A while back, to big controversy, Top Gear was taken off the air. For those unfamiliar with the show, Top Gear was an extremely popular car show which featured the humor and personality of it’s three hosts: Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. What had happened was that Jeremy Clarkson, feeling like the diva he is, decided to physically assault one of the producers. BBC, the station the show ran on, decided not to renew their contracts as a consequence. While I thought this was the right move ethically, reality is not quite so just. See, Jeremy Clarkson was the heart of that show and despite his misconduct, the audience of Top Gear generally did not care whether he misbehaved or not, they just wanted to see more of the man and his humor. Furthermore, James May and Richard Hammond declined to renew their contracts and jumped ship with Clarkson. BBC tried to keep the show going with different hosts, but without the three former hosts, there was really no show.
Fast forward to the present day and Clarkson, Hammond, and May have signed a deal with Amazon to create a show that airs only on Amazon’s streaming service through the internet. After watching the first episode, it is clear to me that a mountain of money was thrown at these three guys for this show.
There are number of things one can expect in this show. Firstly, you can expect wildly expensive super cars being driven around a track like bumper cars. That’s always fun. Sometimes they go on road trips driving through various exotic locales, which I’m sure they’ll do at some later episode. The car montages are also some of the best I’ve ever seen. There’s a lot for car lovers here.
I, however, am not a car guy. So what do I get out of the show? Well it’s an extremely hilarious show. For about an hour each episode, I get to watch three British guys insult each other, other countries, and other cars over and over again. For me, Top Gear wasn’t just a car show, it was a comedy. Celebrities came on to interview while Clarkson made fun of them. They would go on road trips while torturing each other and abandoning each other along the way. It was a fun show to watch and it’s clear to anyone that without these three, there is no show. Additionally, it is largely scripted, but it’s still fun.
So now the show is back with a different name and most importantly, the hosts are back. So how is the show? It is exactly like Top Gear, which is a good thing. If you were a fan of the show, welcome back. If you’re curious what all the hub bub is about, give it a watch and see how you like it.
The opening sequence of this first episode deserves a noteworthy mention. I cannot think of a better way to announce the return of these three, old British guys who love cars and love making fun of each other.
I am an unabashed fan of Anthony Bourdain television. I’ve pretty much watched every episode of every series Anthony Bourdain has been responsible for. Strangely enough, it never occurred to me to write anything about them… until now. This is largely because in this episode of Parts Unknown, Bourdain spends almost the entirety of this episode torturing his good friend, Eric Ripert.
For those who are unfamiliar with Ripert, Eric Ripert is the executive chef and part owner of Le Bernardin. Le Bernardin is a three Michelin starred restaurant in New York City that specializes in seafood. Accordingly, Eric Ripert is one of the most well known and respected French chefs in New York City, in North America, and in the western world. How wonderful is it then that we get to see him suffer for forty five minutes from spiciness and alcohol poisoning? And Bourdain does torture the hell out of Rupert in this episode to hilarious effect. They have a real bromance brewing and it’s really fun watching them make off color jokes and constantly make fun of each other.
Parts Unknown episodes generally try to give the flavor of a place with a heavy emphasis on food. Some episodes try to show the opposing views of an issue relevant to that location. That obviously does not happen here. There’s no general freedom to publicly criticize the government in China. Instead we just get some humorous scenes that show off some of the food in Sichuan. This was still really entertaining, even though I would have liked some commentary on the politics of the country and the opinion’s of Chinese citizens. On the other hand, there’s no point in asking for opinions if it means putting Chinese citizens at risk of “disappearing” or getting sent to jail. Especially if it’s just for a some travel and leisure show on CNN.
Anyways, it’s a fun episode and really educational. I’ve had a lot of authentic, Chinese style Chinese food (in contrast to American style Chinese food, e.g. Chinese takeout), and I’ve never been good at verbalizing the differences between Chinese and American food. This show definitely helped in expressing that difference. Most Americans I know who’ve tried authentic, traditional Chinese food generally find it disgusting because the goals of western cuisine and Chinese cuisine are different. Where Americans like the texture of battered, fried, fatty food to what many in this world would consider a disgusting degree, Chinese people like gelatinous, liquidy, chewy, and meaty food to a degree that many in this world would consider disgusting. This is why so many beloved Chinese dishes consist of sauce covered organs or other chewy parts of the animals (like pig ears, chicken feet, intestines, etc.).
