MagnusHex
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Posts posted by MagnusHex
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2x5: Amok Time
Finally... finally, I get to post these two clips as a direct reference (rather than just randomly pointing out a reference outside of its intended context). PLEASE RISE FOR THE NATIONAL ANTHEM:
It's been such a long time coming. When I first watched The Cable Guy around the '90s or '00s, I just fell in love with that battle theme ("Ancient Battle" was the track's name, I think) way before I even knew what Star Trek was, or whom Spock and Captain Kirk were. It's just such an iconic piece of nerd culture, albeit not as well-known as the music pieces over on the "Wars" side of things like Duel of the Fate.
Even with all the hype aside, this was such a well-written episode where the script is tight and the tension/stakes feel real, not to mention the important expansion of Vulcan lore (first Vulcan salute!), which feels appropriate for a 2nd season of the show. Everything from the start of the episode served to push forward the one plot element without distraction: something is wrong with Spock and Jim will do anything in his power to help his friend. The stakes felt believable as the wheels kept turning to the shocking third act ending. It's a bold move for them to broadcast this as the season 2 premiere because if someone had turned off the TV right before the ending, they'd have thought that Kirk had remained dead for the rest of the series while Spock was court-martialed. I love how authentic everything felt too, with Bones angrily telling Spock to remove his hand from their captain, or the way Leonard Nimoy conveyed his remorse at what he had done in a subtle Vulcan manner.
The one groan I did let out, however, was when T'Pring was referred to as "property." I thought that the episode was doing such a good job of holding up until that moment. But on the other hand, you have to consider that the Pon Farr is such a primitive and archaic ritual contrary to the Vulcans' seemingly civilized and intellectual society that it'd make sense that such a dated and problematic term is used in said ritual. Though of course, I'm not sure if this term was intentionally implemented that way. I'll give Roddenberry the benefit of the doubt on this one.
I kept thinking back to Star Trek: Into Darkness writing this review because, while I was watching the episode, I came across a clip from that movie (which I've never seen) where Spock told Kirk that no one escapes death, or something along that line. Of course, this was an intentional foreshadowing in that film, but man, if that dialogue appeared right at the start of this episode as well, I'd have really believed that Kirk died.
5/5
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2x2: Metamorphosis
Welp, this certainly didn't age well.
Initially, I was gonna praise the episode for being one of the few episodes where Kirk actually acts like a diplomat instead of shooting somebody. Bones' quote regarding him as a diplomat was memorable and almost sold me on the episode.
But then the alien cloud possesses the body of that bitchy shrew who couldn't find love until she becomes a subservient man-pleaser for Cochrane to fuck (reminds me of Wonder Woman 1984 and Buffy, both of which had a woman possessing another person without consent and fucking someone else in their body). That might be a little crude, but Cochrane pretty much went "Ew alien" until the cloud transformed into the one human he had the hots for.
Also, fuck that war, right? Who gives a shit about peace when satisfying your pent up sexual energy is more important.
2.5/5
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I was surprised to hear that the budget for this season was the lowest of all series because I had assumed the opposite. You had some terrific shots here (like when Castiel massacred all the angels or when Leviathan's veins popped up on Castiel) that I had thought the budget had been raised. It just goes to show that with great cinematography and maybe some cheap post-production editing, you could take advantage of a small budget to have some unforgettable shots. Buffy did this beautifully after all.
Speaking of which, I was kinda hoping that Supernatural would follow the vampire slayer's route of milking as much as you could from a big bad that spouts philosophical musings. I wanted to see more of Godstiel wielding his god powers and stopping evil in the world, but in turn making us question whether Castiel was doing good (the KKK disbanded; 'nuff said). On the one hand, he did cause a lot of collateral damage in the corrupted politician's office, carrying his punishments too far by killing those who've merely ran her campaign, not to mention those hypocritical priests (or whatever the deal was with those "motivational speakers"). On the other hand, the Old Testaments were pretty bloody too, and the measurement of morality when it comes to religious texts is rather murky. And again, the KKK. C'mon. Also would've been cool to see Godstiel go against Lucifer, perhaps starting another war on heaven against the spawns of Hell (think Spawn or any of Neil Gaiman's Sandman-related literature). The show probably wouldn't have the budget for it, but I wouldn't mind settling for a one-on-one match between Godstiel and a series of Helldemons and their minions across season 7 (kinda like how they did the Four Horsemen of Apocalypse).
