Episode 2 of this season was released on HBO Go this evening alongside the world premiere. So, along with tonight’s double feature, comes a double review!
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!
Continue reading Review: HBO’s ‘True Blood’ Season 4, Episode 2 – ‘You Smell Like Dinner’
The waiting is over! The much anticipated fourth season of True Blood has finally arrived! We can now know the fate of our beloved characters in Bon Temps, Louisiana.
We’ve already seen the first 8 minutes of this episode. You can read our review of this early preview here.
Continue reading Review: HBO’s ‘True Blood’ Season 4, Episode 1: ‘She’s Not There’
This episode picks up where last week’s premiere left off with Tom and a small group attempting to save his son Ben. Things get off to a rough start as Tom and company are doing some recon of what they’re up against and someone knocks a piece of masonry off the building to the ground alerting a mech who opens fire. Before they’re driven off they saw the harnessed children including Ben gathering up scrap metal.
After the return to their base, Col. Porter briefs a group on how various other resistance groups are now in touch across the country. He also explains that the skitterers are setting up shop in every major city too and he wants his soldiers gathering intelligence on them and anything that their resistance can use. Tom stays after to tell them he has found Ben and a lot of other kids and Porter tells Tom they have a scientist that thinks he can remove the harness without killing the children, but needs one to try it on… you’ve probably guessed that its gonna be Ben. Tom gets the go ahead to rescue Ben only and bring him back for the harness removal. Then it turns that Tom even knows the guy who can remove the harness! Gasp in astonishment people!
Dr. Michael Harris tells Tom how he came to be in the resistance and apologizes about the death of his wife. Something tells me there’s more behind what happened to Tom’s wife, but it’s plainly obvious to all viewers. Afterwards its off to get Ben. Of course shit goes all awry as one of Tom’s buddies, Mike, sees his own son and blows their cover in his stupidity to save him. A mech is all over their ass at this point and they have to leave, Hal and Karen(?) getting left behind in the process at the mercy of another Mech.
Tom plans on going back after they get away, running headlong into a Skitter in the process and having to throw down with the ugly sum-bitch. Tom shockingly gets the upper hand by blowing off a couple of the skitter’s limbs with a shottie and then bludgeoning his face a little bit. He then returns to base with a prisoner of war – a live skitter. I can’t wait to see what they learn from the ugly turd in the next episode. Very exciting indeed!
Hal wakes up in the night, watching the harnessed kid carry off Karen as a mech shines a light in his face. As several harnessed kids march in front of the mech, a skitter points at the children while looking at Hal and saying something in its own language. Then I’m front of Hal the Mech proceeds to completely annihilate the kids with its cannon. Wow.
Doc Harris manages to get the harness of Mikes son by welding it off and leaving the needles from the harness in the kid’s back, the reasoning being that they withdrawal from whatever is in the harness and that is why they die. This way they wean off slowly and use morphine as a bridge between.
Tom finds Hal and he tells him the skitters let him go. Tom explains it’s what the Nazis sometimes did that with Allied prisoners to send a message: take one and we kill the rest. Tom then has a confrontation with Doc Harris who admits he ran and left Toms wife to die. His reward? Pow! Right in the kissa from Tom! At the end as the captive Skitter opens its eyes, the harness free child does too. It would seem the skitters still have a level of control even with the harness off.
I give this episode 4 out of 5 bears as we learned more about the aliens and it looks like we’ll learn a lot more in the next episode. The action was great and the acting was decent. Sure some of the scenes were cheesy as mice turds but it still good. I’m loving the above average effects in the show and animatronics they use with skitters along with cg. I’ll still be a watcher next week for sure!
A couple weeks ago I got excited and told you about the quality of nominations from the first ever ‘Critics Choice TV Awards’. Representation for Community, Parks and Rec, Always Sunny, and Justified made me think someone had finally gotten it right. Then the winners were announced. Most of the good-will they had built with me has since disappeared. Let’s take a look…
– Desired Winner: Justified
– Predicted Winner: Boardwalk Empire
– Actual Winner: Mad Men
This is about the least inspired choice possible. Way to distinguish yourselves by picking the show that has won this award 3 years running from the Emmy committee. I feel like they mailed this one in for a bid to be taken seriously, and in that bid I think they lose credibility.
It’s nice to see Justified nominated, but it looks like this one was over before it started. Mad Men is obviously not a terrible pick as all the shows were good, just seems uninspired.
