Arrow "Restoration" Review

So we have the new Arrow...ehh i don't really care. Don't get me wrong there was nothing bad about this episode or even this season in general (So far) but man, i just don't get excited about this show anymore. In this episode we see Oliver and Diggle forced to sit down and talk about their problems with each other. Meanwhile on the otherside of the world, Laurel and Thea try to fix their problems, bringing Sara back from the dead and stopping Thea's homicidal tendancies...i think these girls have the bigger issues, why are they a B-Plot?

So really there isn't that much to say, Diggle and Oliver's beef is fixed in this episode and they get some good banter, Felicity is really fun especially with the way she treats OTA (Original Team Arrow) and acts almost like an annoyed mother at the two of them fighting as well as all of her stuff with Mr Terrific (I know that's not his name yet but it's what i'm calling him). I will say this season already has one massive improvement over last season, the pacing is so much better. Last year they would have dragged out the Diggle and Oliver rivalry for like 13 episodes, they got it done with here in 3 and that makes me happy.

Thea got some more development on her story, her thirst for blood has been quenched temporarily but it'll be back and supposedly will never go away, by the way, good seeing John Barrowman again, i love that guy, and that sparring scene between him and Nyssa was awesome. But Laurel on the other hand seems to have reverted back to season two Laurel by ignoring everything everyone says, by which they try so desperately to get across the point "THIS IS A BAD IDEA!". Seriously Laurel, i understand wanting to bring your sister back from the dead but considering Merlyn & Nyssa both agree it's a bad idea, and you know what, Oliver, Diggle, Felicity & Captain Lance would probably agree as well. She chooses to revive her anyway, and surprise! It turns out to be a bad idea. Dammit Laurel, you were on just a good streak of not sucking. Oh and then it ends with Nyssa destroying the Lazarus Pit, because you know, having a cure for death kinda ruins the tension in your show.

I don't really have any strong opinions on this episode, most of it was fine except the Laurel stuff was really dumb, but hey, it'll be nice to have Sara back. 7/10.

-Danny

The Flash "Family of Rogues" Review

If y'all remember I was never a fan of Captain Cold, i found his writing lazy and convenient and his character inconsistent and the acting far too cheesy and his sister is just as bad. So when I see the title "Family of Rogues" a little part of me sighs. In Family of Rogues, Lisa Snart AKA Golden Glyder shows up and asks for Team Flash's help, as it turns out, Leonard Snart AKA Captain Cold is working with his father against his will as he has placed a bomb in Lisa's head and could blow it up at any minute. Thus Barry must go undercover with Cold's help to save Lisa. Surprisingly I found myself actually enjoying this episode despite being based around my least favourite recurring villains.


Actually before I get to why I like this episode i do want to say the basic set up really bugs me, Barry agrees to help because he "owes" Cold a favour, that favour being Cold didn't kill him when he had the chance. You know, after he betrayed Barry, shot him in the leg and let several meta-human criminals go free. So incase it isn't clear, Barry doesn't owe Cold a damn thing! I don't know about you but i don't consider not being killed by someone the same as being saved by them. But that's my only problem with this set-up. So what do I like about it? The development of Cold's character, he's said before that the only thing he cares about is his sister but we've never seen him have to do anything to prove it, now we have him begrudgingly working with his father, the man he hates more than anything just to keep her safe. Not only that but you can sense a level of respect he has for Barry for helping him, and when he thinks he's been shot you get a slight sense of regret in his voice. For the first time ever i felt an actual character coming from Cold and i was actually invested in what was going on.

Even better is i'm starting to believe the relationship between Cisco and Lisa, last season she only pretended to like him to trick him but then that turned out to be real? It didn't make much sense to me. Now with some actual moments of vulnerability between the two it gets fleshed out more, her never really having anyone to trust or like apart from her brother and Cisco now being the one to save her life, it was quite touching and is the first step towards me actually believing these two like each other.

But the best thing about this episode was Joe's subplot where everything was done perfectly. Joe's ex-wife comes to town looking to make things up with him and Iris, Joe refuses and goes to talk to Iris telling her the truth about her mother, she didn't die when she was young but instead ran out on them because she was a druggy. Not only did Jesse L Martin do a brilliant job in this episode but holy crap, Iris had a reasonable reaction! After his big monologue about the truth of her mother I was thinking to myself "please Iris, for once respond like a human being! See things from his perspective!" and she does! She understands why he did what he did and doesn't blame him, the perfect way to wrap up the subplot for this episode. I'm honestly excited to see where this goes from here.

Then Professor Stein passes out...again. Yeah that was weird, last episode ended with him passing out and at the start of this one he's awake and acting like it was a mild inconvenience and then the episode ends with him setting ablaze and then passing out again. I get that they had to foreshadow this event and set up that his condition is getting worse but they could have found a better way to do it.