That said, maybe it's a good thing Godstiel was gone so fast, because the free-will supporting Cas doesn't seem like much of a power-mad authoritarian who punishes people Old Testament style. It did seem out of character, and you could at least blame it on him being drunk on souls when his powers were gone so quickly.
The appearance of Leviathan seems promising, but everything else in the episode did drag a little due to how routine it felt; Dean's despair of how everything has gone to shit again, Sam causing problems for Dean again (albeit inadvertently), Sam hiding shit from Dean again, hitting the books to beat the Big Bad again, them finding a MacGuffin to beat the Big Bad again. I get that that's the show I signed up for, but I did tune out a little bit because I was waiting for something more exciting to happen. But honestly, it's somewhat of a nitpick because (as I've said before) I don't watch Supernatural expecting these flaws to go away. I do like the show for what it is, campy fun. It's just that, I was ready for Sam and Dean to go back to being brothers just saving people, hunting things, doing the family business again without dumb tween drama that could've been resolved if they bothered to talk to each other, so I was a little disappointed that Sam felt compelled to lie (because of course he just happen to stumble onto Dean at the right moment without Dean realizing his presence, which is unlikely given how sharp Dean's instincts can be).
Seeing Lucifer again was kinda fun though. He reminds me of The Joker from Patterson's Batman: being this renowned Big Bad that's just floating around in the periphery rather than being the main star. Mark Pellegrino really chewed the scenery here, but he made the scene work and kept me engaged. I hope they don't overuse him and just keep him at a distance for now.
Let's call it 4/5 for the short but great use of Godstiel. Can't wait to see what Leviathan's all about.
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Daria: Is It Fall Yet?
Really solid topper to end season 4 of Daria. I like the wholesome closure to the love-triangle arc, but especially the nice developments of Daria and especially Quinn (returning them to status quo but with more layers in their established personality).
4.5/5
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Talk to Me (2022)
I really love this neat spin on possession flicks, but I don't think it quite work perfectly as a drug abuse allegory. I was initially thinking it was supposed to be such an allegory at first, but as the film went on, there is just one detail that didn't quite fit:
SpoilerMia trying to kill Reilly.
I guess you could kinda say that a drug could induce paranoia enough in an addict that she would be compelled to kill someone thinking that she's helping him... but I don't know, seems kinda like a loosey-goosey line of logic.
But alright, I'll bite, just because the rest of the film is so well-executed and intense: let's just say Mia is having a schizophrenic/paranoid episode due to the "drugs." Must be representative of cocaine or some hard stuff if it could induce that kind of hallucination. LSD maybe? I don't know drugs.
That said, I'm more interested in the horror and supernatural side of stuff. As others have said, this was a pretty scary film compared to other "elevated horror," mostly because the stakes feel so real due to its drug abuse allegories. The characters are realistically flawed and fleshed out enough that you could picture them as dumb teenagers being dumb teens (as opposed to TV/Movie World dumb kids that are unrealistic levels of idiotic).
And how about that spin on the possession sub-genre? When I first saw the trailer, I was immediately intrigued because it felt like such a fresh concept. Not only that, but I love how it showed just how callous teenagers can be. You hear stories of kids performing seances and other ethically dubious stuff like visiting a graveyard for kicks, so it's not that surprising, especially in our TikTok world, if someone were to upload a video of a possession and some dumb idiot would think, "Hey, I wanna give THAT a try." I heard that "Bodies Bodies Bodies" touched on similar elements regarding kids of the modern generation, so it's not the first time A24 explored how our youth has now an excuse to become even more reckless towards ethics and morals thanks to the existence of social media mass-spreading (mis)information.
