Current Media 3-29-16

Current reading material:
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

Comics to read next:
Weapon X (2002) #2
Agent X (2002) #5

Current TV shows I'm watching:
The Grinder
@Midnight
Phineas & Ferb
Legends of Tomorrow
Lucifer
11.22.63
Fear the Walking Dead
Better Call Saul

Podcasts I'm listening to:
Nerdist
Jay & Miles X-plain the X-men
Serial
Judge John Hodgman
Cracked
This American Life
Masters of Carpentry
Bullseye
Retsutalk
TV Crimes

Video Games I'm playing:
Disney Tsum Tsum 
Marvel's Avengers Academy
Suikoden
Grim Fandango Remastered
Rock Band 4

Stuff I finished since last time:

The Man in the High Castle - While I really thought there was a good concept to be explored in a "what if the axis had won?" scenario, maybe Philip K Dick wasn't the person to do it.  None of the characters are particularly likable, and it makes it very hard to get into or sympathize with their plight in any way.  A whole lot of time is put into interpretations of the I, Ching and leaves those of us with little prior knowledge of it really scratching our heads.  There's definitely a lot more time spent with the Japanese side rather than Germany but it all just ends up poorly defined and the "climax" such as it is is super unsatisfying.  I don't recommend it.

Origin - This is the comic series that told Wolverine's origin after so many years of his early life being a mystery.  I had read summaries of it before, but this was my first read of the full comics.  I think it probably worked much better as a serial when it was initially released, particularly in the first couple issues where no one realized which of the male characters was truly supposed to be Wolverine.  Unfortunately when you take the surprise element away there's not too much left, beyond what suggests that Logan has been repeating the same scenarios over and over again for most of his life.  Frankly, it feels like a story that didn't need to be told.

Weapon X: The Draft - This was a series of one shots each highlighting a character that is included the Weapon X 2002 ongoing comic I just started reading.  The issue highlighting Marrow was well written, but in large contrast to every appearance of the character before.  I can't help but think it was just someone's excuse to have a sexualized woman in a book, rather than properly reflecting how the character herself might feel and want to look.  The Sauron issue was a bit silly and also didn't seem to have much prior knowledge about that character either.  The decision to make Wild Child look exactly like Nosferatu was also a bit of a head scratcher, though I did enjoy that story.  It was all enough to at least make me curious about the ongoing and be willing to give that a shot.

Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine - This is probably the most adult version of Lupin III since the original manga, and is super sexualized to the point of almost feeling like softcore hentai in certain scenes.  The animation style and digital coloring are beautiful, and the music is pretty great as well.  That said, I have to admit I didn't care much for this interpretation of the story.  Most of the characters match the personalities we know from before, with the exception of Zenigata who comes off a bit more crooked when he sleeps with Fujiko when he has her custody.  While he may not be a 100% lawful good character, occasionally agreeing to a truce with Lupin while they stop other, bigger foes, the idea of him being seduced by a prisoner (or worse yet, taking advantage of a prisoner for the sake of getting her to do something) feels wrong to me.  With the focus of the series being on Fujiko, it seems to be suggesting that she's just that desirable and everyone wants her.  Except for the one new character added to the show, Oscar, Zenigata's assistant and sort of foster child.   He's in love with his mentor and therefore hates Fujiko for getting his attention.  It's not handled well at all, and seeing as how this is supposed to be a prequel, it would have been nice to get a better explanation as to what happened to him and why we never see him again.  Though I know there is a follow up film, it's possible it is settled there and I just haven't watched it yet.  Beyond that, there's a plot throughout the series about Fujiko being abused as a child and manipulated to be a living sexualized weapon.  I was really, really displeased with that angle for most of the season.  The finale does do a bit to change my perspective on it, but still sort of feels more like a cop out than a satisfying end.  I'd recommend it for hardcore Lupin fans only, or people looking for something closer to the gritty nature of the manga.

Daredevil season 2 - While I had some minor quibbles with season 1, I had very little to complain about in the second season.  Punisher is fantastic and absolutely the best version of the character I had ever seen.  Jon Bernthal had done such a good job of making me hate him on The Walking Dead that I was a little worried I might not like his Punisher, but he did such a great job of dancing over the line between sympathetic and horrifyingly brutal.  While Elektra felt a little more ill defined that enigmatic at times, I enjoyed her as well.  Matt continued to infuriate me by letting his friends down, Karen remained awesome, and Foggy said everything we in the audience would love to tell Matt while also just being an amazing lawyer and hero in his own right.  I would have loved to see more of Claire, but the parts we did get were great.  Just overall a really strong season, and I think I may watch it again some time in the future at a slower pace like I did the prior season.  Netflix is just really knocking it out the park with these series and I am so ready for more.

