of the Harkonens and Atreides, with Bene Gesserit influence, would have been super-powerful. But, this is just idle speculation on my part. It's an example of how the film's story is deep enough to capture one in its lore.

I hope they continue to tell this story, and I'll have to read the books now.

Masters of the Air (2024)

A strong, though imperfect, portrayal of the American bombing effort

[7/10 · 16 March 2024]

I watched episode 9 of Masters of the Air last night, so am writing this after some consideration of the entire series. It has gotten a lot of mixed reviews for a lot of reasons, and I think lots of people were hoping for it to be the 3rd in a 'series' along with Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

One of the difficulties the show encounters is that the source material is not quite as consistent as that for the prior two shows, and so some plotlines need to be dramatized to varying degrees. Both of the prior shows suffered from this to lesser extents, but it was easier to blend across. Here, our four primary characters, Crosby, Egan, Cleven, and Rosenthal, experience 3 different stories due to what happens to them.

Many have criticized the character development, especially early on. I think this was misplaced. The source materials used are reflected very well from episodes 1-6, and you have a feel for the main leads through the story. We do lose track of many people through the show, but this is because they either die in appaling numbers, or are lost after being shot down.

I think where the show fails is that it tries to do too much. Focusing solely on the 100th bomb group probably would have been a better narrative choice. We get one significant and one minor departure from that. The first is in episode 8 focusing on the 332nd Fighter group, whose story is loosely tied to the main story through fictionalised relationships built between those pilots and Buck Cleven. The second is in a brief look at Crosby's friend Westgate's fictionalised career as a spy.

Unfortunately, the focus on these side stories (while valuable for representation) takes away from the main story. From episode 1 to 6 we have a pretty consistent narrative, but it falls apart from episodes 6-9. Plotlines are established, and historical events are mentioned, but then we don't get the payoff. Essentially, episodes 1-6 focus on the sheer terror and danger of being bomber crews over Europe, and then while episodes 7-8 are occurring, the reality of those missions changed completely, and by episode 8-9 the skies are clear of Luftwaffe. We don't see how that happens at all, and are only told.

I think that was a big narrative mistake. We see the trials that the characters go through, but we don't see how they overcome those. It's just not a coherent story in the end. The side-journeys are meant to provide broader representation, but end up feeling tokenistic. We don't really get a sense of the racial tensions the Tuskegee men went through for example, and many of the interactions they have are, again, told to us rather than shown. A 9 episode series just doesn't have the time to tell all of these stories adequately.

Episode 9 caps it all off in a narratively satisfying way. I really enjoyed how they tied the various storylines up. A major caveat here is that episode 9 is almost entirely fictional, which is a bit of a shame for a show that is being presented as a portrayal of largely true events, like its predecessors. This is a mixed view- I enjoyed the episode a LOT, but knowing the histories of these men, I could tell how unreal it was. That said, what was depicted happened to a large degree, just not to these people, in these places. So, I'll give it a break there.

One final negative- as in the prior shows, we see an epilogue discussing the postwar lives of the key men. This is far too brief, and we only get to see the 4 leads plus the 2 leads from the Tuskegee group (who we only met for an episode and a half). We are not given anything on the other men who we've seen through the show, like Blakely, Douglass, Hambone, Brady, Crankshaft, Murphy, Kidd, Harding, etc. I thought that was a bit poor, especially because the bios for most of these men can be found on the 100th Bomb Group Foundation website. It would have been very easy to acheive this, especially based on the precedent from the prior two shows, which went through comparatively long lists of men.

From a production standpoint, the show gets largely high marks. The acting is fantastic. I disagree with those in particular who have criticized Butler's performance, as he does Cleven very well. The dialogue is a bit mixed- the Tuskegee men in particular get some pretty poor lines not up to par with the others. The CGI is amazing in some episodes, and terrible in others. The physical production of things like costumes and sets are usually amazing, but there are noticeable mistakes that are jarring, like men having the wrong rank insignia for what they are called. Likewise, the B17 models are always Fs, and not transitioned to Gs later on. This was explained by John Orloff as a cost-saving measure so that they didn't have to modify the Volume Sets, but it feels wrong when the CGI could have been easily adjusted by comparison.

In the end, as someone who grew up reading Crosby's book and obsessed with WW2 aviation, I really loved this show most of the time. I think it suffered from an inadequate budget and some poor narrative decisions, possibly from interference from executive producers. I don't think it ends up meeting the quality of its predecessors as a whole, but it has some particular scenes and portrayals that are better than anything those had- for example Rosie's re-up scene, and the Regensburg/Munster missions.

And the score.... wow. Blake Neely did an amazing job with it. The title sequence theme is astounding.

Poor Things (2023)

A lot of reviewers are missing the point

[8/10 · 11 March 2024]

Poor Things is a fantastic movie. I am surprised by the wrath it is getting in some of these reviews, mainly on the grounds of being gross, pedophiliac, and the like. I'll the grant the reviewers something on this- I agree with their points. It IS pretty gross, and there certainly is something to the pedophilia arguments given the infant brain being placed in Bella's head.