Great watch. Can't wait for the sequel.
4.5/5
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7x25: Stench and Stenchibility
Zoidberg does deserve to be happy, I agree, but this was still a poorly written episode. Marianne (Daenerys from GoT everyone) literally has no personality minus the very last scene, and even then, the whole "I never learned a bad smell from a good one" excuse felt contrived and illogical. That's not how the human brain works. It's instinctive, not learned. For a sci-fi cartoon, getting the science wrong is a major sin.
Bender's B-plot is even worse as it's the two same generic plots we've seen a dozen time: 1) Bender being evil Bender, and 2) cute character turns out to be evil. Yawn. Ending of the B-plot kinda makes up for it, but not by much.
2.5/5
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2z12: Out to Sea
"Everyday it gets a little easier. But you gotta do it every day; that's the hard part. But it does get easier."
I picked up this show because I wanted to keep fueling my own addiction for watching shows about broken people as I relate to them, but that line above, it just hits so close to home for me as well. Realest shit ever indeed.
Also, this episode predicted AI actors! (although people have said this technology has existed for a long time)
BoJack rescuing Todd hit right in the feels, especially his speech about the first time they met. It really showed that BoJack is trying to be better. Even if he fails about 90% of the time, it's the effort that makes it engaging TV.
4/5
Just saw the planetarian scene in the season 3 trailer, and I read the comments about the trailer spoiling and yet also subverting the planetarian scene and its tone, so I'm going to make a prediction based on what little I know about season 3:
SpoilerSarah Lynn's drug-overdosed corpse is literally lying on BoJack's lap as he said that line in the trailer, "It doesn't matter what we did in the past or how we'll be remembered; the only thing that matters is this one spectacular moment we are sharing together."
If I'm not wrong, I don't see anyone sitting with BoJack at all at the planetarian, and from what I heard about Sarah Lynn and the "That's Too Much, Man!" episode... yeah, seems possible the above scenario will play out, especially when others have compared that episode to "Escape from L.A." Really wish I am wrong because I really feel for Sarah Lynn, but I'm pretty sure I got spoiled about her ultimate fate.
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On 4/11/2024 at 10:58 PM, GHScorpiosRule said:
Link: Simpson, Dead at 76
I haven't been this excited to confirm anyone's death at all, but OJ is probably my first time. I've only heard snippets of what went down, but then I saw American Crime Story and was just infuriated at the injustice of it all.
Hope the afterlife will serve as a better judge wherever Simpson's damned soul is at now (preferably somewhere eternally burning).
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1x3: The Darkest Secret
This got much, much darker than what I was expecting. I was under the impression that it was a one-time thing, perhaps Brian flashed his dick and whatnot to a young Drake. I didn't really follow the news on Drake Josh (besides the infamous "child endangerment" case I came across), so I was rather shocked to hear that Drake could have gone through something so vile and horrible and it would still seem like this actor on a kids comedy had a mundane life. I mean, if something so traumatic had happened to me, I wouldn't be able to function normally in my daily life, let alone perform on any kind of TV show. Perhaps it's because he had something to escape to, as he mentioned, having fun on the set of Drake and Josh letting him forget the horrible nightmare that was his childhood, at least temporarily.
My abuse growing up was nowhere even close to any of the victims on the show, but I could definitely understand that escapism, even a brief escapism, from your abusive life, even years after the abuse has stopped. It gets stuck with you.
I couldn't imagine what it's like for Drake's father to just find out about something like that. I mean, if it's that shocking for the rest of us, it must have been like going through a living Hell learning about what your son had gone through. I believe he tried his hardest to protect Drake, but I doubt he felt the same way, thinking he could have done more.
