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The 100 (2014)
It gets better and better, by season 2 it is on par with the best of TV
Whenever I read complains about The 100 most of them refer to the pilot, which I think it's pretty unfair since the show has 29 episodes to judge. The 100 starts out broad, but as it develops it gets darker and more engaging. By episode 3 you get hooked and from there onwards the show just gets better and better.
Some characters on the show are born out of stereotypes, I won't deny that, but their evolution is what makes them remarkable. Think about Clarke Griffin, the main protagonist; during the pilot she's a defacto heroine moved only by the motivation of saving everyone because it is the right thing to do. Sounds pretty boring, right? I thought so too during the pilot. But then, as the show grows deeper and complex, so does the characters, and Clarke easily became my favorite character on the show. Why? Because of the layers the show created around her.
It is impossible to describe Clarke in just one adjective. Just saying "she's strong" falls short, it doesn't show the moral dilemmas she faces, nor her moments of weakness. It doesn't show the brief moments she has to laugh or when she has to kill and is haunted about it. It doesn't show when she falls apart and picks herself right up, it doesn't show that she cares about people and at the same time that she has enough rage to kill without remorse.
"Strong" can't even begin to describe Clarke; you'll need many more adjectives in order to describe her, and that's remarkable. There are many characters on TV that can be reduced to a single adjective, especially female characters which are usually reserved for mere love plots, but that's not the case with the women of The 100 (by season 2 loves triangles are completely dropped from the show).
The 100 isn't afraid of taking risk, every episode makes a huge gamble as the characters make choices that will potentially alienate them for the audience; but what the show does so well is setting the context in which these hard choices are made, it makes the audience understand that the choices made don't come from a place of evil, but rather for survival. It dances on various shades of grey (not to confuse with that hideous book) and it makes the audience wonder: would I do the same?
The characters are constantly at war with other factions on Earth, and they are forced to do things they are not proud of: they have killed innocent people, from both their side and the enemy's side, they have betrayed, they have deceived, and yet, when everything's put into perspective, you get what they do it, you understand their motivations and the circumstances that led them to do so.
One of the strongest elements of The 100 is how real it feels; if the circumstances on our world were the same, I believe this is how it would come to past. The 100 is dead serious, it isn't campy like many other sci-fi shows (not that there is something wrong with being campy), and it does so to make a direct statement about human condition: we are not good guys, we are simply trying.
Everything comes together eventually; the acting gets better and better, and so the script and the technical aspects of the show such as special effects and stunts are fairly amazing.
As such, this is a show that should be judge upon seeing at least 4 episodes and not just deciding on the pilot. As soon as The 100 finds its voice, it becomes something else.
Fringe: 6B (2011)
One of the greatest of the season
Fans were biting their nails because of the great rating drop Fringe had been having since Reciprocity and onwards; I stood positive, but a bit nervous, about the future of the show and this week was quite a relief. The fact that the audience grew up from 3.74 million watchers to 4.10 million means that Fringe is recovering from the Super bowl, the festivities and the Supernatural competition, and it's thanks to the amazing writing, especially for this very episode that kept hook, and even drew 40.000 viewers on the second half, that I think Fringe is to be renew for a 4th season, leading the nights with what I think will be an average of 4.58 million watchers, holding to its initial 1.9 rating share. Now, let's talk about the real issue, the aspects that made this episode so great. Some details are spoiler free, I'll mention when the spoilers comes.
Visual and special effects: 10/10. Through the whole episode we get a very good use of special effects and different settings, which is different from last week's "Immortality", the Fringe team is not captive on many scenes in the lab, but they are seen on many scenes on Peter's house, Massive Dynamics, the bar, the building, etc... Which is a refreshing setting, there's more world than just the lab. The special effects were marvelous, it was like a new version of the ghost busters mixed with the X files and achieved in such an incredible degree, from simple sequences were windows explodes or the creation of the amber to the vision and cracks from the other side.
(SPOILER) Plot: Case of the week: 9.8/10. The thing is that the case is moving and it's really interesting, we get to see that our universe is suffering as "over there" and it's bending because of the grief and sorrow of two people who loved each other madly and lost each other, which is nice, we are not facing a monster of the week, we are victims of a love tragedy that occurred both over here and there, it was nicely developed, although I think it wasn't completely explained, which is why I gave it a 9.8 overall, but it was truly amazing.
Olivia's and Peter's relationship development: 10/10. It was 100% believable, the characters seem to finally leave things behind, but at the same time they are recognizing the causes of why it is so hard. And I'm not giving it a 10 because I wanted to see them kissing again (which was a plus), but because Olivia finally showed us that she is brave enough to overcome her fear, along with Peter being able to tell who he is really in love with, and making Olivia see that she was the one actually stopping them at that time. The way it was developed was cute, nice and smart.