But, that is the whole point of the film. It is a satirical indictment of how men often view women. In every male environment Bella finds herself, she is definitively an object of attraction, and that is essentially all. Her awakening, though partially driven by her sexuality, is of the rest of the world despite the men. She rapidly learns to see men for who they are based on how they treat her nearly universally and almost solely as an object, and she learns how to reject that.

I thought the film did a fantastic job of taking us down this disturbing path. I loved how it consistently punched up. Aside from being a victim of surgery in the first place, Bella is never taken advantage of. She never loses her agency. She chooses to do pretty much everything she does in the film, and when the world becomes too dangerous for her, she fights, ferociously, viciously, and always comes out on top.

I thought she was superbly portrayed by Emma Stone, and the rest of the cast did a fine job as well. My only critique is that I wish she hadn't chosen to marry McCandless at the end. That seemed to me to be the only thing she chose to do which I could not fully understand. Sure, McCandless is the only man who lets her be who she wants to be, but she also spends the whole film demonstrating she is perfectly capable to survive without wanting male companionship. It would have made far more sense for her to run off with the black prostitute (who's name I don't know if I heard).

Masters of the Air: Part Eight (2024) Season 1, Episode 8

Shoehorning vignettes of lip service to history

[3/10 · 8 March 2024]

Episode 8 of Masters of the Air deviates significantly off of our storyline to this point. Here, we are introduced to the 99th Pursuit Squadron, one of the units of the Tuskegee Airmen- the African-American fighter pilots.

Essentially, we see them fly two missions, but neither have anything to do with the prior storyline except serving to unite several of them with Buck and Bucky in Stalag Luft 3. A highlight here is a brief portrayal of Col. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr, a legend who is worth his own movie (also portrayed by Andre Braugher in HBO's prior excellent miniseries "The Tuskegee Airmen").

This episode suffers from jumping across far too many subplots. We have the new 99th pilots, Crosby, Rosie (who's story is now a big diverged from Croz), Sandra, and the POW camp. That's 5 separate storylines to keep track of in an episode less than 60 minutes long.

It's hard to really keep track of what is going on. We start in June, and by the end of the episode the Russians are in East Prussia (according to the POW storyline), so we have now reached at least August. We don't see many of the major events of the war due to Crosby's narrative (which is accurate), but the reference to Operation Dragoon was nice.

This episode does not keep track of its story. Buck and Bucky fight, but we don't know why, and they are fine immediately afterward. Last episode, Rosie was told at the end that the bombers were bait and that the Luftwaffe had to be destoryed. Now, we see that has happened, but we don't get to SEE it happen. Nate Mann is criminally underused here, and we don't see any more true B17 combat. Sandra is shown as a spy, but then disappears. There are tons of narrative inconsistencies both within episodes 7-8 and between them and the prior story.

It is quite jarring. It feels like production by committee at this point. The Tuskegee Airmen inclusion is extremely tokenistic. If we wanted that story, perhaps it should be the focus, since they had little or nothing to do with the 100th Bomb Group. Their inclusion is so brief that we have very little idea of the struggle they went through, and what little racial tension we see here is directly siphoned off by Buck being a good guy and bringing Jefferson into the plan. Did this happen? I don't know. Despite reading a lot of the source material, I don't know if Buck was good on race relations. How would he be portrayed if he was a racist? The show is glossing over these details in its effort to give lip service to all of the good sacrifices made, and I think it is just too much now.

Likewise, Westgate's brief spy story is bizarrely stuck in here, when we had a perfectly good story of that type set up back in episode 4 with Quinn et al's escape, and the role of the resistance. It just feels unfocused and rushed at this point, which is sad for how strongly the story started.

The content in episodes 7-8 (and to a lesser extent, 3-4) would make good bases for at least 4 different 10-episode series. Indeed, it has, with series/movies that already exist that focus on the Tuskegee Airmen, or the French Resistence, or espionage during WW2, and even the 8th Air Force. Unfortunately, this kind of lumping does not make for good storytelling.

Masters of the Air: Part Seven (2024) Season 1, Episode 7

This one didn't grab me.. EDIT... it's actually just a bad episode.

[4/10 · 1 March 2024]

I've found this show to be outstanding up to this point, but Episode 7 I felt lacked attention to detail. It feels rushed, and is just not very good.

The Good: The Stalag scenes are fantastic, and convey much of the environment exceedingly well. I liked too how it was circumspect in showing its impact on the men. We didn't see too much here, but everything we saw was important, from the radio, to the cat, to the impact captivity is having on the men- Egan especially.

Nate Mann continues to kill it as (now) captain Robert Rosenthal. Rosie is very well portrayed here. A legend of a man, and it is great to see him here stand up for what he believes. The scene where he re-ups is one of the best in the series.

The scenes of chaos when the bombers return was quite good.

The Bad: There was a pretty clear drop in the quality of the CGI on this episode. Likewise, one of the scenes where Rosie and his crew exits their plane shows how the prop model had aged- the panels on the plane appear flat and paper-mache'd. In general, the plane and flying parts of this episode just didn't look very good. Likewise, the 'action' is not really conveyed well, or long enough in this instance.