You gotta love Drake's girlfriend's mother for being sharp as tacks. If it wasn't for her, god knows how much longer it would've gone on for.
Anyway, I just feel emotionally exhausted watching this episode. My heart sank when Drake said, "And it got worse, and worse. And worse." And I was like... I don't know how much of this I could take. And when Drake left it to the audience's imagination what acts could have taken place, I was already thinking that it must've been pretty nasty stuff. But goddamn... when the episode showed that the freaking filming of child porn was involved, I was just speechless. It just goes to show how powerful these Hollywood elites really were to be able to be able to commit such a horrendous series of affairs and still get hired.
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I read in a Reddit post that Mark's argument to Alissa was pathetic, and I initially agreed. I groaned when he went the cliched "Well at least I don't kill people" route. Facepalm-worthy. Lots of people don't kill people, like Joe Biden and Trump - doesn't mean they're saving the planet from destruction.
Here's the list of counter-arguments Mark could have provided, according to the Reddit post:
"If you really care about saving humans or the betterment of the galaxy you could offer them the climate saving technology without the threat of conquest."
"Just as many humans would die in a planetary war against a race of mass murdering super beings."
"The Earth would likely end up just as screwed up in the aftermath of the planet killing Viltrumite's stomping around it then it would be in a climate crisis."
Or if you prefer Mark give an emotion argument. "Says the lunatic who threatened to murder dozens of humans just to have a conversation with me. You very obviously would end up killing humans at the drop of a hat if you ruled Earth."
All that being said, looking back, I came to realize why Mark's reasoning skills suddenly dropped to 0 that point: Amber was almost killed. I'm sure all Mark could think about at that point, in his own words, was how to kill this bitch. Hardly a rational mind capable of logical thinking or even producing the so-called "emotional argument" IMHO.
Furthermore, Mark did call on Alissa's bluff; he knew they needed him to conquer Earth as Nolan is AWOL, so he was probably stalling for time until he came up with a solution and therefore wasn't thinking straight about his conversation with Alissa.
But with that being said, I do agree that the writing team could have handled that dialogue better. "At least I don't kill" is one of the dumbest counter-arguments you could have come up with, especially in 2024 when fiction-writing should have evolved, not rehashing old tired tropes.
The scene with Amber and Mark breaking up was nicely handled though, better than Amber and Mark's relationship scenes from season 1. It made sense and it was inevitable. So here comes the MarkEve ship!
Allen was powerful af. In a lot of "who would win" debates I've seen on Reddit, no Viltrumites could even come close to facing a Kryptonian, but Allen might, or at least DCEU Superman maybe.
4/5
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1x12: Days of Future Past (Part 2)
*Rogue calling Mystique "Mama"*
Me: "WHAT?!"I guess they couldn't use Kurt in this cartoon maybe. Glad X-Men: Evolution rectified Mystique's spawn later though.
Also, one of the most powerful mutants, if not superheroes of all time, Jean Grey: *lifting the broken section of a building* "IT'S TOO HEAVY." WTF?! lmao No wonder the memes made fun of Jean.
Those goofs aside, I quite enjoyed the intrigue of the episode (even if I accidentally spoiled myself whom the assassin for this series is since I thought that this DoFP would be different from the Fox movie version; I never read the comic version). That episode ending punchline is also quite nice: "Because it's been magnetized."
3.5/5
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2x11: Escape from LA
Jesus fucking Christ. WTF BoJack.
Curses aside, I was nearly as shocked as everyone else going into this (love seeing all the jaw-dropped shocked reactions of The Normies watching this) because this kind of dark depressing shit was what I signed up for when I first picked this show up. It's kinda a fucked up thing to say, but I relate to characters like this, people who are broken inside but not knowing how (or unwilling) to fix it. I was watching Dexter and House M.D. back then and needed a replacement show, so BoJack fitted.