It’s realizations likes this that make this show so interesting. There are few shows that are as successful at accurately conveying foreign places in a digestible, hour long program for American audiences. It’s just fun to learn about new places and see things that you would not see unless you purchased a plane ticket, flew over for a while, and knew someone who actually knew the nuances of the area and was willing to show you around. Thanks to Parts Unknown, I get to experience something similar with substantially less hassle.
Legends tomorrow returns for a second season. Last season ended with the deaths of the Time Masters and a member of the Justice Society of America crashing the time machine and giving them a warning.
Season Two picks up about six months after that. The Justice Society of America person who showed up warns them not to go to the year of 1942, then seems to disappear from existence. Afterwards, the team gets in the ship and takes the place of the deceased Time Masters, chasing time criminals and trying to protect the timeline.
As with the first season, this is a fun show. It isn’t meant to be exact, nor is it meant to make a whole lot sense. If you think about it too hard, even within the context of a superhero world where time travel is possible, it all kind of falls apart. Their motivations, the in show logic of their actions, it’s all pretty nonsensical. Even still, if you just take it at face value, enjoy the explosions and the jokes and the running around history, mingling with famous historical figures, then you will have a good time.
Score: 7/10 Look forward to new characters, super nazi’s, and cameos from cast members of The Flash and Arrow. Speaking Nazi’s, I just love when the media portrays over the top Nazi’s, especially when they have super powers. There’s just something about a Nazi officer angrily screaming orders in German that I enjoy. Schnell! Nein!
Arrow returns to the CW for its fifth season and it already feels better than last season. Arrow, for lack a better description, is pretty much Batman with arrows. Sticking closer to the street level, crime fighting aspect of the show is largely why this episode feel so much better.
At the end of last season, they just defeated the magic using Damian Dark and saved the city. This season begins with the Arrow squad all but disbanded (except Felicity) and Oliver on his own again, balancing his time between fighting crime and being the mayor of Star City. New gangsters and criminals move in and Oliver must build a new team of crime fighting allies in order to oppose the new enemies in his city.
There are a lot of new faces this season and they each bring new life to the series. Some bring comic relief, some bring a little more drama. I won’t go into the new team members because there hasn’t been enough episodes to explore each one. However, you can be sure that each will get an episode for the purpose of character development.
What I didn’t like was the formulaic stuff. New mystery villain, shoots arrows. Maybe the big reveal will be something more rewarding and less cheesy than having someone die and then having another misleading red herring every episode that someone is going to die.
Score: 6.8/10 Good start to the season. Looking forward to seeing more team dynamics play out, maybe some scenes reminiscent of what Joss Whedon has done.
Supernatural… is one of my guiltiest pleasures. I am not the target demographic; I am not a fourteen year old girl. I am quite the opposite actually. However, after years of watching this show, from the very first episode even, I still enjoy this series despite the campy-ness present. I think it’s because I’ve gotten used to the format of the show.
As with many shows, there’s a few over arching plots throughout the season, but what I love most about this show are the standalone episodes and monsters of the week. Many popular new series have a long seasons where every episode is relevant to the overarching plot and which are meant to be binged watched. In this sort of climate, it’s nice to just be able to tune into a show with no idea what’s going on in the season, and still have a good time.
If you haven’t been following the series, God and the Darkness made up and the world was saved. In return, the Darkness brought Sam and Dean’s mom back to life. Additionally, the British arm of the Men of Letters showed up and kidnapped Sam. Not much else happens in this episode as Dean, Castiel and Dean’s mom try to track down Sam. Oh, and Sam get’s tortured a bunch.
It’s a fine premiere and pretty much stick to the Supernatural formula, which is really what we want to see. What I really enjoy is that this is a very street level bad guy, who isn’t necessarily a bad guy. They aren’t fighting Death, or God, or the Darkness, or Satan. It’s just some British people and there’s something nice that it’s just an episode that deals with ground level characters. All that fighting omnipotent entities really took away from the weaker baddies they normally fight.