The downtime shown here isn't very compelling, I felt. After a few episodes that were heavy with emotion and nuance, this one just felt flat, or maybe raw, to me. I don't think Kidd would have let out that the mission requirements were going up from 25 to 30 in public as he does, and the reaction to it, although believable, felt staged for drama's sake. It is especially unnecessary because we get the same information conveyed much more effectively (and realistically) in the Rosie re-up scene. We don't need to be told things twice in the same episode, especially in a series we know from all accounts was very pressed for both budget and time.

The Ugly: As in episode 2, we again see them get a guy's rank wrong when a lieutenant is called a major by his C/O. That is inexcusable for a show of this kind of detail.

I knew from an interview it was coming, but having the bombers still be F models in 1944 is inaccurate. All of the new planes coming after later '43 would be Gs with the chin turret. This was a cost-saving measure, but it is a pretty huge oversight... again money is being spent on things the series doesn't need, but not being spent on things that would increase its accuracy. Bad choices.

Crosby, Crosby, Crosby. His book is quite discrete about what he may or may not have gotten up to with the women he met in England. To have his 'possible' affair portrayed as blatantly as shown here is a bit of an insult to him and his family, IMO. Although a reading of his book certainly suggests he was unfaithful, and I think we can sympathize with his reasons, I don't think we needed to see it to get the point across. Furthermore, why do we need TWO bedroom scenes to make the point? Again, it's redundant storytelling in a show that is already extremely pressed for time and funding.

This all is made a bit worse by the preview of episode 8, which portrays Westgate potentially as a spy... Let's be clear here, the woman Crosby names in his book is never fully identified. It is likely he used a pseudonym in the first place, and there is no clear evidence of who she was in any which way. For a show of this (so far) historical accuracy to delve into pure speculative fiction is quite annoying.

EDIT: I'm coming back to this after a day's thought because it occurred to me also that this episode has some major continuity errors both within itself and across the broader show: At the POW camp, which earlier in the episode HEARD the bombs just 1-2 days earlier, there's snow on the ground. In this scene over Berlin, there is no snow... likewise in Thorpe Abbotts in the same time (early March), the trees are fully leaved as in summer. Then, when the Great Escape happens (late March) there is again snow on the ground. Poor continuity.

Rosie's bombardier drops his own bombs on target, despite us being told several times through the series (including just 2 episodes ago) that the group drops their bombs when the lead plane drops. Again, some real poor continuity on display in this episode.

After the quality the show has shown up to this point, Episode 7 is a real letdown. Continuity errors. Historical accuracy errors. Speculative fiction and dramatization about its characters. Why such a drop?

Masters of the Air: Part Six (2024) Season 1, Episode 6

Excellent nuance shown here, sticking to source material

[9/10 · 24 February 2024]

This week we have another 'interlude' episode showing more of the nuance of the air war. Crosby and Rosenthal both go on different forms of leave, and we begin to see the fates of airmen who are captured by the Germans.

Crosby's story here is fantastic, and aside from one detail holds very closely to his memoir. Whole conversations are lifted word-for-word from it, especially those with his British counterparts. I am astounded that they included this in the show, but very grateful that they did. (side note- sorry Brits, but the condescension that some of you are upset about here really did happen according to Crosby).

Likewise, Rosenthal is shown with his officers convalescing in a 'flak house'. His crew is unusual in that they have this opportunity after only 3 missions. It is clear that he is a bit upset at sitting out, but we can see that he has been affected. We get to start to see his growth as a leader here.

Egan's story is probably the most fictionalised, but we are seeing important details reflecting the reality of being shot down in Germany. Unlike parachuting into Belgium, France, or another occupied country, the populace you've bombed is not going to be happy with you, and we see some of the consequences. We also get a FANTASTIC interrogation scene that is quite realistic for the place and time. And, Egan gets to see some familiar faces.

My favourite scene was the end, where Crosby and Rosenthal are shown back at Thorpe Abbotts. One of Rosie's crew is telling a story he heard back at the flak house, and the camera pans. We get to see the men who have survived. Keep in mind that by now, Crosby's crew is basically the last 'original' one left. Everett Blakely is now a major, in command of 418 squadron since Egan was shot down. Both Crosby and Douglass are shown to be captains, and they are now group navigator and group bombardier, respectively. We see Maj. Jack Kidd- the air exec too. And we can see that Rosie's men are now some of the 'old' men. I really liked that touch.

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Burkhardt the patsy

[6/10 · 18 February 2024]

The biggest two disappointments about Killers of the Flower Moon are its length, and the implication throughout that Burkhardt is some sort of a patsy. A close third is that Mollie is ignorant to a fault, at least until the end, when she learns the truth.

This is not unusual in Scorcese's movies. In most of them, there is not really a character who is good, who you can actually root for without having too many moral quandaries. In most of his crime thrillers, this is ok because part of the enjoyment of the movie is seeing the idiot criminal get his comeuppance for being an idiot (or arrogant).