But damn, this is probably the darkest episode - so far (can't wait to see upcoming episodes others have raved about, like "That's Too Much, Man!"... oof, poor Sarah Lynn). BoJack's horrible actions aside, you gotta love how this is the anti-sitcom episode of the show. BoJack the show has always subverted comedy tropes, but this episode went out of its way to subvert (or rather, deconstruct) all the usual shenanigans sitcom characters get into:
- Quirky sitcom opening? Literally warned you things are gonna get uncomfortable. "Nothing's gonna be alright, be alright! Oh no!"
- Older adult going to a highschool prom? Oops, it's creepy because BoJack brought Charlotte's daughter there and also no one thought the old guy was cool.
- Heartwarming scene of BoJack sending balloons to the sky with Penny? Bad for the environment and also BoJack only did it for his own selfish purpose of reliving his time with Charlotte.
- Getting drunk? Oops, almost died of alcohol poisoning.
- Quirky hospital setting (the kind that randomly pops up in a sitcom)? Not gonna happen because BoJack is an irresponsible adult.
- Responsible adult rejecting a kiss from a minor? Oops, they almost have sex because he left his door open.
- Kissing your old flame who's already married? She rejects you like a good married spouse would in real life, asking you to GTFO.
And a lot of scenes here pretty much boil down to "reality ensues" for sitcom situations, which I love as a fan of deconstruction in fiction. As a fan of the show, I just love how it doesn't disappoint when it comes to not holding punches in tearing down your usual comedy show routines and procedures, being this uniquely depressing show that can be as dark and somber when needed without disrupting the mood or tone with a wisecrack (like a certain cinematic universe that everyone's been imitating).
And what about BoJack the protagonist? How far deeper could he sink down to from here? Because I think we've pretty much hit bedrock in the bottom of the barrel of morals and ethics. Any deeper and he would've pulled a Weinstein or Epstein. Yikes. Looking forward to seeing just how far the show could push us before we would truly hate the character.
5/5
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On 3/23/2024 at 5:24 AM, tennisgurl said:
As a 90s kid who grew up with The Amanda Show, All That, and Drake and Josh, this was hard to watch. I certainly never connected any of the goofy things happening to anything sexual or inappropriate as a kid, but even at age nine I remember thinking that those All That dares were traumatizing. Looking back, some of those jokes were horribly cringe, those poor kids feeling like they didn't have a voice in what skits they do,
I wasn't as much of a Nick-kid growing up (was more of a Disney Channel kid, and I'm also waiting for Disney Channel's own day of reckoning to come if what I'm hearing about the staff is true), but I remember watching some of their live action stuff like The Amanda Show and All That (specifically the 2002 season 7 revival starring Giovonnie Samuels). Watching episode 2 of Quiet on Set where I got to see Giovonnie, Bryan Hearne and Kyle Sullivan talk about their horrible experiences had a similar "hard to watch" effect on me, and it really made me look back on my childhood thinking, "How did I not catch this? How did I find this ever funny?" Hindsight is 20/20 I guess as they say, plus the fact that I was probably too young to catch all those innuendos, particularly by "Pickle Boy". I was always kinda slow when it comes to catching subtle details like that, so I took those jokes literally than saw the hidden and appalling metaphors they stood for. It was really surreal seeing Brian Peck in this new light during the viewing of the episode because out of all the things I vaguely remembered from All That, Pickle Boy was weirdly one of the things I remembered quite distinctly.
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7x19: Saturday Morning Fun Pit
Wow, people really hated this episode (especially the more vocal folks over at AV Club, giving it a rating of "D"), even though I haven't enjoyed Futurama as much as this episode in a long time (since season 4 maybe).
This is satire gold, probably because I wasn't even really a fan of those shows this episode made fun of, even Scooby-Doo. I always thought Scooby-Doo was too goofy of a show for me even as a kid (the only one that caught my attention was Mystery Incorporated because it's hailed as the darkest installment of the franchise), so when the episode took jabs at all the stupid tropes in the cartoon, I couldn't care less. I think that mockery of the older Scooby-Doo episodes with a laugh track was my favorite one, especially with them calling out how the laugh track wasn't in sync with anything remotely funny happening.