Castle Rock Companion - 11.22.63 episode 4

This episode definitely felt more transitional than anything of merit or story on its own.  It moves Jake and Sadie's relationship forward and introduces her ex-husband, and adds a little more information on what's going on with Lee, but it all definitely feels more like set up than a stand alone.

On the Jake and Sadie side, it's possible that a mini-series or film is just never going to leave me satisfied when it comes to relationships and love. In the book we get the chance to see these two really get to know each other and become close, and here it seems like we're just skipping to the smooching and sleeping together with them barely knowing each other.  I feel like the show is expecting you to believe they're in love based solely on the chemistry of the two leads, and I'm just not feeling it that deeply.  Especially when most of the scenes are focusing on how much Jake is keeping from Sadie.

On top of that, Sadie's confession to Jake about what happened in her former marriage was very poorly handled.  For one thing, wouldn't that be something she'd want to discuss before sleeping with him?  I seem to recall that's the way it goes in the book, or she at least admits that things were not quite right with her husband.  When she does tell him, it comes out in a confusing jumble, like they didn't want to get into all the details King describes in the book so they just sort of skipped through it and it barely made sense.  It should have been a very sad moment but instead it just ended up confusing.

We then meet her ex-husband Johnny, and they could not have chosen to portray him any more over the top than he is.  I admit he's a lunatic in the book as well, but something about how he's portrayed here made him come off as really cartoony to me in an otherwise realistic world.  It just didn't work.  And once again, Jake handles it all really poorly. I think the idea that this mini series is trying to establish is that Jake will eventually decide the past is better without him, but boy is it tedious to watch it get there.

The other side of the episode is Bill watching the Oswalds.  King presents Marina Oswald as a pitiable character in the books, a beaten down wife under the thumb of her husband.  Bill is at least somewhat taking over Jake's role in witnessing the abuse and feeling sorry for her, but in what is now typical fashion the mini-series has to take it once step further and have him interfere and become affectionate with her.  I am starting to think of this as the dumbest timeline. 

Remember all that stuff in the earlier episodes where the past was fighting back every time Jake changed a little tiny thing?  All those horrors? Because the writers seem to have forgotten and not given a shit. Bill talking to Marina, Jake talking to Johnny, these should all be big events.  Where are the bugs and natural disasters?

And I feel like that gets right down to the heart of this. The writing on this series is just really poor.  I think we've witnessed at least three times now Jake driving all the way from Jodie to Dallas just to arrive, talk to Bill for a couple minutes, then turn around and go back home again.  Phones existed in the 60s, dude, just call him.  But this show doesn't care about that, it cares about "Here's this information, now let's move on to the next thing" without taking any time to think it through or act in a natural fashion.  They rush through the relationships, the humanity that makes the story so compelling and interesting, and instead insert a bunch of CIA conspiracy theory (that was not in the book at all) because they think that's what America wants to see.  Oh, and make sure you drop a few f-bombs per episode, we've got to keep it edgy.  Also can we include some strippers or whores in there?  Great, thanks.

Ugh.  As you can tell, I'm pretty disgusted.  I almost didn't write this review, thinking I might save it and lump future episodes together.  I don't like posting nothing but complaints.  I guess we'll see what happens next time, but if you don't see a post for a few weeks, it means I'm just tolerating this as best I can to do a wrap up at the end.

Current Media 3-7-16

Current reading material:
The Man in the High Castle (e-book)

I'm not even going to bother listing comics until I finally start reading them again.  At this point I'm not sure if I'm going to renew Marvel Unlimited if I can't seem to find time to read.

Current TV Shows I'm watching:
The Grinder
@Midnight
Phineas & Ferb
Legends of Tomorrow
Lucifer
Lupin III: The Woman Named Fujiko Mine
11.22.63

Podcasts I'm listening to fairly regularly:
Nerdist
Jay & Miles X-plain the X-men
Serial
Judge John Hodgman
Cracked
This American Life
Masters of Carpentry
Bullseye
Retsutalk
TV Crimes

Video Games I'm playing:
Disney Tsum Tsum 
Marvel's Avengers Academy
Suikoden

Stuff I finished since last time:

Deadpool - As predicted this was the next film I saw in a theater.  I had fairly low expectations going in, and ended up pleasantly surprised.  There was plenty of extreme humor to justify the R rating, but there was also a fair amount of heart.  Not just in the way that this was clearly a passion project from Reynolds and most of the crew, but in the character and story too.  My hope is that this will lead to Fox being willing to take more chances with their X-films from now on.

X-files mini-series - I would say about half the episodes were really fun, and the others just okay.  I always had a preference for the sillier episodes of the show, so it's no surprise that the were-man episode was my favorite of the bunch.  That ending was pretty infuriating, so let's hope everthing works out and it all gets renewed.  If nothing else, it did make me want to start a re-watch of the series, though it's going to have to wait until after this current season of shows are all over.