Here, we don't really get that. Despite the quality of acting, dialogue, cinematography, and depth of the story, we don't really have anyone we want to support. Of course, it should be Mollie and the rest of the Osage, but they are portrayed as ignorants totally naive to what is happening to them. I am not sure if this is directly intentional, but it came across to me as disrespectful. Only towards the end do we start to see any hint that they know just how badly they are being taken advantage of.

At the same time, both Ernest Burkhardt and (sort of) William Hale are portrayed with a fair degree of complexity. Yes, they are both murderous villains here, but they are also shown as compassionate villains. Burkhardt loves his wife, to the point that we are never 100% sure what he is injecting her with, even though he surely must have known. Likewise, Hale is portrayed as a pillar of the community, who the Osage apparently trust so much to involve him in some of their most intimate affairs.

True or not, this result does not make for a very satisfying watch, especially at more than 3 hours. At that kind of length, I would have much preferred more depiction or insight into what the rest of the Osage thought was going on. What were their responses? Were they really so naive, or were they instead too fearful to speak up?

Masters of the Air: Part Five (2024) Season 1, Episode 5

Definitely the best episode so far

[10/10 · 16 February 2024]

Wow. I just finished this one and I am still feeling it. Episode 5 shifts gears again to largely focus on a single mission, with more air combat time again. This time it is Munster, and Bucky Egan is leading it to get revenge for his friend, Buck Cleven.

They really knocked this one out of the park. We feel the tension of this revenge mission, which Crosby wrote about. Crosby, btw, is back after surviving the last mission having crash-landed in a field with Blakely's crew- this shouldn't be a spoiler since it's been written about quite a bit. In any case, he gets this mission off.

And it's a good thing he did, too.

Without spoiling anything, one thing we get a sense of from episodes 3-5 is just how punishing these missions in mid-late 1943 were to the men who flew them. The cast and production here do an excellent job of showing the stress of the unrelenting battle. The difference from Band of Brothers or other such stories is that here the men who return get to sleep in a nice warm bed, have a drink, have a hot meal, etc. They get a reprieve... but they must live with the knowledge that once they get airborne their ticket could get punched at any time.

Here, we really get a glimpse into what that unrelenting lifestyle was like, and the impact it had on them. Tremendously done.

Masters of the Air: Part Four (2024) Season 1, Episode 4

A character development episode

[6/10 · 9 February 2024]

This is the first episode of the series that has disappointed me, but it is mainly because of what they aren't showing us here. In many ways, it is an excellent episode, with many glimpses into the stresses and other stories that we should be aware of that are going on. We see the consequences of the missions and the war here.

It reminds me a lot of Episode 3 of The Pacific (the Melbourne episode). Most of what we are shown is probably among the more fictionalized out of the source material, as was that episode. Everything we are seeing probably happened in some way, in some form, to some one, but the source materials don't necessarily spell this out. The drama and the story it shows is fine.

But (and this is where my spoilers start), we are really missing out by not seeing the Bremen mission of 8 October. This mission is something Crosby wrote about extensively in his memoir, and made even more of an impression on him than the Regensburg mission. Yes, Buck Cleven is shot down in this mission, and Crosby didn't know his fate.

But, Crosby also saw things here that impacted on him tremendously. His plane was group lead, and they crash-landed in England after severe damage. In Crosby's book, it is the only time he goes into detail about the injuries suffered, because he saw them. Their waist gunner, Lester Saunders, had been killed. Their co-pilot, Charlie Via, who was in the tail position as a command pilot flew with them again, had his leg and abdomen severely injured by a 20mm cannon shell, but lived. Two other crew whose names I forget were also injured.

This mission affected Crosby profoundly, and he was never the same by his own writing after it. As the show narrator, I think it is a travesty to leave it out and focus on the mission solely as Egan's response to Cleven being shot down.

Again- fine episode as-is, and I see what they are aiming to do here, but I think it is a missed opportunity. Maybe the budget was already too high, or maybe they were concerned about people being too affected by so much death and destruction onscreen, but this is the first time I've been disappointed.

Masters of the Air: Part Three (2024) Season 1, Episode 3

The build up is over, into hell we go

[10/10 · 2 February 2024]

Episode 3 of Masters of the Air focuses on the Regensburg mission, in August 1943. Of the episodes so far, it holds clearest to the history. Some of this is because it focuses only on that one mission. And it is a brutal one.

Regensburg was one of those successful failures. The episode introduces the plan: 3 task forces of bombers are going to simultaneously hit multiple targets in Germany, with the 100th then flying through Europe and the med on to Africa. Only one problem: weather screws up the rendesvous. And, they are ordered to fly anyway, forget the mission aim.

So, instead of 3 task forces all at once, the 100th's is on its own. And we see/feel the consequences.

No spoilers here, but it is worth reflecting on something. As bad as what we are shown is (and was), the other task forces fared even worse. The other target, Schweinfurt, was heavily defended by the time the 2nd and 3rd task forces arrived. In total, the 8th Air Force lost 60 B-17s that day. That's 600 men killed or captured in a single mission. Perhaps the only downside of this episode is that this fact was not stated.