The more cutting satire though was obviously the Purpleberry Pond segment making fun of cartoons meant to sell products. I love that one of the scenes where the Berry Burglar fired a sugarball bomb on the residents turned out to be another commercial rather than the actual show. Good clever fake-out that got a laugh. And you gotta love how the girl got fatter over the course of the same commercial. All these hypocritical commercials playing on children's hearts are appalling, so I'm glad the episode called them out on it.
The G.I. Joe one was cool with its calling out of the Broadcast Standards and Practices censorships. I haven't seen the show, but after doing a little digging, I'm surprised it got affected by the censors as well, considering its whole content is based on soldiers fighting a war. I love how it ended up getting too violent that Nixon just went "fuck it" and pulled the plug.
5/5
Comedy gold.
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7x16: T.: The Terrestrial
I've never really liked E.T. In fact, I considered it one of the weakest Spielberg films that showed just how schmaltzy Spielberg could be at his worst (then again, I had similar issues with his insensitive and myopic take on the holocaust). So I have little problems with this episode mocking the movie as a whole.
If only the jokes were brilliant though. As it is, they are surface-level and rather shallow, but I did get quite a few chuckles out of them, especially Bender's hilarious manipulation of Fry's outgoing message on the answering machine. The whole "powered by love" bike was funny stuff too, along with the mockery of the stupid "bike to the moon" sequence.
6/10
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5 hours ago, GHScorpiosRule said:
It would be cool if Spidey showed up in the new show. But he never did in the ‘92 show. The X-Men appeared on the Spidey ones.
Oh yeah, you're right. I got it flipped around.
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If I'm not wrong (and I'm really hoping I'm not), Spidey's animation rights still belong to Marvel, not Sony, so him showing up in '97 shouldn't be an issue. They could do a whole crossover episode with Spidey, then if the audience tests well, we could finally get Spider-Man '98.
Then again, with Spider-Man: Freshman Year on the way (now retitled as Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man), a whole second animated series for Spider-Man is highly unlikely. A cameo on '97? Maybe, but if there's not gonna be a Spider-Man '98, the prospect of having a full appearance on X-Men '97 seems like a pipe dream as well.
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7x17: Fry and Leela's Big Fling
This was a pretty clever episode, and one that made me truly enjoy the show (instead of putting up with it) in a while. I love the anticlimax at the end, but the whole Leela and Fry relationship bits were sweet as well (instead of using Fry being moronic about his relationship as a comedy bit for the entire episode like previous episodes).
The human zoo plot twist got spoiled for me beforehand, but I still ended up surprised because I didn't expect the A and B plot to intersect, with the zoo being on the Planet of the Apes Amy and the gang were visiting. That was a nice touch.
4/5
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2x7: Hank After Dark
Let's face it - first thought watching this now is Harvey Weinstein and #MeToo. Didn't know it was pointing to both Letterman and Cosby. I don't watch celebrity news, but I'm sure the climate surrounding scandals like this was probably similar to what was portrayed in this episode, but goddamn, quite a lot of elements surrounding Hank's scandals here bore eerie similarity to Harvey Weinstein, including the media outrage and the celebrities' reactions to the accusation (by downplaying it as "I never knew"). My guess is that it was actually just pointing to the general toxic culture of celebrity men getting away with sexual harassment/rape at the time, but still, this episode has certainly aged like fine wine.
That said, I felt like a lot of reviews I've read missed an important point - Todd's "rambling" about a genocide in another country. I love how the episode also kinda threw some shade on how we can be so myopic sometimes, so focused on our own affairs that we can sometimes be blindsided to other equally (or sometimes more) important affairs happening at the time, with how Diane and BoJack just shouting "Nobody cares" to matters of genocide in some backwoods country (or they could just be ranting about how no one really cares what silly shenanigans Todd gets into, but I doubt it).