– Desired Winner: Kyle Chandler, “Friday Night Lights”
– Predicted Winner: William H. Macy, “Shameless”
– Actual Winner: Jon Hamm, “Mad Men”
This is again predictable. I really like Jon Hamm, but so far this looks just the same as every other awards show out there, giving gold to maybe the most over-rated show on television.
– Desired Winner: Connie Britton, “Friday Night Lights”
– Predicted Winner: Elisabeth Moss, “Mad Men”
– Actual Winner: Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife”
This is a show that I admit to have not watched, so I can say anything against the pick, but can’t speak for it either. Julianna Margulies is a solid actress and I’ve heard only good things about this show, so I’ll just give them the benifit of doubt and assume this was the right pick, but it’s too bad FNL didn’t get any love from the voters. This is the spot I thought Mad Men would get it’s statue, but obviously they still cleaned up without it…
– Desired Winner: Walton Goggins, “Justified”
– Predicted Winner: Walton Goggins, “Justified”
– Actual Winner: John Noble, “Fringe”
Normally I wouldn’t have any problem with the greatly under-rated Fringe collecting some accolades, except in this case where it costs Goggins a much deserved victory here. Noble is great, I just thought it was Boyd Crowder’s year is all…
– Desired Winner: Margo Martindale, “Justified”
– Predicted Winner: Margo Martindale, “Justified”
– Actual Winner: TIE: Margo Martindale, “Justified”/Christina Hendricks, “Mad Men”
Well HOLY SHIT, I almost called one right! Justified almost took the spotlight, but instead had to share it with – You Guessed It – Mad Men. Now I love Hendricks from her days on Firefly, but come on. This is a sham. A tie? BOOO. Martindale should’ve had this one to herself.
– Desired Winner: “Parks and Recreation”
– Predicted Winner: “Modern Family”
– Actual Winner: “Modern Family”
I really have no issue here. Parks and Rec I thought deserved it, but Modern Family is a great show. And to be honest, with the quality of nominees here, so long as it didn’t go to Glee or The Big Bang Theory I was gonna be ok with it. That being said, Modern Family would’ve been 3rd on my list, behind Community at 2nd. Anyhow, who can complain about a show that stars Sofia Vergara and Julie Bowen, with Al Bundy to boot?
– Desired Winner: Charlie Day, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”
– Predicted Winner: Steve Carell, “The Office”
– Actual Winner: Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory”
This is without a doubt the biggest issue I have with this list. The Big Bang Theory is unbelievably stupid and keeps getting rewarded for it’s formulaic CBS assembly line style of comedy. Nothing against Parsons personally, but this just seems to be a show about who non-nerd imagine real nerds act. And his character is annoying. I hate this show. And when you take into account the other 4 nominees, this decision makes even less sense…
– Desired Winner: Martha Plimpton, “Raising Hope”
– Predicted Winner: Amy Poehler, “Parks and Recreation”
– Actual Winner: Tina Fey, “30 Rock”
Not it’s not unusual to hear me praise Tina Fey, I’m a huge fan of her’s. The problem I have here is that this was easily the weakest season of 30 Rock to date, while Amy Poehler’s Parks and Recreation really took off this season and I just don’t get the choice. Sure, in 2009 – Fey over Poehler is a no-brainier, but this one just seems like a reputation win…
– Desired Winner: Nick Offerman, “Parks & Rec”
– Predicted Winner: Nick Offerman, “Parks & Rec”
– Actual Winner: NPH, “How I Met Your Mother”
If Jim Parson’s won is my #1 issue, this is my #1B issue. I like NPH, but as we’ve talked about in the past HIMYM isn’t what it once was, and this was without a doubt Nick Offerman’s award. Offerman’s ‘Ron Swanson’ is the best character on television and he was absolutely robbed here. It makes me wonder if the voters even watched Parks and Rec this season. As much as I like Harris, he actually would’ve been last on my list of the 5 nominees…
– Desired Winner: Julie Bowen, “Modern Family”
– Predicted Winner: Jane Lynch, “Glee”
– Actual Winner: Busy Philipps, “Cougar Town”
I was rooting for Bowen because I think she gets overlooked, but I can’t badmouth Busy Phillips. I don’t watch Cougar Town, but she was a principal character on Freaks and Geeks, and was in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles so she’s ok in my book…
This could’ve gone anyway really, all the nominees were deserving.