Masters of the Air: Part Two (2024) Season 1, Episode 2

Still good, but small details slipping a bit

[8/10 · 27 January 2024]

The 2nd episode of Masters of the Air continues telling the story of the 100th BG through Harry Crosby's narration. We get to see more about how he earned his position as group navigator. We also see how Egan is assigned command of a squadron.

This episode also details the 100th's mission to Trondheim Norway, and shows more about the basis of strategy for the 8th Air Force more generally. It also shows the rowdiness for which the 100th was pretty famous at this point- which Crosby in his book makes a point to criticize. It will be interesting to see how that part of the story develops.

The 100th at this time was known for being pretty sloppy, both in the air and on the ground. There were a few reasons it tended to suffer high losses in the air, and sloppy formation flying was one of those. For strategic bombers of the time, formation flying was extremely important because it allowed the fields of fire of each bomber a better chance of overlapping and covering each other. Stragglers were always easy targets for German fighters, and we can see that in both of the first two episodes here.

A couple of details I like- the formation is attacked by JU-88s at one point. JU-88s were a German 'do everything' aircraft. They were 2-engined planes originally designed as bombers, which were fairly successful in both level and dive bombing. At this point in the war, they were also pressed into a role of heavy fighters, for which they were not well-suited. Crosby mentiones firing at them at least once in his book. So, their appearance here is legit, even if some viewers will question how a bomber is being used as a fighter. Such was the necessity of the time for the Germans.

Another detail I really liked was how one of the children who the ground crew befriends is portrayed with a hook prosthesis for a hand. Lots of english kids from the cities were moved out to the countryside for their protection from the blitz, and it would not be unusual for a small child to have lost a hand in a bombing like this.

The detail that slipped, and which is easy to notice, is that early on Crosby describes the role of the crew chiefs. This is fine, but he calls one of the crew chiefs a corporal, when the man in question is wearing the stripes of a master sergeant, with three stripes and three rockers, as opposed to the 2 stripes of a corporal.

This is a surprising error for the production team, and an easy one to have noticed and fixed either in the costuming or the script.

Masters of the Air: Part One (2024) Season 1, Episode 1

Finally!

[9/10 · 26 January 2024]

I've been waiting on this series for a very long time, and my review is likely to be highly biased- you've been warned.

The episode starts off introducing Buck Cleven and Bucky Egan. These two are going to be super-important for the show, as two of the future squadron leaders within the 100th Bomb Group. How do I know this? Harry Crosby (who is the narrator here) wrote a FANTASTIC book about his experience as the group navigator for the 100th, published back in 1990. I've owned this book since then, and it is one of the great memoirs of the USA military in WW2. Read. It.

Back to the episode: we are briefly introduced to many of the key officers (and a few NCOs) of the 100th, as the episode progresses. We also get to see some early glimpses of the horrors they will soon be flying into. We also get to see how Egan is a bit of a loose cannon (holding very well to reality as told by Crosby).

Coming at this from a historical perspective, they've done a tremendous job here. The names, places, dates, details, etc. Are all top-notch. You can find many of these details on the 100th Bomb Group website. There might be a few liberties taken on specific events here and there, but they are illustrating the reality of what it was like to be in these men's shoes.

What does it do very well? For one thing, all of these guys look young. Harold Huglin, the group commander, was the old man of the bunch at 36. Even Cleven and Egan are in their early 20s. Everyone looks young, and they should be- they were new adults thrust into hell. The actors all do a great job as far as I can tell.

What does it do poorly? Well... the narrative is a bit hard to follow at times. There is so much happening here, and a lot of that is happening behind oxygen masks, and it will be easy for people to lose track of who is who and what is what. You're really going to have to pay attention.

Nowhere is this more true than in the combat scenes, which are excellent otherwise. It is pretty hard to tell crew from crew outside of knowing specific crew positions. A lot of these actors just look alike as 'generic white guys' (no offense intended). This is where key guys like Butler, Turner, and Keoghan are useful because they do have very unique eyes and voices, and are adept at acting with them. Everyone else... well, it's just hard to tell who is who, and this is a bit of a problem when they start bleeding and dying. I will say that I find Butler's accent and hair to be a bit overdone for the time... but it does set him apart from the others.

Overall, I am very excited for this one. In the vein of BoB and The Pacific, I think they're going to get it right. Can't wait for the next episodes to run!

FUBAR (2023– )

It really pains me to say this...

[5/10 · 21 January 2024]

But I found Arnie to be the worst part of this show. I'm a huge fan of his work, and I think he's been amazing at trying a range of different types of action-oriented roles. I had really high hopes for this to be reminiscent of True Lies, which is mirrors in many ways.

But, it falls flat for two reasons, and one is Arnie's acting. He's just not good in it. His dialogue seems forced and wooden in ways I've never seen, even from his very first roles. He's just not very good in it.

The second problem is that it is just too long and drawn out. It should be about 4 episodes, not 8. The length means that the characters get put into some very tight spots in which they all have to be super human in order to survive and get out. Even the end is highly questionable here (no spoilers). The length also means that the primary conflict between Arnie and his family (and Emma's too) take forever to get sorted even though it winds down (and back up) multiple times. Basically, lots of drama is invented just to keep the plot moving. It felt like a cheap soap opera at times. I laughed occasionally, cringed a lot, and was generally bored more than I expected to be given the premise and the cast.

