Details: Aired on Netflix in 2018. Thirteen episodes with each at about fifty minutes long.
You know that feeling you get when you watch a horror movie and the characters keep doing stupid ass shit that is so stupid it kind of yanks you out of the experience. There’s a lot of that in season two of Jessica Jones. Jessica Jones is mostly entertaining. It’s just that the climactic moments can seem kind of ridiculous at times.
Details: This is a review for season 2 of the show Stranger Things. Released on Netflix in 2017. There are nine episode with each episode at around forty-five minutes to an hour-long.
If I were to summarize Stranger Things 2 into a single phrase, it would be “nostalgia porn.” Stranger Things 2 doubles down on the nostalgia for the 1980’s and almost forces the viewer to partake in the music, style, and pop culture of the 1980’s. If you’re a fan of that decade, then you will likely enjoy Stranger Things 2. If you did not… then Stranger Things may come off as derivative and uninspired. For me, Stranger Things 2 dances the line between homage to the 1980’s and an uninspired, unoriginal mishmash of 1980’s pop culture.
Details: Also known as Hibike! Yūfoniamu. Originally aired in 2015. There are fourteen episodes in season one and thirteen episodes in season two. Most episodes are generally around twenty-four minutes.
Sound! Euphonium is a musically themed high school drama with a heavy emphasis on the drama and less emphasis on the music. There are very few performances of music and while music gives the story context, it does not do as good a job presenting music as animes like Beck or Nodame Cantibile. With that said, Sound! Euphonium is a solid high school drama that successfully dances the line between drama and melodrama and succeeds at telling a compelling, believable story.
Details: The anime first aired in 2014. There are currently three seasons. There are twenty-five episodes in seasons one and two. Season three has ten episodes and is called Karasuno High School vs Shiratorizawa Academy. Each episode is about twenty-four minutes long.
I’m mostly embarrassed at how much I enjoy sports anime. It’s pretty cookie-cutter stuff at this point, but I fall for it every time. First, I wonder to myself how an anime about basketball, rugby, golf, bicycling, or volleyball (in this case) could possibly be interesting. Then I watch a few episodes to see what’s going on. Before I know it, I get sucked into the hype and am binge watching the whole series. Despite my awareness of this weakness, the same thing happened again for Haikyu!!.
Continue reading “Anime Review: Haikyu!!, Seasons 1, 2 and 3”
Details: Started airing in 2015 on FOX. Two seasons with thirteen episodes in season one and eighteen episodes in season two. Each episode is about an hour-long, including commercials.
Lucifer is a show loosely based on the character of Lucifer first established in the renowned Sandman comic books. While very loosely based on those books, Lucifer the television show is actually kind of a mashup between Castle and Supernatural. It’s a police procedural with supernatural drama going on.
Details: Airs on the CW. Each episode is about an hour long including commercials. There are seventeen episodes in season two.
If your familiar with the series, there’s not much to say about this season. It’s more of the same from season one. This isn’t a bad thing, there’s just no evolution or improvements.
Continue reading “TV Show Review: Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2”
Details: Airs on Cartoon Network. Each episode is about twenty-two minutes long. Each season has about eleven episodes.
On April 1, I was looking forward to watching the newest episode of Samurai Jack. I’m a long time Samurai Jack fan. To my surprise and to the surprise of viewers everywhere, the newest episode of Rick and Morty aired instead of Samurai Jack. I’ve never watched Rick and Morty before, but I’ve heard good things. I didn’t watch the episode that night and, instead, binge watched the first two seasons of Rick and Morty before eventually watching the newest episode, “The Rickshaw Redemption.”
For those who have already indulged themselves in the Ushio no Tora story when it originally came out, the release of this series might be redundant. For me however, I am greatful to be able to partake in this fun Shonen story.
It’s pretty standard Shonen, kid has to become stronger to defeat a great evil. The kid makes friends with just about everyone. No real consummation of any romances. Lots of shonen action. It’s great!
The premise is this: a kid named Ushio releases a demon trapped in his basement by a magic spear. Together, they learn to work with each other and combine their power towards defeating an evil demon known as Hakumen no Mono.
Season 2 is the final season and ends the story. It’s short in that there are only two seasons, but I feel that that is enough to tell this story. They go into the origins of the spear as well as the history of most characters. The ending is predictable, but it’s nice to have a happy ending every so often.
Score: 6.4/10 Lots of action, lots of laughs. Definitely worth a watch if you like old school shonen anime.
Another season of Flash has come and gone and I have enjoyed this season even more than the last.
What I love most about the Flash is that it has gone further down the rabbit hole towards a true, fantastic, science fiction show. There are alternate dimensions, doppelgangers, time travel, a Speed Force and much more. In many ways, it has the feel of a show like Doctor Who; Barry Allen seemingly has the power to travel through all of space and time.
The stuff I don’t like is… well everything else. The Flash — like most CW shows — is incredibly cheesy. The romance between Barry and anyone else is horribly scripted and needlessly drawn out. I know drama involves obstacles, but these obstacles between having a happy relationship are just contrived and hard to believe.
Additionally, I often hate how Flash deals with his villains. If we were to look at Barry’s powers, he is pretty much as strong if not stronger than Superman. He can solve every crime instantaneously. However, because we need to create conflict, his villains continue to find ways to stop him, or trip him, or some other stupid way to slow him down. He really should be invincible, but I guess the writers have to find some sort of way to threaten him. Further, the solution to every problem is to run faster. This leads to a lot of episodes where people keep yelling at him to run whenever any problems arise. It feels like a scene from Forrest Gump.
Regardless, I still enjoyed the season because of the exploration of alternate dimensions as alternate timelines. The ending was just great and explores the burden and responsibilities of Barry’s abilities, as well as what happens when he shirks those responsibilities.
In conclusion, if the show runners run away from cheesy villains and cheesy romances and instead run towards the crazy science fiction of time travel, dimensional travel, aliens and the like, then next season should be just fine.
Score: 7.1/10
So I’ve just finished watching the season finale for season two, so really the entirety of season two and just… wow. What a great season. What a great ending. This finale two- part episode is by far one of the best episodes of any animated Star Wars show yet.
Out of all the aspects of the Star Wars movies, from the star fighters to the kooky aliens, my favorite part has been the conflict with the Jedi and the Sith. This entire episode was about that.
Further, it was a brutal episode. One thing I hate about Star Wars is that they always seem to neuter the light sabers… at least until you reach a major plot development. Light sabers are blades of pure energy that can cut through anything with just a graze. Body parts should be flying off any time a fight breaks out among force users, but violence restrictions and censorship require not showing these sorts of things. In this episode however, named characters do get maimed, blinded, cut down, and split in half. It was great to see the light sabers used to their full potential and the danger a light saber represents expressed.
Additionally, it was great to see the old faces make their appearances in this episode. Major developments take place and I don’t want to spoil it. I was just glad to see Darth Maul, Darth Vader, and Ahsoka Tano show up.
Score: 8.5/10 What a great episode. I am so looking forward to see how Ezra develops in the next season.
Muse Bank 