Compliments to Your Show

  Based on: Star Wars by George Lucas Created by: Jon Favreau Executive Producers: Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Robert Rodriguez, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson Starring: Temuera Morrison (Boba Fett), Ming-Na Wen (Fennec Shan) My thoughts going in: Okay so I think some of you may be upset that I'm watching this 😅 I've seen a range of shows from Star Wars , but I haven't seen the prerequisites for this show. I've seen nearly half of The Clone Wars  (2008) animated series (as opposed to the  Star Wars: Clone Wars  (2003) animated series, which I've seen none of) and almost none of The Mandalorian . However, I've heard many spoilers for Mandalorian , I don't mind coming across spoilers for other series in Boba Fett , and I don't want to stay behind as new series air. I'll just fit the story into the right order in my mind as I go back and watch other things!  As you might gather from the above, I consider myself a casual Star Wars fan. I enjoy the whole ...

Created by: Gene Roddenberry Executive Producers & Showrunners: Gene Roddenberry, Rick Berman, Maurice Hurley, Michael Piller, Jeri Taylor Starring: Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker), Brent Spiner (Data), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), Michael Dorn (Worf) What a great show. I only wish it had far more continuity! I think it could be even greater.  I've been watching this show over the course of a very long time. (Because of my watching style; I tend to watch one season of one show and then move on to another and eventually get back to them.) So, it's been over a period of many years. But each time I get back to TNG, I'm always excited to continue it and impressed by the quality of storytelling and VFX for the late 80s/90s.  I also love how each of the main characters gets their own chance to shine in different episodes. It was great to see Picard go through int...

  Based on:  Blue Exorcist  manga series by Kazue Kato Written by: Toshiya Ōno Directed by: Koichi Hatsumi Starring (Japanese): Nobuhiko Okamoto (Rin), Jun Fukuyama (Yukio), Kana Hanazawa (Shiemi), Kazuya Nakai (Ryuji), Kōji Yusa (Renzo), Yūki Kaji (Konekomaru), Eri Kitamura (Izumo), Rina Satō (Shura) Starring (English): Bryce Papenbrook (Rin), Johnny Yong Bosch (Yukio), Christine Marie Cabanos (Shiemi), Kyle Hebert (Ryuji), Brian Beacock (Renzo), Miki Moran (Konekomaru), Kira Buckland (Izumo), Wendee Lee (Shura) Okay, it has my attention for the moment. Something about an impure king?  This is another one of those shows where I have to pay extra attention because things don't just flow organically for me. In season 1 we were immediately introduced to about five exorcist classmates and a couple additional teachers of the main character and each of them were important. I wasn't paying close att...

Based on:  The Witcher  book series by Andrzej Sapkowski Created & Written by: Lauren Schmidt Hissrich Producer by: Mike Ostrowski Starring: Henry Cavill (Geralt, The Witcher), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), Freya Allan (Ciri), Joey Batey (Jaskier), MyAnna Buring (Tissaia de Vries) While it did feel fairly contained, season 2 felt more like a one piece of a larger story--but that's okay, because it is.  I mentioned in my premiere review for this season that I didn't have a great understanding of season 1. That improved a bit this season, but I still felt a bit left in the dust by the finer plot points. I got a much better understanding of our main trio, though--Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer. Their stories were told well, their motivations clear, and their need for each other shone brighter as the season went on. I think that's part of the reason I had a hard time with season 1: the three of them were still meant to be the main focus, but their stories were much more sepa...

    Created by: Jonathan Igla Executive producers: Jonathan Igla, Rhys Thomas, Brad Winderbaum, and others Starring: Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop), Tony Dalton (Jack Duquesne), Vera Farmiga (Eleanor Bishop), Alaqua Cox (Maya Lopez) In this very satisfying finale, villains are taken down, the right people are arrested, and new alliances are forged.  The episode 5 cliffhanger leading up to this finale definitely had me going and very  curious how things would play out. Kate sees footage of her mother having a calm discussion with Kingpin, a mob boss. Suddenly Kate realizes the culprit behind the entire season's events is her--not her fiancé, Tony, as Kate had suspected.  As is common with Marvel series, this season didn't take it slow. The show is basically one 6-hour movie that wastes no time establishing villains and investing in them, giving the audience, showing us why we care about Maya and why we don't seem to care about Tony. It al...

   Based on: The Witcher  book series by Andrzej Sapkowski Created & Written by: Lauren Schmidt Hissrich Producer by: Mike Ostrowski Starring: Henry Cavill (Geralt, The Witcher), Anya Chalotra (Yennefer), Freya Allan (Ciri), Joey Batey (Jaskier), MyAnna Buring (Tissaia de Vries) It's super cool when the premiere of any season is basically a self-contained mini-movie!  I'll start with the fact that I remember very little from the first season. Also, I'm watching this show largely on bias... I saw enough hints of strong magic in the trailers and previews that I thought I might enjoy it for that reason. Strangely enough, through the first season I never felt very strongly attached to any character, and I never gained a great understanding of the overall plot. It was mostly a lot of visual effects eye-candy for me. But is that wrong? 👀 Still, I'm obviously rooting for Geralt (whose name I keep pronouncing "Jeralt," no matter how many times I hear it spoken) a...

