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Shingeki no Kyojin (2013)
Review #86 - This show keeps getting better, really, and that is my titular statement...
Ergo, the first thing I have to tell you before you stop reading. All my oriental friends raved about this show, and that always puts me off a bit (the number of people, not anything else. I mean, I am naturally disinclined to go mainstream, so when I DO praise a mainstream, you know it's really good) You start with a bunch of kids with naive ideals and philosophies. And they dream and daydream a lot. You will see them do that less as they grow and mature, as we all do and probably agree we should. By this point, I have seen nothing impressive.
Granted, they are kids so they will need to learn. And they do, fast, and hard. The world they live in is given to you straight, or that's what they make you think for the first few episodes. Mankind are hunted by titans bla-bah and try to fight them with "maneuvre gear"- wire grapple combined with gas propulsion, and then cut the titan's weak spot with something nice and sharp, which Japan has always had, to be fair, although the cultural setting of this last surviving major city of mankind seems to be set in the likeness of post-medieval central Europe.
What is nice is that the wire grapples and gas propulsions are technologies we currently have and it is realistic to master their use to the level on the show, given a generation of human devote to the training and accepting that a mistake can mean you splat yourself to death. Only when I nearly finished the series I realized the movement resembles fighter aircrafts, if you are into that sort of thing (and it's also because those who are really good at it only showed up then).
The show tells you from the start the kid's mother gets eaten, and it doesn't get easier from there. Every time you think they are beginning to get things on the track of wrapping it all up, another load of hell pops out of nowhere. In fact, that is the only thing predictable about this show.
In such a bleak world, morals lean a lot more towards the ability to survive, especially collectively, meaning some people are willing so sacrifice themselves or a smaller number of others to save many. And you see everyone are on different levels of agreement of acceptance towards that and struggle with each other over the subject. Cowards arguing with heroes and people realizing they are one and not the other in face of danger, etc, etc. But all characters act logically and reasonably to that end for a very enjoyable watch.
Did I mention the kids daydream a lot? Some of these dreams seem to have a deja vu or precognition element to it or actually altered reality - Boy dreamt of being given a key and woke up with a key which he did not seem to have before. A fragment of a dream might paint a person 1 picture and a longer version of the dream later reveals a completely different story.
The series portrays a large city and it does not disappoint and in how new characters and elements come into the life of the main characters. In fact, the kids work their way into more and more complex plots and schemes. And they are also in the process of researching and discovering more about the titans they fight. And there turns out to be a whole load of interesting ideas about how the author invented these titans.
The people who appeared good guys may seems like they are not, but turn out they actually are, just not letting on the stuff they knew. Or maybe they are not, because the story is clearly not all finished after series 1 and that's the only bad thing.
This is the best blend of survival horror, friendship drama, super-power-kid, sci-fi, war of subterfuge, alternative world apocalypse a lot of us have ever seen. OK, the friendship and subterfuge elements are not THAT good, only just "great".
Game of Thrones: The Mountain and the Viper (2014)
Disappointed with some details and a big howler
The plot played out in this episode was exciting as ones before. But I can't help but wonder, with the level of success achieved by the TV series, why not make more episodes and fill in more of the actual story? Because from series 1, clearly the TV series was just a taster of the entire story told by the big books. A lot of names and events barely got a mention in a dialogue. That itself has been great for the first series where you were not 100% sure how it is going to go. Except now we are and there's really no need to skim. People are ready to watch another 15 series of this.
However, this episode has slowed things down, but not in ways I wished. No longer we see clever cut scenes where viewers were expected to workout what happened from what has been cut. People were just walking slowly and talking about things of no importance.
And while George R.R. Martin clearly has absorbed political and militant wisdom of every culture in the entire world before creating his own, he (and the TV script wrights) lacks experience of fighting for his own life and it shows up in this howler:
In the "big fight" between Oberyn and the Mountain, Oberyn out-skilled his opponent and whittled him down to demand "a confession", but in his delays he give his opponent an opportunity to turn the fight around. That is a mistake no seasoned warrior can make as making such a mistake prevents you from becoming a seasoned warrior, probably even in your first "season". You want to talk to your opponent when he's down like Dragonballs Z or American wrestling, fine. That are ways to do that but this is not it. A simple way would be to disable all his limbs first. Then you wouldn't have, well, let him kill you.