I did think that most of the rest of the cast did a good job. Barbaro, Van Winkle, Carter, and Baruchel in particular did well.

Greyhound (2020)

Sort of a fictionalized docudrama more than a film

[6/10 · 13 January 2024]

Up front, let me state that my biggest complaint of this film is that the only way to see it is to have an AppleTV account, even 3 years after its release. This degree of monopolyism is ridiculous, and Apple must know that it causes them to lose money when you can't even rent a film like this on youtube, amazon, or another streaming service. But, I digress...

Tom Hanks here continues his trend to focus on the heroism of WW2 servicemen, though I would say this is the weakest of his works so far. That's not saying it is bad. It is technically brilliant. Like many WW2 films before it, I think it gives a very good idea of what it would be like to be on a destroyer escorting convoys in early 1942. In this respect, it is excellent. It puts you there and makes you part of the experience. I was on the edge of my seat for the entire film.

This is fine for people who already have an interest in WW2, the Navy, etc. And this movie is very clearly made for them (and me). For anyone else, I can see how it might be very boring. There is no real plot here in the traditional sense. We don't see any character undergo any significant journey. There is no real conflict or antagonist in a character sense outside of the requirements of the mission. Hanks' character himself basically ends up exactly where he started.

And that leads on to the films biggest weaknesses. First is the taunting by the u-boat commanders, which is both a huge historical inaccuracy and sets up the Germans as bloodthirsty demons. Now, keeping in mind that WW2 Germans were absolutely responsible for a lot of heinous awful stuff, we don't really need them to be so cartoony. One of the great evils of the Nazis was their banality- they really are scary enough that we don't need to caricature them in this way.

Second is Hanks' character... who is shown to be an aged (for his rank) devout christian who is, at the start, so unsure of himself that even his crew clearly has their doubts about him. If he has a journey as a character, it is that by the end he has won their (and his own) respect. I guess that is reasonable as a story, but we don't get enough explanation for it to really be believable. This is a crew that has been training for several months prior to this point. Has Hanks made mistakes in training that led his crew to doubt him (or maybe he doubts himself)? Was he a soft or ineffective leader/disciplinarian such that the crew doesn't respect him, or the opposite? We don't know. The beginning discipline scene with 2 seamen who fought doesn't really help here- is he being unusually soft in this scene, or is this normal? We don't know.

I think an extra 10-20 minutes would have been good to spend on their training to establish more about who these men are and why they behave the way they do later in the movie. This would have made the impact of the ending that much better, and would also have helped us care more about their journey as a whole.

42 (2013)

One of the better movies I've seen on race relations

[8/10 · 9 January 2024]

I'm open to being corrected and critiqued on my take from this film, but it struck me as a very mature look into how race relations evolved in the mid-20th century. It was at risk of being a white savior film, and to an extent the history means it has to be, but I appreciated the cynicism that the film protrays at the same time. Branch Rickey is portrayed as making the case for Robinson mainly for financial reasons- that there are many black baseball fans out there, and by having a black player you're more likely to bring them into the stadium and sell tickets to them. Likewise, Durocher is portrayed as a level-headed (if flawed) coach looking for the best way to win, and knowing that getting black players on his team has potential to give him an edge against his opponents. Many of the players are portrayed this way too, and even the holdouts come round to the notion once they see Robinson play.

Rickey's later admittance that he just wants what's fair for everyone, perhaps with religious motivations, is a reasonable one as well. I enjoyed how he is portrayed as supportive of Robinson as long as Robinson is careful about his actions. I don't know how true that relationship is, but it seems reasonable, and I like how it portrays Rickey not as a savior, fighting Robinson's battles for him, but as a supporter, helping him to lift himself up.

The film does not shy away from the darker aspects of our racial past, either. Ben Chapman, the scenes in the south (and Philadelphia), all point to just how racist and segregated much of society was, even in the north.

Both Boseman and Ford are doing terrific jobs here. Boseman has the range and physicality to show Robinson as emotionally hurt by the reception he receives, but also tough and athletic enough to be convincing as a world-class baseball player, as Robinson was. Ford is doing his best acting here since perhaps Mosquito Coast. He's not just the comically grumpy everyman action/romance star he plays in so many roles from Indiana Jones to Quinn Harris. It's nice to see him actually have some range!

Loki (2021–2023)

"Nuh uh, I got you first!"

[3/10 · 27 November 2023]

After two seasons, Loki just really isn't that good. The initial premise of the first season was ok, and I think they did a really good job of it. They set up the villain well, but unfortunately season 2 I assume was at least partially derailed by Jonathan's Majors and disclosures of his behavior. Regardless, season 2 takes the inertia of season 1 and dissolves into a slow and incomprehensible pile of gobbledigook.