  Based on:  Alex Rider  book series by Anthony Horowitz Created by: Guy Burt Directed by: Andreas Prochaska & Christopher Smith Starring: Otto Farrant (Alex Rider), Stephen Dillane (Alan Blunt), Vicky McClure (Mrs. Jones), Brenock O'Connor (Tom Harris), Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Jack Starbright), Charithra Chandran (Sabina Pleasance) I felt real anticipation over this show!! For each episode that ended, I really yearned and craved to know what happens next. For as many shows as I watch, that's actually a pretty rare feeling for me.  I'm mostly impressed at how the series got its core characters: Alex, Jack, Mrs. Jones, and Mr. Blunt are all exactly as I remember. And that's important to me because those four are something of the backbone of the entire franchise. Each one of them (obviously Alex) appear in every book and represent the core of Alex's whole life, with Jack being his plumbline for normalcy, Mrs. Jones being the protective mother figure, and Mr. Bl...

   Created by: Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber, Donald Wilson Written and Produced by: Chris Chibnall Starring: Jodie Whittaker (The Doctor), Mandip Gill (Yaz), John Bishop (Dan Lewis) And the story lived up to the expectation!  I always prefer a series/season that has a concise story or at least that has a core plot that continues to progress through a season, even if there are a lot of filler. Doctor Who is sadly episodic most of the time. (Yet it continues to be one of my favorite shows.) A few seasons of the reboot (2005 onward) have had core season-long stories, and usually most companions have their own season-long story. The strongest one in my opinion was season 6 which had the Silence, Amy, Rory, and River, all of whom had their own individual stories which intertwined beautifully. This "Flux" season was advertised as being one long story, so I knew that I would probably enjoy it more than usual.  I loved that Flux brought back old aliens and  introduc...

   Based on:  Cowboy Bebop  by Hajime Yatate Developed by: Christopher Yost Starring:  John Cho ( Spike Spiegel),  Mustafa Shakir (Jet Black), Daniella Pineda (Faye Valentine), Elena Satine (Julia), Alex Hassell (Vicious) Oh man, that Ed!  I'm so glad that she made an appearance in the show. I knew she would, based on headlines that had swamped Facebook around the show's premiere. And I liked it! Her appearance and behavior were even more unorthodox in live action than in animation (which is saying something), but I think that's a good thing.  Overall, I found the season to be excellent. I really enjoyed the adventures where the show took its primary three characters and I thought that each episode taught us a bit about the world and about each character. Especially the final four episodes, which had focus on Faye's history and then the shared history of Spike, "Vicious," and Julia. These were excellently done and made me care a lot about the latt...

Based on: Alex Rider  book series by Anthony Horowitz Created by: Guy Burt Directed by: Andreas Prochaska & Christopher Smith Starring: Otto Farrant (Alex Rider), Stephen Dillane (Alan Blunt), Vicky McClure (Mrs. Jones), Brenock O'Connor (Tom Harris), Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Jack Starbright), Charithra Chandran (Sabina Pleasance) It's been a very long time since I read the books.  But I remember the major aspects of the books, more so if I read book synopses. I was very impressed with season 1 when it aired a year or so ago and so far, I'm equally impressed with this premiere!  First, lemme just say--those opening credits. Great . I remember when I was watching the first season, I was at work doing some long, mindless task, and that opening song just kept running through my mind. Lemme Google it--apparently "The World Is Mine" by Samm Henshaw. Well, thank you for that, Mr. Henshaw! And the visuals are equal to the song. They're nonstop, using transparent shap...

Created & Written by: David Appelbaum Produced by: Asher Landay, Livia Hanich, Naomi Cleaver, and Zakiyyah Alexander Starring: Natalie Zea (Eve Harris), Eoin Macken (Gavin Harris), Chiké Okonkwo (Ty Coleman), Karina Logue (Marybeth Hill), Zyra Gorecki (Izzy Harris), Jack Martin (Josh Harris), Veronica St. Clair (Riley Velez), Rohan Mirchandaney (Scott Israni), Lily Santiago (Veronica Castillo), Chloe De Los Santos (Lilly Castillo), Virginie Laverdure (Dr. Sophia Nathan) (Wow, that was a lot of actors.) This season really got better as it went.   The concept definitely got my interest immediately: a sinkhole that opens in the middle of LA? I tend to enjoy natural disaster movies, so that was right up my alley. And the bottom of the sinkhole leads to a prehistoric world? That sounds like sci-fi or magic to me, so even better!  I remember my first impression of the pilot being that it felt a bit rushed. The sinkhole appears within close to the first f...