Compliments to Your Show

     Based on:  Critical Role web series, which is based on Dungeons & Dragons Created by: Matthew Mercer Starring: Laura Bailey (Vex), Taliesin Jaffe (Percy), Ashley Johnson (Pike), Matthew Mercer (Lord Briarwood), Liam O'Brien (Vax), Marisha Ray (Keyleth), Sam Riegel (Scanlan), Travis Willingham (Grog) And yet again, I'm enthralled by a series despite gratuitous violence and crass dialogue 😛 /Internal sigh.  This also happened with Castlevania, Invincible,   Jessica Jones , Doom Patrol, and Harley Quinn,  with varying degrees of objectionable content in each. I like to think this means I'm open to excusing such content if the quality of story and characters grab my attention, but I also just declined to watch DC's Peacemaker  because of all that, so I guess I just really don't know my own standards.  I know the one thing that all those have in common are magic or supernatural powers. Maybe I just have a major weakness for that.  B...

Based on: DC Comics characters Superman and Lois Lane, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster Developed by: Greg Berlanti, Todd Helbing Executive Producers: David Madden, Geoff Johns, Kristi Korzec, Sarah Schecter, Lee Krieger, Todd Helbing, Greg Berlanti Starring: Tyler Hoechlin (Superman/Clark), Elizabeth Tulloch (Lois Lane), Jordan Elsass (Jonathan Kent), Alex Garfin (Jordan Kent), Emmanuelle Chriqui (Lana Lang), Erik Valdez (Kyle Kushing), Inde Navarrette (Sarah Kushing), Wolé Parks (John Irons), Tayler Buck (Natalie Irons), Sofia Hasmik (Chrissy Beppo) Season premiere review:  I think this show has been my favorite small-screen iteration of Superman I've ever seen.  Although that opinion is obviously subjective, I think it's mostly comprehensive: I've seen close to half of Smallville,  a season of The New Adventures , and close to half of Supergirl . I've also seen all of Justice League & Unlimited  and a couple seasons of Superman: The ...

  Based on: All Souls book trilogy by Deborah Harkness Written by: Kate Brooke, Tom Farrelly, Charlene James, Sarah Dollard Directed by: Juan Carlos Medina, Alice Troughton, Sarah Walker Produced by: Deborah Harkness, Jane Tranter, Ashley Pharoah, Julie Gardner, Edoardo Ferretti Starring: Teresa Palmer (Diana Bishop), Matthew Goode (Matthew Clairmont), Edward Bluemel (Marcus Whitmore), Louise Brealey (Gillian Chamberlain), Malin Buska (Satu Järvinen), Aiysha Hart (Miriam Shephard), Owen Teale (Peter Knox), Alex Kingston (Sarah Bishop), Valarie Pettiford (Emily Mather) I've been waiting to watch this show for years!  I'm not subscribed to Shudder or Sundance, which has been the only way to watch this show. So I was thrilled  to see it come (temporarily) available on Amazon Prime!!  At the moment I've only seen enough to review the premiere, as usual. It's had a couple slightly cheesy moments (like the first instance of Diana's magic, which felt very forced), but...

Based on: Dragon Ball  manga series by Akira Toriyama Directed by: Daisuke Nishio, Shigeyasu Yamauchi Produced by: Kenji Shimizu, Kōji Kaneda Written by: Takao Koyama Starring (Japanese): Masako Nozawa (Goku & Gohan), Hiromi Tsuru (Bulma), Mayumi Tanaka (Krillin), Toshio Furukawa (Piccolo), Ryō Horikawa (Vegeta) Starring (English, Funimation dub): Ian James Corlett & Peter Kelamis (Goku), Tiffany Vollmer (Bulma), Terry Klassen (Krillin), Scott McNeil (Piccolo), Stephanie Nadolny (Gohan), Christopher Sabat (Vegeta) I just couldn't handle how long the first season is!  I must have some form of TV show ADD 'cause I can't stick with one show for too long. That's why I don't stick out an entire show all at once; I always watch a season at a time and then come back later. When I saw DBZ's first was about 40 eps, I definitely felt very daunted, but I just dove in. Finally, episode 20 came, and I thought to myself "I'...

Based on: DC characters created by Brian Bendis, Jamal Campbell, David F. Walker Created by: Ava DuVernay, Jill Blankenship Produced by:  Jill Blankenship, Paul Garnes, Ava DuVernay, Brian Bendis, Nellie Nugiel Starring: Kaci Walfall (Naomi), Cranston Johnson (Zumbado ),  Alexander Wraith (Dee), Mary-Charles Jones (Annabelle), Mouzam Makkar (Jennifer McDuffie) This was a pleasantly different origin story!  And I don't just mean the nice diversity of Naomi's family (Naomi being black, adoptive mother being Indian, and adoptive father white); I'm referring to Naomi as a character. The episode's opening scene injects some exciting and refreshing charisma to her character: she's extroverted, energetic, and happy. In the scene, she steps into a house party full of her high school classmates. The house is crowded and in every room she steps into, she's greeted enthusiastically, joins the vibe without a hesitation, and knows everyone personally. It's not fake. She ...

    Based on: S tar Wars by George Lucas Created by: Jon Favreau Produced by:  Jon Favreau, Dave Filoni, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson,  John Bartnicki Starring: Pedro Pascal Premiere review: Okay, this definitely has my attention more than Boba Fett  did/does. Almost as if I should've watched this one first 😅😂 I don't have any idea who this Mandalorian character is, but it's nice that I'm not supposed to. It's nice not needing to have any prior knowledge. And so far, he seems pretty cool!  In typical TV show and movie fashion, we're introduced to him as he's successfully completing a bounty hunting job. That's pretty common story-writing formula: show your new main character being successful at what he does to show your audience who he is. What are his skills? What choices does he usually make? What is his style? Well, our Mandalorian is good at fighting and collecting bounty and being pretty quiet while he does it.  Next, introduce an element...

   Based on:  The Sea of Tranquility  short film by Choi Hang-yong Written by: Park Eun-kyo  Directed by: Choi Hang-yong Starring: Bae Doona (Dr. Song Ji-an), Gong Yoo (Han Yoon-jae), Lee Joon (Lt Ryoo Tae-seok), Kim Sun-young (Dr. Hong Ga-Young), Lee Moo-Saeng (Chief Gong Soo-hyuk), Kim Si-A (Luna) Premiere review: Well, this seems like it's going to be quite the interesting ride!  The first thing I noticed was that the visuals seem very nice. The episode opens with broad, sweeping views of an overpopulated, overused, and dying planet earth. The sweep felt majestic and thrilling and gave me a very positive sensation of the world I was about to jump into.  The subs, of course, made it a little more difficult. I didn't honestly even check to see if English dub was an option, but I always prefer to watch anything in its native language. It's a little distracting but i think it's worth it to get full immersion. Plus, when the lips are off from t...