Overall, this was a brilliant episode, a lot of heavy emotional arcs are dealt with here and characters i don't usually like i actually really enjoyed in this episode. 9/10.

-Danny

Why Are Vampires So Sexy?

Okay, that title may be a little suggestive...just a tad. But this is something i've been thinking about for a while, of all supernatural creatures, how did vampires become to symbol of sexy? They're pale, depressed killers of the night, okay I can understand that being attractive to some people, but enough to be a trait all on it's own? Well actually when I think about it, the progression towards this change isn't all that surprising. People talk about how vampires back in the day were hideously monsterous creatures who you were supposed to be afraid of, and granted while that was true, there was always an element of lust to it. Just go back to the big daddy himself, Dracula. Though not the first vampire story, definitely the one to make it the most popular. In the original story Dracula does take an interest in a woman named Lucy and tries to turn her into a vampire, the book itself does have a thematic context based around love and lust and even down to the way vampires attack you is inherently sexual when it's basically just giving someone an extreme hickey. From then on adaptation after adaptation of vampires would usually contain an element of lust and/or love so it's natural progression would lead to the vampires themselves becoming sexier with time, after all, it's hard to find horrific demon monsters attractive.

So we know where it all came from, but we still need to ask the question: why? Why did we decided that vampires should be sexy? If someone were to describe a vampire to you there's nothing inherently sexy about it, a demon who can only go out at night feasts on the blood of the innocent with manipulation and violence. Now compare that to something like a Siren, a beautiful woman who tricks men into thinking she needs aid and will reward them justly only to turn out to be a monster who will slaughter them at their first chance, that's a supernatural creature that's origin is plastered with sexy. So the reasoning I can think of behind why vampires are seen as sexy is because that crosses paths with a lot of common traits people see as sexy. Take a normal vampire, a human forcefully turned against their will into a monster, that's pretty much just a bad boy with a tragic past, how many women out there see that as a sexy trait? The dark anti-social soul who's tough and dominant but is passionate and tragic, a lot of people have that fantasy of being the certain someone who can break down those barriers and change them for the better, hey, we've all been there are somepoint.

Really it does just come down to personal taste and attractions but it's easy to see how it became so common for Vampires to be seen as demonic sex symbols (Man that's a weird thing to say), a lot Vampire actions and lore is based in a surprising amount of lust and love and of course bad boys are always going to be attractive to a large quanitity of people so it's really not all that surprising of why they're sexy...Still kinda weird though.

-Danny

Doctor Who "The Girl Who Died" Review

*Spoiler Alert*
So as soon as i say I won't be reviewing Doctor Who weekly anymore they go and air an episode like this. Though technically a two parter this was a pretty self-contained story, just Maisie Williams being a continuing character. This is The Girl Who Died, The Doctor & Clara are captured by Vikings who then accidentally start a war with an alien race, The Doctor helps the Vikings into victory but Ashildr played by Maisie Williams is killed in the battle. The Doctor then breaks the rules to bring her back to life and they're on their merry way...with a slight side effect of her being immortal.

So why is it that i couldn't wait to review this episode? Well even though i do really enjoy Peter Capaldi as The Doctor, this is the first time i've ever felt like he's truly 100% been The Doctor. The Doctor knows the rules and he often follows them, but he's also emotional and heroic, he follows the rules when it's convenient for him, but when it puts someone he can protect in danger, he says screw the rules I'm a genius. Or as The Doctor puts it "I'm The Doctor! And I save people!" is it blunt? Of course it is, it's the perfect way to deliver that type of message, The Doctor would be as blunt as possible and that is exactly what he would say. The amount of care, effort and change I saw Capaldi go through in this episode is the first time i've felt completely comfortable calling him The Doctor and it reminded me of why I love this character so very much. Also the callback to the conversation he had in his very first episode was perfect, Capaldi first appeared in Doctor Who back in 2008 with the episode "Fires of Pompeii" where The Doctor (David Tennant) broke the rules and saved lives. That's why he has this face, to remind him of who he is and who he always will be. He's The Doctor. And he saves people.

Maisie Williams was also really good in the episode, I was slightly worried because having her in a middle-ages setting is really damn similar to Game of Thrones but i never saw Arya in her performance. Granted I was still aware i was watching Maisie perform but she still did a good job in it and i'm excited to see her in more episodes. The best scene with her was also the most subtle performance in the final shot where it shows the passage of time in one of the most unique ways i've ever seen, the change in her expression going from happy to sad to cold in one shot was devisistatingly beautiful.

As for the story of the episode, i don't care. Don't get me wrong it was really good, had a good supporting cast and was funny yet also poignant with the baby but like The Doctor would say, that's not the important part. What I care about is The Doctor and how he was represented here in one of the best episodes in years, that's why I'm giving it a 10/10.

-Danny

Stop Complaining About Trailers!

