Compliments to Your Show

  Based on: She-Ra: Princess of Power  (1985) by Larry DiTillio and J. Michael Straczynski; a spin-off of He-Man  (1985), based on  Masters of the Universe  (1981) franchise created by Mattel Developed by: ND Stevenson Executive producers: ND Stevenson & Chuck Austen Starring: Aimee Carrero (Adora/She-Ra), AJ Michalka (Catra), Karen Fukuhara (Glimmer), Marcus Scribner (Bow), Reshma Shetty (Angella), Lorraine Toussaint (Shadow Weaver), Lauren Ash (Scorpia), Christine Woods (Entrapta) For a long time, I wouldn't go near the Masters of the Universe  franchise because my impression of He-Man was nothing short of vomit-inducing hyper-masculinity, and I have personal problems with that.  I never really knew what She-Ra was, but I knew it was associated with the vomit-inducing hyper-masculinity, so I stayed away. However, I did find the promotions somewhat intriguing, and it looked a little bit like My Little...

    Created by: Brian Watkins  Executive producers: Zev Borow, Josh Brolin, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt, Heather Rae, Brian Watkins Starring: Josh Brolin (Royal Abbott), Lili Taylor (Cecilia Abbott), Tom Pelphrey (Perry Abbott), Imogen Poots (Autumn), Lewis Pullman (Rhett Abbott),  Wormholes. On a ranch.  This show disguises itself as a fairly plain Western with reviewers very accurately comparing it to Yellowstone.  (Which I haven't actually seen, but seems accurate from what I've heard.) My own mind compared it to La Brea , which aired mid-last year, and this also seems to be pretty accurate from new info gleaned in the second episode. (Only two episodes are out as of this writing.)  Royal happens upon the abyssal hole on his property The Abbott's neighbors issue a seizure request for part of their land These first two already present a pretty wild ride. There are precious few spare moments: between a bar brawl turning...

   Based on: The Girl Before  novel by J.P. Delaney  Created by: J.P. Delaney  Written by: J.P. Delaney & Marissa Lestrade Directed by: Lisa Brühlmann Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (Jane Cavendish), David Oyelowo (Edward), Jessica Plummer (Emma Matthews), Ben Hardy (Simon) This was a fun, mysterious, and awkwardly short series.   When four episodes dropped on the premiere date, I thought "Wow, that's a lot of eps to start with." And then I realized--that's all there was. The series dropped all at once. All four episodes.  I read an article review saying it was a glorified, extra-long movie that could have just as easily fit into the standard 1.5-2 hour feature length instead of 4 hour-long episodes. The writer wasn't wrong, but I also didn't feel that the story was stretched out.  The show takes place over two timelines that are depicted simultaneously, cutting between each one equally per episode. In present day, Jane views a stylish and ver...

    Created by:  J. T. Rogers  Based on:  Tokyo Vice , a book of the same name by Jake Adelstein Executive producers: John Lesher, Michael Mann, J. T. Rogers, Alan Poul, Ansel Elgort, Emily Gerson Saines, Jake Adelstein, Kayo Washio, Brad Caleb Kane, Destin Daniel Cretton, Ken Watanabe Starring: Ansel Elgort ( Jake Adelstein) , Ken Watanabe (Hiroto Katagiri), Rachel Keller (Samantha Porter), Hideaki Itō (Jin Miyamoto), Rinko Kikuchi (Eimi Maruyama) This show is quickly becoming another of my favorites!  And that's both bias and great storytelling. The bias is easy: I'm fascinated by Japan, and the protagonist, Jake, is easily my surrogate as I watch him navigate Tokyo life. I'm especially fascinated and envious of his ability to switch seamlessly between English and Japanese fluency depending on the situation.  The story adapts real-life Jake's (the author of the original book) journey beginning a journalism career in Tokyo. More notably, a career as t...

   Created by: Jeremy Slater Executive producers: Kevin Feige, Louis D'Esposito, Victoria Alonso, Brad Winderbaum, Grant Curtis, Oscar Isaac, Mohamed Diab, Jeremy Slater Starring: Oscar Isaac (Moon Knight/Steven Grant), May Calamawy (Layla El-Faouly), Karim El Hakim & F. Murray Abraham (as Khonshu, the Egyptian moon god), Ethan Hawke (Arthur Harrow) I don't have a ton to say in this post because I'm completely unfamiliar with the character and only one ep has been released so far!  But hey--loving it!!  Marvel's always showing off its excellent cinematography, writing, and acting. Like seriously, do any of their shows ever have flaws? Potentially other than changing some source material stuff, like Ms. Marvel  (which hasn't premiered yet as of this writing) is currently under some fire for changing the titular character's powers.  I ended up watching part of the first episode about three times to accommodate different friends (😅) but that actually...

Based on: Halo by Xbox Game Studios  Developed for TV by: Kyle Killen, Steven Kane Starring: Pablo Schreiber (Master Chief), Shabana Azmi (Admiral Margaret Parangosky), Yerin Ha (Kwan Ha Boo), Natascha McElhone (Dr. Halsey), Olive Gray (Miranda Keyes), Jen Taylor (Cortana) I've said before on Facebook how excited I've been for this series. Two episodes in, it's mostly holding up!  I've been most impressed by a lot of the show's adherence to the original game lore, as has my friend who I'm watching it with and who knows the lore even better than I do. Little details, like the physical appearance of the Covenant alien race and sound effects from the game replicated in the show, have been a real treat. We also appreciated the dynamics between the humans, Spartans, and Covenant being very accurate.  Master Chief wielding a classic weapon from the games The visuals have been spectacular as well. It's not an easy world to portray, with quite a lot of space t...