Walter's fear: 1000/10. There's just no way to describe how amazing and Emmy worthy is John Noble. The fear and the burden of his acts are a huge weight that he carries on the back, we can see all that through Walter's eyes, through his movement, and it goes completely along with his character profile and background story. Kudos to John Noble.
(SPOILER FREE)
Overall acting from starring and guest starring: 10/10. As always, our main cast for this season is crushing it, they are doing better than ever. Through the eye contact to the way they speak we see our main cast doing as good as always and even better, mentioning John Noble who was able to pull off a terrified and sorrow Walter Bishop who fills our eyes with pity for his poor character, I bet we all wanted to hug Walter and tell him that it would be OK, which I actually wanted to see from Jasika Nicole, but that's for another episode. Our guest starring was standard good to impressive, though we might not care for those characters that only appear in one scene, they are necessary and they did their job as every week, fairly good and convincing. The old lady (excuse me, I forgot her name) showed us some experience and good acting.
Overall: 10/10. This episode is to be listed as one of Fringe's best, 43 minutes of entertaining romance, occasionally good humor and character development. It's not an episode to lose and I hope more Fringe fans tune on their TVs next Friday, my gamble is 4.26 million viewers, 1.6 rating share.
Hereafter (2010)
Tearjerker movie, and maybe a masterpiece without Matt Damon
I went into the theaters with a lot of expectations, after all Clint Eastwood always moves me, his movies are all able to touch my soul, but that doesn't mean every single thing on it must be good. Hereafter is a wonderful movie; It has an astonishing story telling, the way it links three stories in just one movie is plain awesome, the cast is moving, but here is where my only complain comes: Matt Damon wasn't prepared for the role. He read the lines good, his expressions were right, but his heart was not in it. I was watching him besides Frankie McLaren (Oh my god, that kid... I cried with his scenes) and Céclie De France and I knew he wasn't standing as high and them. The characters of Marcus and Marie Lelay were just strong, well developed, and they moved me, they made my cry like I almost never do. The character of George had a lot of potential, but Damon's acting wasn't convincing; his character always keeps distant, he is broken inside because he never could have a normal life, but where's the sorrow in his eyes? Where's the pain? The burden? All I could see were forced actions like his head resting on his hands, but there has to be more, we need to see that he really suffer because of it, and it's not just in the movements and the attitude, it's also on his eyes. I really pictured the whole movie with a George played by Joshua Jackson, a man who is able to play all those things and make you think he is under the character skin, Matt doesn't. Now here come the spoilers:
-Story: 10/10. We are all concerned about death, and there is always a line we draw between life and death, we all have our beliefs and this movie is nothing, but Eastwood's way to see the after life, and he introduces us it by this wonderful storytelling. Three characters deeply broken by different circumstances, they can't find happiness on life, and they need each other in order to leave things behind, and it's moving the way the find each other. Jason's death made me cry, but it also helped Marcus to become more independent, which is what Jason always wanted. Marie finally realized what she was meant to do, she realized that it didn't matter if she had to leave the comfort of her job and boyfriend behind; she had to follow what she saw. George's life is outright sad and his development is interesting, we want to engage with this character and get to know him better, maybe even protecting him a little bit. The three stories and their link were smartly done.
-Cast: 9/10. Frankie McLaren and Cécile De France (Marcus/Jason and Marie Lelay) deserved an Oscar nomination and award for their role. They kept me angst, they made me feel their whole feelings, I could really feel empathy for them, so why 9/10? As said before this role belonged to Joshua Jackson and not to Matt Damon, who wasn't bad at all, but he wasn't convincing, he didn't really believe he was George, something Jackson would have got right, I'm sure.
-Special Effects and Sound editing: 9.5/10. Absolutely marvelous, yet the real trouble lies on a sharp buzz I kept hearing whenever we saw the after life, but it's just a little mistake, for an outstanding sound editing and impressive effects like the tsunami or the subway explosion. It was really an awesome job.
Setting, Photography and Art direction: 10/10. We get awesome and beautiful scenes from Hong Kong, London, France and the USA, all the places were shown like they really were, the houses, the beach, the apartment, every single place we are in the movie feels real and we get awesomely done pictures in the whole movie. There is not a doubt that these scenarios were awesomely done.
Conclusion: The movie is perfect, despite the sadness that surrounds the characters is warmhearted and it would have been a masterpiece if it wasn't because of the lack of heart Matt Damon had in this movie, but you still must seeing, be patient with Damon and enjoy a moving film from Clint Eastwood, who is maybe one of the best directors on USA of the decade.