Books of Blood vol 1-3 - I'm glad they grouped all three volumes into one book, as it really allowed me to see Clive Barker's writing style evolve and strengthen over time.  There were some really weak stories at the beginning, though his vivid descriptions of gore were there right from the start, as well as some of his more fantastical things.  Like any short story anthology there were stories I enjoyed and others I was ambivalent about, but all in all it made me want to delve a little deeper into his work in the future.  I think I'm going to skip most of the movie adaptations though.

Lupin III series 3 - The ugly art style of this series was a strike against it from the start from me, not to mention the poor representation of African people and the need to rip a woman's clothes off at least every other episode.  But there is good to be going in this series, especially whenever the stories dropped all pretense of being serious action pieces and embraced silliness.  I'd put it behind the first two series in terms of quality overall, but I still recommend any Lupin fan giving it a chance.

Agent Carter season 2 - This was a good solid season over all.  I could have done without the love triangle for Peggy, but the addition of Ana Jarvis in all her glory helps to cancel that out.  It's not the kind of thing I have a whole lot to say about, but I enjoyed it.

The Muppets season 1 - The show took a while to find its tone and direction, even more so thanks to them changing the creative team halfway through the season.  I never had the problem with the first half that a lot of people did, though I'll also readily admit it's not as good as some earlier incarnations of these characters.  My biggest problem with the latter half of the season is the same problem I have with a lot of the Muppet films - I don't care about Kermit and Piggy as a couple and don't need a big long story line about the two of them getting back together.  Gonzo and Camilla getting back together was just the right amount of romance for me.  The Gonzo, Rizzo, and Pepe moments are probably the best on the show, and a lot of the other background characters are great in their bits too.  Maybe from here on out they can just have Kermit and Piggy together and leave it at that.  If it's even renewed.

Ex Machina - Finally watched this movie after hearing so many rave reviews.  It's a little slow moving for my taste, mostly because I felt like I figured out most of the secrets ahead of time, and I was just waiting for them to unfold.  That said, I did enjoy a lot of the wait, and I was genuinely interested in both Caleb and Ava's fates.  I was mostly okay with the ending, though I did have to do some of my own deduction to make it alright.  I'd recommend the film for anyone into the more cerebral end of sci-fi.

Castle Rock Companion - 11.22.63 episode 3

I had heard from a Stephen King fan site ahead of time that this episode would be divisive. Having seen a promotional image ahead of time of Jake and Bill both listening to the surveillance equipment, and the way episode 2 ended, it seemed pretty clear what the change would be. Having done enough of these, I'm used to adaptations including someone for the main character to bounce off of. It's a natural addition. But you can't just add a character without taking time to figure out how they fit.

Bill goes from exceedingly hostile and distrustful of Jake to wanting to join him in the blink of an eye. Technically there's a whole drive from Kentucky to Dallas where the two of them may have bonded, but since we see none of it we have no indication as to why Bill changes his mind or why Jake would trust him. Bill's main purpose at this point seems to be to make Jake look less stupid by acting even more moronic than Jake has previously. He's an uninteresting and annoying character, and showing him as a victim of abuse does nothing to make me like him more or be sympathetic to him.

On a better note, we get to meet the Jodie cast of characters now, though sadly the students and their jamboree are nothing more than Easter eggs now. I suppose it makes sense to cut this for time, but I really would have liked to see a little more of them.

Fortunately we still get a good look at Sadie and Ms. Mimi. Unless I missed something, Ms. Mimi is white in the books, but I think making her black here is a good way to show Jake's frustrations with the racism of the past, and deals with those issues more head on than King does in the book. I just hope they don't drop her relationship with Deke because of it. Tonya Pinkins brings a lot of Mimi's spunk to the role which I really enjoyed in the book.

As far as Sadie, there's clearly more to be revealed about her past in future episodes, but I like how Sarah Gadon is playing her so far. She has a decent amount of chemistry with Franco, though the skipping of time makes it all feel a bit rushed. I also feel like the dance number wasn't as exciting as it could have been. Whether it was direction or choreography or the actors I'm not certain, but they didn't feel as electric as King describes it in the book.

Finally, we also get to really see the Oswalds. Cherry Jones plays a perfect doting mother, and I hope we get to see a little more of her in future episodes.  Daniel Webber seems to be doing a strange accent as Lee. I'm not sure if there are recordings out there of Oswald's voice that he's trying to match but it makes his delivery awkward at times. He's certainly doing a good job of playing an unhinged man whose strong beliefs could lead him to do extreme things.

Am I losing hope for this series to end well? To be honest, yes. I don't think it's completely lost at this point, but I think it's got a long way to go win me back. It's sort of odd that things seem to be moving so quickly yet we still have 5 episodes to go. Maybe it's going to severely slow the time progression down from this point onward. We'll see.