Dave Gorman: Modern Life Is Goodish (2013)
I can't believe I almost never gave this show a chance.
We all would like to try everything as thoroughly as possible before forming an opinion, or at least my generation of education taught me so. But what my generation of education didn't see is none of us, not one, can ever, ever have the time for all of that.
But once in a while I have some energy and inclination left after watching repeats of QI I have watched too many times before (I know confessing to watching too many repeats of QI can be discrediting for my review, but heck, where else would you find THIS program).
I know I actually spent most of my review talking about why I watched it rather than about the show it itself but here's why: 1) I suspect you're reading this because you're roughly in the same place of wondering whether you want to give it a watch 2) It's really quite good so I don't want to spoil it for you 3) Really how much more explanation and introduction do you need for another stand-up comedy?
Honestly, it's got a tad long built-up compared to Live at Apollo, lots of information, (and that's why it's got a lot of visual aids), etc. But those ones are often the best bits of each comedians over a long time compressed into one act. And the stuff this one builds up to is really good.
Oh and it was episode 5 I watched and he spent most of it taking the mickey out of reviews on the internet, so I doubt Dave will leave my good deed unpunished.
Spartacus: Blood and Sand (2010)
Don't let any disappointment from the previous series stop you
Well if you haven't watched any of the previous Spartacus series, this is certainly not the best place to start, either of Blood and Sand or Gods of the Arena is.
The 3rd series: Vengeance, was unfortunately the weakest of all 4 series. Removed from the glory and excitement of the arena, the double life of being both penned slaves and champions as slaves; and the intrigue of running of a Ludo. "Freed" slaves hiding and dying in sewers. Everything faded to misery. I watched it to see the story complete, but it wasn't much more.
So how can the 4th series be better when the 3rd series had been worse and faced with unavoidable issues like even more memorable have been eliminated from the show (through death) and that we know the inevitable fate of Spartacus?
Well they found answers in abundance, and none to excess. Straight from the off they have refreshed the creativity in the action, especially raising the bar with spears. They brought in the intrigue of Roman politics, the grandeur of their legions, power games among the ranks.
In particular, Vengeance had no arch-villain like Quintus Batiatus like Charlton Heston who played the cardinal and masterminded the necessary (perceived) evils that actually held things together for everyone.
That had been remedied by Simon Merrells who gave a spectacular performance as Magneto...no wait, Crassus.
And if you think you know your history, scattered across the series are a few curved balls thrown just for you.
QI: Geometry (2010)
Not Interesting
Really not. Not even close.
Yet more trivia from "studies" that no one actually finds worth hearing.
So something "looks straight because it is", then I'm not sure if anything in the world can be unfit for QI material. And how many PHDs and how many years of studies did it take to establish that a few pillars that have been around for centuries are straight?
Here's my understanding of the formula (it's not just one question I keep banging on about, but I'm trying not to spoil the whole show): "You know that thing that you thought were not straight but turned out it is?" "No I didn't think it was not straight." (IF I did, then this would be interesting.) "Well some people did." "What people?" "People you don't know and will never had anything to do with." "And why did these people make this mistake the rest of us didn't make." "They are stupid." Well this sort of material is already well covered by Jeremy Kyle, according to what I heard about his work.
Out of 10, I mark something a 2 if it has been a complete waste of time like something pointless and unenjoyable. 1 is reserved for something that is blatantly offensive, which would have been the case for this episode except for the saving grace of David Mitchell spelling out how pointlessly obtuse these "studies" are. And yes, admittedly, the satire also helped to make it bearable.
Friends: The One with the Birth Mother (2004)
One of the most immature, illogical and impossible episodes across all the series
This episode has (at least) two completely illogical and impossible plot lines.
Rachel offers to help Ross with clothes shopping and Ross accidentally ended up with a bag of Rachel's clothes. And for some reason Rachel's clothes fit ROSS perfectly when he put them on, without even a slight stretch???
"Joey doesn't share food!" was to be something we suddenly discover about him in this episode, despite the fact that this was not true in about 30 previous episodes. And if that was exactly how things were and he didn't share food with babies or his friends or his dates and he didn't hide it, why did he not just tell his date that? Despite the glaring logical failures, however, the episode was not without its share of funny stuff.