My goodness Barry, you done fucked up the whole damn universe. The Flash returns and Barry has screwed up every damn thing. Unfortunately, by the end of episode two, most of the status quo return and most things are back to normal. It was still an enjoyable two episodes though.
In case you’re not caught up, at the end of last season, Barry had a nervous breakdown and went back in time, saved his parents, and changed everything. I could go further into what went on, but all that really matters is that by the end of the episode, Barry goes back in time, lets his parents die, and hopes that everything goes back to normal.
In the second episode, we learn that not everything has gone back to normal. Some changes that have occurred are the following:
Iris and her dad don’t get along. They make up by the end of the episode.
Cisco is depressed his brother died. He gets over it by the end of the episode.
The alternate timeline that was created because of Barry still exists somewhat and some people are retaining memories from both timelines.
Diggle’s child (from Arrow) is now a boy. Diggle had a daughter before.
Draco Malfoy (at least the actor who played Draco Malfoy) now shares office space with Barry and is another forensic crime person. Draco also hates Barry and you can almost hear the words “Potter” whenever he says Barry’s name.
Caitlin has ice powers now, but she hasn’t told anyone.
I think those are the most important parts. Oh, there’s a new villain for Barry and gang to fight all season.
Overall, I enjoyed the episode very much. It’s always fun to see what ifs play out and how the characters could be portrayed differently. In fact, I would be perfectly happy if they toned down the crime fighting and turned this into a show a la Quantum Leap. Barry could chase some villain through time and parallel dimensions or something like that.
Score: 7/10 Nice opening episode. I’m not looking forward to seeing more of Alchemy, the new villain. I hope they do more universe jumping and time travel instead.
Despite being created decades ago, Luke Cage may have the most contemporary and politically relevant superpower at present. Luke Cage is a bullet proof black man. (a police officer’s worst nightmare (haha… just kidding). Perhaps it was because black people were being shot and persecuted pretty much since the inception of the United States of America. Or maybe they were just copying Superman’s power set onto a black guy. Either way, there is something undoubtedly relevant to the character.
I’m going to do a review first and a score. Then I’ll have some spoiler filled discussion of some points at the end of the post.
So when I’m watching something and trying to form an opinion about it, I usually try to get a grasp of what the piece of work tries to achieve. What is the point of it? You don’t know even really need to watch the series to get a grasp of that here, the trailer is enough.
The premise is this: Luke Cage, who we last saw in Netflix’s Jessica Jones series, has hidden himself in Harlem and trying to get by, day by day. Through a couple of crimes that occur around him, Luke Cage get’s involved in Harlem’s criminal underworld and tries to fight the criminals that hurt the people of Harlem.
First and foremost, this is a superhero story from Marvel. Luke Cage is super strong and has super durability; he’s bulletproof. There’s some discussion in the vein of what was discussed in Captain America: Civil War, mostly on the effect that superheroes have on the common man.
However, like Jessica Jones (noir/detective story with super powers) and even the Ant-Man movie (a heist movie with superpowers), Luke Cage tries to take a preexisting genre (crime, black-centered show like The Wire or Empire) and throws super powers into the mix. While there are certainly superhero elements present (punching through walls, throwing people around), this show tries very hard to adopt a tone more like The Wire with it’s music, cinematography, and many montages. In that vein, it’s sort of successful. There’s crime, drama, romance, pretty much what you expect from something trying to imitate The Wire or a crime oriented black-centric show.
Furthermore, something I always enjoy from movies or television shows is when they try to show me a real place and the personality of that place. Luke Cage tries very hard to incorporate and show aspects of Harlem into the show. In a way, Harlem is also a main character. They shoot a lot of scenes on familiar streets. Daredevil tried to do something similar, but if you’ve ever been to Hell’s Kitchen recently, you’d know that it’s mostly commercial buildings or yuppies. Harlem actually has far more history and landmarks to see. In this way, Harlem is portrayed much more successfully than Daredevil did with Hell’s Kitchen in my opinion. Plus, Harlem is far larger and still mostly black. It’s not that gentrified yet which adds to its authenticity as a setting.