There's layers to this episode, even if it did kinda rush BoJack and Mr. Peanutbutter's important character moments with Diane (one finally expressed his frustration with the book while the other finally confronted his wife on whether she truly care about their marriage). The topic of Hank and the whole satire of perverted celebrity men was a bigger focus than the character development of BoJack and Peanut Butter, but I can't complain because it did such a great job with said satire. Wonder how this episode would have been like if it had been released two years later.
4.5/5
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4x9: To Kill a Ladybird
Meh, Dale's pathetic, but I guess pathetic in kinda a loving kind of way (I still remember the time he set fire ants on Hank's lawn though).
Also, poor Hank when he thought Ladybird was going to be put down and cried his eyes out. I could kinda understand why Bobby want that racoon as a pet (personally, I'm a cat person), but I can't say I could support the idea of having a wild, potentially rabid racoon as a pet, or any wild animal for that matter.
That said, you can't really blame Bobby much either with the way Hank controls the kind of pets Bobby wants ("I'll let you pick what pet you want when Ladybird dies, but ultimately, it would probably just be another dog, and not a poodle."). I'll bet Hank would say a cat is too sissy for a boy like Bobby, from the way he described cats.
4/5
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4x8: Not in My Back Hoe
I read on Reddit that when you're middle-aged, you choose your friends based on convenience, not personality, especially when you're already too busy working a job and tending to your family. However, I felt that Hal would have been a good fit as Hank's friend. If this wasn't a TV show, I could see these two people with shared interests and personality going on to becoming lifelong friends.
4/5 regardless for introducing Hal. I'm gonna miss that crazy bastard.
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7x12 - Viva Mars Vegas
Not really enjoying season 7 all that much, but this episode really made me noticed just how weak the writing has become. The heist felt mundane for a sci-fi series and the jokes were kinda meh. Amy's lesson of entitlement also felt weak (especially when it's not even really her fault the Martians were enslaved in the first place, but her parents).
I dropped Simpsons after the stinkers of season 11, but at least Futurama just has one more season to go after this (let's hope the revival season is good enough).
5/10
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1x5: Captive Hearts
Watching the series for the first time to catch up with '97. It's not too bad so far, albeit with some dated dialogue and some obviously dated power levels (like Jubilee and especially the now Omega Level Storm).
Ororo in particular triggered my nitpicking because she just keeps throwing thunder around when we all know she could do so much more. The end of the episode was a perfect opportunity to upgrade her power set, but instead, it turned into some random lightsaber battle. What the heck?! lol
Annalee trying to frighten Logan with scorpions was also priceless. Giving the wrong scare to the wrong mutant.
Overall, not too bad of an episode. 7/10 for Storm's character development.
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4x13: Face Off
Poisoning a kid is evil. Period. That's all.
I kinda had Walt just pegged as a pathetic and whiny victim this season, but I guess I underestimated him, especially when there's someone like Gus Fring in the same show stealing the spotlight. But alas, Gus' own ego got to him.
But damn, poisoning a kid (with the potential to kill him with even the slightest miscalculation, chemist or not), just to manipulate Jesse into helping him out... Regardless of justifiable reasons (like his whole family's lives being threatened), I just can't agree with the seemingly popular opinion that Walt was justified in poisoning Brock. I mean, don't get me wrong, letting Jane die was its own level of evil as well, but there's just something icky about harming a kid, making me feel this is truly the moment that Walter White has fully embodied Heisenberg, willing to kill a kid (or risk killing one) just to survive.
I was spoiled about Gus' death for a long time now, so this episode didn't have as much of an impact on me where Gus is concerned. That said, that shout was... something. It almost felt goofy, and almost treading narm territory, that scream, but I think Giancarlo pulled it off, that gradual realization leading up to the "Oh shit!" moment. I guess too much of a good thing would have problems as well, and it's a good thing that the show decided to end when it did.
