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Reviews
Nikki (2000)
Interesting characters
I started watching this show as a progression from "Unhappily ever after" which has a number of hilarious scenes. The one with the rabbit voiced by Bobcat Goldthwait and Geof Piersens "Jack Malloy" trying to leave a message on the answer machine character was hilarious. In that show Nikki Cox plays Tiffany Malloy which became a breakout character later in the show and you could argue that the "Nikki" character is a more humanized version of that character without the assumed success of the Tiffany character. Not really sure I would want to watch a TV show based around the Tiffany characters projected life path really.
The show is based around Nikki and Dwights relationship, where Nikki is a Las Vegas showgirl and Dwight is wrestler. The early episodes open with dance numbers, often in jokingly bad taste but are interesting. The Dwight character is actually quite likable, not the mindless thug one would expect and much of the humour of the show works by challenging the assumptions people would have about the characters. He delivers the line "You know that feeling when someone is screwing around with you but deep down you know they like you. Well, I'm not getting that feeling" about meeting Nikki's father in season one episode 16 "I'll kick your Ass".
I found the support characters interesting Toby Huss's character "Jupiter" has many of the mannerisms of Groucho Marx, obviously without the cigar but in the tradition of a business man/ showman with a sometimes shoddy product. Susan Egans character is a comedic femme fatal character who is cheerfully amoral but we are lead to believe has heart of gold, because although much of the show has a darker gallows humour they are likable characters. Much comedy is about laughing at the darkness.
American Zombie (2007)
An interpretation of the unconscious motivations behind the zombie characters dialogue.
I will try to be as vague as possible while still remaining coherent so as to not give away too much.
I liked the movie and it is possible that I am over interpreting the movie but want to address statements that the end is in contrast to the majority of the movie. It isn't, the reasons for the resurrection of the "revenants" and the basic motivations for the zombies is suggested early on in the movie and the movie does provide confirmation of the reality of this motivation subtly quite early. The movie presents the motivation as manifesting in various forms through the characters dialogue, multiple world views interpreting the basic motivation of the cause for their resurrection. It makes what is happening at the end more coherent, the characters various ethical dilemmas and basic motivations manifesting in different forms. The zombies discourse is close enough to resemble the major discourse present in living human society such as love, equality, art, meaning and truth, but the unconscious drive behind these positive terms is something else not human and the majority of them are probably are not conscious of the disparity.
Jumanji (1996)
Jumanji
For its time it was a pretty good children's cartoon. The artwork was edgy and the theme music was engaging, the creatures looked pretty scary/sinister and the rules based, cause and effect reality created by the Jumanji game gave the environment character and some of the malevolent characters a certain pathos. Professor Ibsen in the episode Master Builder was a direct reference to the Norwegian playwright Henrick Ibsen, who wrote a play called Master Builder and contains parallels to the character. Tim Curry is the voice to Slick.
Favorite episodes include Armageddon, where the rules of Jumanji begin to break down and Branford, a game version of the "real world" where Peter and Judy come from.