Jessica Jones is coming out soon and I like most people cannot wait and the marketing campaign for the show has been brilliant so far, only showing 30 second long scenes with almost no dialogue or story, just Jessica Jones doing something in her life like waking up and smashing her alarm clock or walking out a bar having beat up everyone inside. However some people have been complaining about this and saying these teasers are lame and they should just realease a full trailer already. Here's the thing about trailers, they're supposed to sell you on the show, are you going to watch Jessica Jones? Yes? Then good news! YOU DON'T NEED A TRAILER! Asking for a trailer is just asking for moments from the show to be spoiled for you and to get more information than needed. It's the same with the new Star Wars trailer coming out, it's going to take all my willpower not to watch it because i don't need it, i have enough information to want to see the film and think it'll be awesome, i don't want to know what the story is going to be before going in, even if the trailer doesn't spoil anything, the less you know about a film going into it, the better your experience will be because it will be fresh, you wont have certain visuals or moments to expect.

Then these same people will complain that trailers will then spoil too much, then don't watch them. If you feel like a trailer is giving away too much you can stop it at any time. But what about when they play in cinemas!? Step outside for a minute, that's what I do and it works for me. Then there are comedy trailers, if a comedy trailer doesn't make you laugh God that sucks, it's not even funny if it does make you laugh Ugh, i bet they just put the best jokes in the trailer. You can't win with these people. So yeah, that's all I have to say, just wanted to rant a little bit, if you complain about trailers then you've got no one to blame but yourself pretty much.

-Danny

Why it's a Good Thing Age of Ultron "Failed"

Roughly a month after Age of Ultron came out there were all these news reports talking about how Marvel was upset with the failure of Age of Ultron, people responded by going "How was it a failure!? It made over a billion dollars!". Yes, Age of Ultron did make a shit ton of money and even critically it still did well, not as many people loved it as the first one and most people would just leave it as "good" so it's not actually a failure. Thing is, that's a good thing that Marvel is considering it a failure because that means they're looking at it purely for how people felt about the movie, just being good isn't good enough for them, they want people to love their movies, so if they consider Age of Ultron a failure then they're going to look at why it failed and try and fix those problems. How many studios would actually say that's what matters to them? If this were Paramount persay they wouldn't care if people didn't love the movie, it made over a billion dollars, not to mention all the tie in merchandise and home media sales they would have enough cash to party until the next Avengers movie came out. Obviously Marvel cares about the money like any business but the fact that they do care about more than that is what makes them a successful company, just being good isn't good enough for them, so they're hopefully going to look at their mistakes and see what they can change and make things better next time round so when Civil War comes out it'll be awesome...hopefully.

-Danny

Star Wars Rebels "The Lost Commander" Review

Rebels is back baby and we open with a...well, not a bang, more like a simmering heat. This is Lost Commander, the Rebels are looking for more bases to establish their presence and Ahsoka informs them of an old friend of hers that will know of plenty of locations and sends the ghost crew to go find him. As it turns out it's Rex from The Clone Wars and now our main characters must convince Rex to help them out on their mission and join the rebellion.

Now the most interesting thing about this episode was Kanan's reaction to the clones. If you read the Kanan comic book (You should, it's great) he does not have the best of relationships with clones. One minute they were friends the next they killed his master and were hunting him down, forcing him to become a fugitive. What the show does really well is not make it a necessity to read the comic to understand that, they explain his past very well and get a really good performance out of Freddie Prinze Jr and the scene where he relives his tragic past is easily the best scene of the episode for me. Apart from that you could see this a bit formulaic, he doesn't like the clones and is looking for any excuse to distrust them but in the end he grows to accept them as new teammates. But what makes it work here for me are two things, one is how personalised and fleshed out his problems with the clones are and the other is that he doesn't technically like them in the end. Their relationship at the end of the episode is pretty much "I trust you won't shoot me in the back, but that's about it" and really that feels a lot more natural and we'll see their relationship grow as this season carries on.

By the way, it's great seeing Rex again, I was very curious on where he ended up after The Clone Wars seeing as his former general would become the biggest monster in the galaxy, would he still follow him after that? Was he killed? What happened? It's also very interesting to see clones outside of battle, because these are people bred for war yet Rex and his two fellow clones have abandoned the fighting life and now live a life of solitude and seeing the effect that has on them. Apart from that I don't have much else to say, apart from Kanan the rest of the ghost crew didn't really have that much to do and that was the biggest change i wanted for season two, i wanted more of the crew, i want to learn more about Sabine and Zeb and Hera, as of now it doesn't look as if we're going to get any of that. Also one of the clones who doesn't like the idea of working with the Jedi again changes his mind really quickly, "I turned them over" "you shouldn't have done that!" "you're right i'm sorry".

So in the end the episode was a fine, the stuff with Kanan was really good and it's nice to see Rex again but the supporting cast got practically nothing to do. 6/10.

-Danny