5/5
What a (literally) explosive ending.
The Twilight Zone - General Discussion
in The Twilight Zone
· Edited by MagnusHex
2x5: The Howling Man
Here we are with two back-to-back classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, fondly remembered for their horror elements. First being The Howling Man.
Honestly, when I first watched the episode, I was expecting a Wolf Man instead of the Prince of Darkness himself due to obvious reasons relating to the title. It really didn't help that there was a wolf's howl as well, making me think that Robin Hughes was gonna transform under the moonlight as soon as he was let out.
There was another thing that disappointed me: the characters were idiots. Who would leave the door to the Devil unguarded like that? I could only imagine that if this was in a modern setting and there's a real Brotherhood like that, there'd be maximum security under heavy lock and walls to trap what's literally the most dangerous entity in all of existence. Maybe with a lot more machine gun turrets and space marines.
And finally, there was the problematic element of blaming all the major wars on a supernatural entity (instead of people being fallible or selfish dicks). I don't know the exact timeline when David Ellington (H.M. Wynant) finally captured the Devil, but I'd imagine it's around the time the episode aired, 1960, which means that this second release of the Devil would be the reason for the '60s Civil Rights tragedies and all of the assassinations and all of the bloodshed that followed. Let's blame all racism and fascism on the Devil. I remembered that, writing a review for Mad Men (it was an episode near the end of season 3, I think, when JFK was assassinated) when I said that "it was as if someone opened a doorway to Hell" when describing all the horrific events and assassinations that occurred in that decade. I didn't mean it literally, Serling.
All that being said, you would only feel that way if you take the episode literally instead of as a metaphor for the evil in man's heart, and on this show, many episodes should be taken metaphorically because they just don't work if you take them on face value. After my above tirade, it's understandable if you felt that I hated this episode. But in truth, I think it was quite brilliantly executed for a '60s show of such budget. You do have to work a little to appreciate its brilliance, however.
For example, the Dutch angles. While such camera work is awfully silly now no thanks to the MCU (specifically Kenneth Branagh's Thor), it worked in this episode's favor as it made it feel like a classic Universal Pictures horror film. Even the Brotherhood's castle feels like Dracula's castle (another figure whom I had assumed Robin to be playing due to the cape and Dracula's associations with Satan). Unlike your traditional Twilight Zone episodes, director Douglas Heyes decided to do something a little more special by expressing Ellington's fever as these tilt angles where both him and the audience would be unsure whether we're walking through some nightmare.
And that's another thing: the whole story feels like a fever dream. It feels like an artistic expression of man falling into the temptation of the Devil in their weakest moments, doing horrible things despite having what were in their minds their best intentions. In accordance to Serling's WWII background, I'd say Ellington might have represented Oppenheimer and his similar remorse of "What have I done?" when he released the Devil that's the Atomic Bomb, or similar men who inadvertently doomed the lives of countless others due to their skewed values.
As for accidentally letting the Devil out, I feel like that's expressing that you can keep the Devil locked away for a little while, but eventually, your inner demons will get the better of you. Always. It's an awfully cynical point of view, but then again, Serling had a low opinion of humanity as a whole, so that makes sense.
By the way, that Devil costume did seem goofy, but I like how they played it straight without irony or a wink to the camera (unlike postmodern horror, which would have someone commenting, "This goofy-ass Halloween reject is supposed to be the Devil?"). Like I mentioned, my first thought was that this was Dracula, and not just any Dracula but THE Dracula played by Lugosi. It's only been a few decades since that movie after all. And that staff stopping the Devil from coming out would make more sense if you pretend that it's made of oak or ash, the Vampire's hated type of wood.
I think the fact that they played the haunted castle trope so straight really helped built the horror movie elements as well, what with man wandering into a creepy building late at night with the storm thundering at his back. It's as pulpy as you can get, but it also gave that otherworldly atmosphere that would have you really believe that tonight, Satan has been unleashed on Earth.
4.5/5