My title reflects how I feel about this. Marvel has, at its heart, always been a series of stories for children. That's comic books, and as a result, there has always been an element of comic book logic. You can see this in how each of the new superheroes introduced is more powerful than the last, which sets up uncomfortable questions about why they weren't around to help when event X happens, or why their powers are suddenly downgraded for no explicable reason. Most marvel works got away with this because they otherwise were fun and usually made some degree of sense.

But here, we've truly devolved into two kids playing with toys and bickering over who shot first... or maybe I shot first, but then your shield blocked it, but then my magic powers dissolved your shield, and on and on it goes. That's what this show felt like, anyway. By episode 2 the stakes felt like they were meaningless. By episode 6 it became clear that of course Loki wouldn't pick either of the two options that were presented, but would somehow inexplicably use his god powers to find a third option. I guess this is again what comic stories always do... but here it felt pretty cheap.

In a way, it solves Marvel's Loki problem because now Loki is stuck keeping time together for eternity. On the other hand, it would have been a much braver choice to kill Sylvie (but yeah, Disney). Either way, the place we've found ourselves here just isn't really that fun or satisfying. The MCU has been in quite a spiral lately, and I am really hoping they are brave enough to pull the plug soon. There's really no need to keep this going, and the only reason they do is to make more money. How about investing in smaller, less bombastic projects that actually tell a good story again?

Lincoln (2012)

Flawless

[10/10 · 17 November 2023]

It feels bizarre to actually put this into words, but I believe this is Steven Speilberg's finest film. In no other film are the cinematography, performances, and script in such lockstep perfection. Although I call it flawless, I will say that the soundtrack is not one of the best (I cannot recall a single part of it), and I can see how its length and plot may not satisfy all viewers. But, simply as performance art, this is incredible.

On one hand, you have Spielberg's mastery of the camera. Few directors are as good, and here Spielberg mixes his mastery with more natural light and soft lighting than we've ever really seen from him. This is an exceptionally well-shot and well-composed film. It is incredibly detailed, and that reflects attention to the background as well. The extras, the set design, everything are just top-notch.

And then the performances. There isn't a bad one in the lot. The film relies on monologues perhaps a bit too heavily and feels like a stage play to an extent, but that is part of the performance of politics, and everyone here is a master at it, from DDL in front all the way to the smaller roles like Jared Harris as Grant or Jackie Earle Haley as Alexander Stephens. I don't even know the actor who plays Robert E Lee in a maybe 2 minute non-speaking role, but even he lands it.

There is just so much depth here, and you can see aspects of so much of Spielberg's past work teaching him how to produce this film. We get its weight from Schindler's List. We get its courtroom drama from Amistad. We get the violence and human reflection from Saving Private Ryan. We get the cinematography from Jaws. It just feels to me as if Spielberg's career was building to this moment, and he put a lot of that history into it.

Loki: 1893 (2023) Season 2, Episode 3

I pooed my pants!

[1/10 · 26 October 2023]

And that is the only thing that kept me awake while watching this epsiode. Season 2 has so far been quite the downturn. Loki Season 1 was one of the more entertaining of the Marvel series, with most of the cast really playing well off of each other. Here, I am a bit conflicted as to whether I want to finish it.

The MCU shows and movies are drifting aimlessly these days. If it weren't for Andor coming out in a year or so I'd probably cancel my Disney+ subscription. Nothing else they are putting out seems to really be worth it these days.

What else can I say? It's just disappointing to see such acting talent misused like this.

Ahsoka (2023– )

Rebels season 5 is a real letdown

[4/10 · 4 October 2023]

This may be the most wasted live-action star wars since the sequel trilogy. The cast is impressive, the characters are strong, and the setting is reasonably.... ok.

And I credit the actors here because I think they are doing their best, but the script and the plot just isn't there. As someone who just finished bingeing Clone Wars (meh) and Rebels (YAY), here are the problems as I see it.

1) This show will make no sense to anyone who hasn't watched the former shows. It is literally Rebels season 5. What little tension there is can only exist if you know those characters. Even the tension of the broader star wars universe is otherwise nonexistent, except if you've read the EU, on which the main antagonist is based. Otherwise, you will have no idea what is happening here.

2) In 8 episodes, almost nothing has been resolved. I won't get into details, but the bulk of the characters essentially find their positions reversed. I think the story here could have been told in 2 episodes of a better-written story. I really thought it would be a 12 episode series. By Episode 7 I learned there was only one more episode to go and I couldn't imagine how everything could be wrapped up.

And short version- it's not. This is going to have a follow-up season, or is at least planned to. But it doesn't deserve one. Aside from the lack of anything happening (and it is boring), the show makes several major blunders. For one, it does no justice to the main characters. Assuming you watched Rebels, the characters ended there on one trajectory of character development, and here that trajectory is almost completely gone. For a second, Ray Stevenson is totally wasted. He and Ivanna Sakhno are set up as major antagonists, but they practically disappear through the series. We get no closure over their motivations or really anything. Why are they there? What is their purpose outside to drive the plot?

This is as poorly-imagined a cash grab as you can get. They even introduce (well, I guess continue from Clone Wars) the idea of zombies here. And Magic too... when the force has never been that. The base concept really does not belong in this storyline, as the Force is 'created by life' (as Yoda said).