Where I will give them credit is that they awarded the first Critics’ Choice Television Icon Award to Danny Devito, star of Taxi and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
So for our latest Staff Piece we decided to take a look at shows we feel could’ve gone a little longer. This list is consists of TV shows that could’ve benefited from one more season…
This is one of those shows whose cancellation seemed to make no sense. I mean it obviously came down to the monetary expense of the show’s production and the never stellar ratings like anything else, but it seemed popular enough to survive those obstacles. Critically loved and awarded (28 Emmy Nominations in 3 Years), this is the show that put Ian McShane on the map and won him a Golden Globe during the 2nd season. The show itself ended somewhat ambiguously, with Bullock (Olyphant) and Al Swearengen (McShane) having to join forces against Hearst, who is taking over the town. The season ended with Hearst leaving town, victorious, and many local matters unresolved amongst our principal characters.
Continue reading ‘If Only One More’ – TV Shows We’d Love to Have Gotten One More Season Out Of…
Winterfell: Cool. The Wall: Impressive. King’s Landing: Breathtaking. The Eyrie: Intimidating. Yes we have seen some of the most important locations from the Song of Ice And Fire series in the HBO series A Game of Thrones. But there are still so many to come and there are some good ones. I’ve compiled a list of some of the coolest ones that HBO will no doubt make look as brilliant as the ones we’ve already seen thus far. There may be some spoilers below, however minor. You’ve been warned!
-Ruling Lord: (Currently) House Baelish
Harrenhal is the largest castle in the Seven Kingdoms, but is for most of the time uninhabited due its cost to maintain and the amount of people needed to run it smoothly. It is widely believed to be cursed since every Lord who has had dominion over it has fallen to an ill fate time and time again. I assure you over the course of the series you’ll see it change hands more than once, starting with Janos Slynt who was made Lord of Harrenhal for betraying Ned Stark in “The Pointy End”. Eventually it falls into the hands of one Petyr Baelish though we have yet to see if anything unbecoming happens to him.
-Bastard Last Names: Storm
-Ruling Lords: House Baratheon
So who wouldn’t want to see Storm’s End, the home of the Baratheons? The castle itself has never in its history been breached during war or by a siege. The only reason the last ruler lost it to the Baratheons was because he was stupid enough to meet them in open combat. The Baratheon’s would probably have never been the new Storm Lords if he hadn’t done that. After the War of the Usurper, Renly was placed as the lord of Storm’s End while Stannis as the heir to Robert was given the traditional island fortress of Dragonstone.
-Ruling Lords: (currently) House Lannister
Before conquering the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, House Targaryen made their home at Dragonstone, an island in the Blackwater Bay to the far Northeast of King’s Landing. Everything about the castle of Dragonstone is of course likened to Dragons. Would you expect any less from the Targaryens? From the towers, the walls and even the main kitchen it was dragons, dragons and more dragons. After the Targaryen conquest of Westeros, Dragonstone became the seat of the heir to the present king. So after the Targaryens were forced out of power the island fell under the rule of Stannis Baratheon (brother to Robert) who was none too happy to lose the bountiful lands of Storm’s End for the rocky and poor island of Dragonstone. Sure it looked cool, but it didn’t have much in means of population besides a fishing village. To add insult to injury his younger brother Renly was given command of Storm’s End. That’s the bummer man. Still, I’d like to see Dragonstone on film because dragons are awesome…
-Bastard Last Names: Flowers
-Ruling Lords: House Tyrell
The family of Loras Tyrell, Knight of the Flowers rules over Highgarden, which is a lush and bountiful land further South of King’s Landing. This one may have a wait in being seen on the HBO series because it has not yet been visited in the book series yet. The Tyrells become very involved in the story but their homeland hasn’t as of yet. Hopefully the picture below can give you an idea of what it might look like until we do in the series.
-Bastard Last Name: Sand
-Ruling Lords: House Martell
The Martell family don’t really show up until book 3, and we aren’t treated to the location of Dorne and it’s capital Sunspear until book 4. Dorne is located in the southern most part of Westeros, being the only location with a desert. The most interesting thing about Dorne is that they were the only kingdom that resisted the Targaryen’s during their conquest of Westeros and didn’t actually join the seven kingdoms proper until they married into the Targaryen bloodline. The Targaryens allowed Dorne to join the seven kingdoms after that while still being able to rule themselves under Dornish law, in order to entice them into loyalty.
Grizzly Bomb 