Music also plays a big role in the show, there are a lot of segments where actual artists get to perform during montages and the deliberate inclusion of these artists is noted. Many black celebrities also make an appearance. A few of the celebrities include Method Man, Faith Evans, and Sway. There is a pronounced effort to include black culture and black celebrities.
This show also tries to offer a little commentary on black culture in America. Black Lives Matter, the repeated shootings of black men by the police, the protests and riots, it’s all over the news. That Luke Cage’s hero costume is essentially a Trayvon Martin-esque hoodie says a lot about what he’s supposed to represent. There are numerous points when various characters offer their opinion on the relationship between blacks to each other, to law enforcement, and to society as a whole. It would have been a mistake to create a show about a black super hero in Harlem without offering some opinions on current events.
In regards to the actors, they’re all pretty. Some familiar faces return from other Marvel Netflix series’ which I won’t spoil. I most impressed with who they cast to play Misty Knight (played by Simone Missick). She was a new face and very emotive. She fit the universe that Luke Cage tries to build and probably had the best acting chops in the show. Mike Colter as Luke Cage is a close second, even though he isn’t very “street.”
The worst character on this show is Shades, played by Theo Rossi. I can’t even blame Rossi, it was a combination of the writing with incredibly shitty casting. I have no idea why they picked the least cool white guy I have ever seen to play this character who is meant to be threatening and clever. What a terrible casting decision.
In conclusion, Luke Cage is a show you should watch for it’s tone. The story is a bit to extreme to be believable and there are certainly some plot holes you need to get over, but if you buckle up and enjoy the show for what it is (the first black superhero show that tries to say a little bit on black culture, to portray Harlem in a cinematic way, and to have a little superhero action), then you’ll have a good time.
Score: 6/10
SPOILER FILLED DISCUSSION AHEAD
I have a number of opinions on various aspects of the show which I will go into thusly:
Does every colored woman on the show need to bang or try to bang Luke Cage? I understand he’s a good looking man, but I equate trying to hook up our protagonist with every available female character just gratuitous, lazy writing. I mean did these writer’s start their careers on Dawson’s Creek?
I both respect and cringe at the writers’ audacity to address the use of the word nigger. Personally, I don’t think anyone should use that word, whether you’re black or not. But no one cares what I think so whatever. I do know that current social norms require you to be black in order for you to use that word in a non-racist context. After I heard the word being used and the opinions the show posited on that word, I knew there had to be at least one black writer on the staff. In fact, the whole story requires a team of black writers, not for their writing ability, but for their cultural credibility in providing commentary on black culture. I did an internet search on it later and I was not wrong. There was a full team of black writers.
Many parts of the story were melodramatic, over the top, and reminiscent of a soap opera. I watch superhero stuff mainly for the action. There was limited action here and more melodrama reminiscent of Empire. I’m not shitting on this aspect of the show that much because I know people who love Empire and the Wire. If you love that sort of thing, you may like this.
The main villain (after quite a few episodes) is Diamondback, Luke Cage’s half brother who is coincidentally an arms dealer in Harlem and has access to Justin Hammer (villain from a past Iron Man movie) weapons and likes to quote the Bible. There was just too much bullshit here for him to be believable. He tries to come across as a black Joker. Just stick with traditional organized crime stuff Marvel, this was just too much.
At one point, they finagle the story to allow Luke Cage to wear his 1970’s superhero costume from the comic books. It was stupid, ridiculous, and gratuitous, but I just loved watching Mike Colter wear that stupid ass tiara on his head and that stupid yellow shirt. It was unnecessary, yet hilarious.
The character of Shades is one of the best examples of bad casting I have ever seen.
I liked the inclusion of real world black celebrities and musical performances, even if it broke the fourth wall a little.
If I were to compare this show with Daredevil and Jessica Jones, this would be slightly less than or equal to Jessica Jones and Daredevil season two in how entertaining it was. Daredevil season one is still far and ahead the best superhero television show ever put out. It was a pioneer of what superhero television shows could do.
Loved seeing Turk again. Loved seeing him get thrown in a dumpster.
Loved seeing Rosario Dawson being referred to as the Night Nurse. There was some murmurs online that they wouldn’t let her be called that because a character in the Doctor Strange movie was to be referred to as the Night Nurse. Looks like that fell through.