The only positives I can note here are that the actors do as best they can with what they're given, and the CGI starships look fantastic. Otherwise, this was a total waste of time. I am so disappointed, especially after the brilliance that was Andor. Disney really does not have a clue.

Ahsoka: Part Seven: Dreams and Madness (2023) Season 1, Episode 7

What?

[3/10 · 3 October 2023]

I only just learned that this show is going to have 8 episodes in total.

So, here we are at episode 7, and can someone please explain to me what has actually happened? I assumed based on the pacing that this was going to be a 12 episode show like Andor. Literally at this point, we haven't even had a major conflict occur yet. There have been a couple of small skirmishes, but outside of a brief conversation there hasn't been any meaningful interaction between the primary protagonists and the main antagonists.

And let's be clear here, Baylon and Shin are not the antagonists. They make that clear from the beginning. Thrawn and the Witches are the antagonists.

So... what is the actual plot of the show? Is it going to simply resolve with either the goodies or the baddies going home? No resolution of the original problem?

I am shocked at the lack of vision here. The acting is great, but nobody has been given anything to do. Poor Ray Stevenson went out on quite the bummer here.

Ahsoka: Part One: Master and Apprentice (2023) Season 1, Episode 1

Not sure about this

[4/10 · 1 October 2023]

Ok, so I've just finished bingeing Clone Wars and Rebels to prepare for this show, and I feel sorry for anyone who is watching it without having watched those series, or Rebels at least. Because, let's be very honest- this is Rebels Season 5. It focuses on the same characters, the same settings, and is from the beginning a continuation of the end of Rebels Season 4. So, if you're dipping into this show without having seen those, you're not going to get a lot of what is going on here.

Now, that said... Ahsoka also has to contend with the other live-action media that precede it. In particular, it has to reconcile the portrayal of Ahsoka herself in the Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett. This is a problem.

In the animated series, Ahsoka was an extroverted optimist. She is outgoing and cares for her people, even when things go wrong. Even after a series of betrayals, she is still forgiving of her people. Somehow, that personality was mutated into that of a stoic loner. In the live-action series, she has lost much of who she is. It is reasonable that this could happen to a character, but throughout her arc we haven't actually seen this happen. It's just night-and-day, two different people.

At the end of Rebels, it was shown that she and Sabine were going to train together after Endor. Here, we are some unknown time 'after Endor' and yet that relationship has already failed due to something offscreen and the two characters barely speak to each other. This makes no sense. It doesn't flow from what we know of Ahsoka prior to now, and neither does it flow from what we know of Sabine either.

It feels like poor writing. They weren't sure how to create drama and conflict in the main storyline, so they had to invent drama between two of the key main characters in order to fill out the script. Very disappointing.

Star Wars: Rebels (2014–2018)

Better than The Clone Wars

[8/10 · 29 September 2023]

I'm finally getting around to seeing Rebels now, before I go on to see Ahsoka. I basically binged it after finally finishing Clone Wars, which I found to be a slog until about season 5.

I'm glad to say that Rebels picks up where Clone Wars leaves off. At least, it picks up the spirit. In all of the Star Wars media since, I think it fits well within the prequels-Andor-Rogue One- OTS series (certainly better than Obi Wan, but that's another review).

Rebels continues a few important storylines from Clone Wars, but even better, it explores more of the lore of the Jedi and the Force. At the same time, it presents a premise for the building of the Rebellion, and like I say, it fits in well with the other now-canon stories in that respect.

There are many stories/theories about what George Lucas's vision for a sequel trilogy was. From what I've read, I think the last season of Clone Wars, along with Rebels, fill in many of those gaps. There is a lot of Force lore here that explains things that went unanswered in all of the movies and always left me a bit bothered. I'm glad to see that this story helps, at least possibly, fill in those gaps.

Lore and broader themes aside, they did a great job on the characters here. I came to love the main group, and I enjoyed all of the characters throughout the show. I love how they brought back Hondo in his older age and made him more sympathetic. I really liked the additions of Hera, Sabine, Kanan, Chopper, and Zeb. I found the portrayal of Kanan and Ezra to be believable thinking of what it would be like to be force-users in a post-66 era. I also really liked the inclusion of Thrawn as a previously EU character. They nailed him from a performance perspective here.

My only complaint about the show is really rather petty. As a longtime EU reader and fan, I wish that the producers (possibly even Lucas) had been more willing to link this show with some of the technical histories that other creators provided to the broader series. I'm a nerd, so this mainly comes down to ships. We see things like A-wings and TIE defenders, years before EU sources had them even being invented. Their inclusion here is strange not only from an EU perspective, but also because- if they were as prominent as shown here, then why didn't we see them in the original trilogy?

Essentially, Rebels takes good ideas from the EU, but pushes them into a place where it ruins continuity. Most people who see this will neither know nor care, but it's a detraction when "fan service" makes the timelines nonsensical. For all of the care shown in the creation of this show, some little things like that come across as a bit spiteful. That said, given how toxic this fanbase can be, maybe we deserve that.