Keep in mind Luke Cage is not a martial artist. His fight scenes look more like Kevin Sorbo’s Hercules than anything from Daredevil season one.
I’m pretty sure the writers were trying to make some statement about black race relations. Similarly to the Black Lives Matter movement, that message was often times unclear and contradictory. I will say that there is something about a black man who is bulletproof, unafraid of the police and the world around him, then finding out about “Judas bullets” which are capable of hurting him and that he’s never as safe as he thinks he is. That the world will find a way of hurting him. Judas bullets are kind of a stupid name, but in the same motif as the biblical Diamondback… so fine.
This is exactly what South Park should be. Each episode should be taking current events — and I mean the events of this very week — and then making jokes on those events. The use of immediate events gives the show relevance that would not otherwise be there. Fortunately, this episode does that.
As for what happens, Hillary Clinton goes to debate Trump/Mr. Garrison and Hillary fucks up Garrison’s confession and attempts to quit. Like many would agree in real life, Hillary just can’t seem to get out of her own way despite Mr. Garrison/Trump’s self destructive incompetence. The parallels to real life are a plenty in this episode.
Also hilarious is that Kyle’s dad finally goes too far and his internet trolling victim kills herself. This leads to a standard South Park conspiracy theory plot line where some hilarious “truth” will be revealed.
The scene with Cartman at the McDonald’s at the end of the episode also got me. I think it was a combination of them innocuously eating french fries with sweet and sour sauce (which I also do) and Cartman’s reaction to potentially seeing a vagina.
Another cool episode for Agents of SHIELD. In this episode, we learn a number of fun things. We learn about Roberto Reyes past. It still isn’t clear if he is actually possessed by a ghost or if he was just enhanced some other way. Considering that Doctor Strange is coming out soon, I’m guessing he actually made a deal with the devil despite the skepticism from other characters in the show.
We learn about the new director of SHIELD, Jeffrey Mace. I did a little internet research on who Mace is and it turns out that Mace at one point was Captain America in comic history. Prior to that he was known as the Patriot, one of America’s superheroes that fought in World War II. I don’t know how much of that history will show up in the show, but Mace does appear to be an enhanced individual. It’s unclear whether it’s because he’s an inhuman, or super soldier, or that he was enhanced through some other method.
And the last main point revealed was that Roberto, the Ghost Rider, plays a much more prominent role in this season and is somehow tied to everything. This is great because I was worried he may have just been a guest star for one episode (like a monster of the week) and not have a recurring role for the rest of the season. It also seems like they’ve made some alterations to Roberto’s comic book history in that he wasn’t related to any scientists before or to any evil corporation. Also, in the comics he made a deal with a demon/ghost, not the devil himself. Here, it seems like his deal was directly with the devil. We’ll see how things play out.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine returns for a fourth season and it is just as good as I remember it. We pick up where we left off last season; Jake and Captain Holt have been sent into witness protection since a mob boss wants to kill them. Here, they do their best to fit into their new lives and identities. Obviously they fail magnificently and hilarity ensues.
What I love about this show is that while there is a season long plot in play, each show is pretty much a stand alone episode in terms of jokes and sketches. For example, in this episode we get to watch Captain Holt — a former leader and type A personality — try to fit into an arcade run by teenagers. Obviously they’ll solve the crime and catch the bad guy by the end of the season, but until then we get to watch these characters try to fit into every oddball scenario we can think of until we get there.
The success of Andy Samberg’s specific brand of comedy has been one of the most surprising aspects of this show. I’ve seen other things Samberg has worked on and I didn’t hate them, nor did I love them. This show however, I can say that I do love. There’s just a charm and restraint to the comedy that I haven’t seen Samberg do in other things. He usually goes full on toilet humor.
It also helps that Samberg periodically gets his old Saturday Night Live cast members to guest star on the show and introduce a new tone to the humor. Maya Rudolph guest stars in this episode as the U.S. Marshal in charge of their new identities. I look forward to seeing her a few more times throughout the season.
Score: 7/10 Looking forward to the rest of the season.
Muse Bank 