Anime
Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 3 (Episodes 10-16) Complete
In the matter of only 2 weeks I've managed to complete the entire series of Avatar: The Last Airbender and it has been an absolutely wonderful journey; despite the show slowing down in pace as the third and final season brought us closer to the closing of the series as a whole - the payoff in the last episode (which plays out like a feature length movie by itself - containing 4 parts) made everything that had since past seem all worth the while in waiting; I did take some issue with the jarring and at times jumping of time within narrative as the show brought a heavy reliance on Prince Zuko and making sure that each of the key characters had their own unique and personal moment with him when he finally teams up with the Avatar and the rest of his gang - each of these mini-stories were fantastic with Sokka's episode arguably being the standout one of the lot; it did seem to cause a bit of disruption in terms of the development of the overall story and the journey during these few episodes did start to feel a tad disjointed and bordering on fan service to each individual character of the show; but considering the strength of each individual episode and the glorious finale that soon followed, this issue ends up only really becoming a nitpick within what is otherwise a truly outstanding series. The finale contains a brilliant battle sequence that can stand side by side with the best of the likes of Dragonball Z has to offer and then we come to the fact that you have a side player that starts off the series as the focal 'bad guy' of the show and takes this incredible journey - in my honest opinion the overall character development and the story arc of a personal journey that Prince Zuko takes within the series and most notably in this 3rd season is up there with some of the best, not only within the realms of animation/children's television - but I'd argue that if some of the higher production TV dramas on the biggest networks would be hard pushed to created someone as interesting as Prince Zuko and his overall journey from start to finish. The second half of this 3rd and final season really found a nice balance between the characters of Aang and Prince Zuko; with Zuko providing some of the more emotive scenes that on a number of occasions really strikes a chord, but not taking away too much from the attention of our lead character Aang who struggles right up to the very closing moments of the show to come to terms with what he needs to do to save the earth, whilst not destroying the very image and belief that he has dedicated his life to; Aang's inner turmoil of personal battle, love and religion/beliefs are hard-hitting and are nicely wrapped up with the ending of the show that leaves you feeling you've embarked and completed such a journey with rich storytelling that are comparable to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the storytelling and the characters are that high quality; this really is essential viewing for all Netflix subscribers.
10/10
TV
Sense 8 (Episode 12) Complete
Went into the season finale of Sense 8 with low expectations - as discussed last week, I really didn't see how this show could have turn my opinions around given the nature of the previous 11 episodes and the distinct lack of storytelling whether it being an attempt to be ambiguous or just a case of lazy writing (given this being a Wachowski's production, my guess is with the latter) - the stronger characters of the show still maintained my attention to the screen but the lesser characters again did nothing more than make up the numbers and conveniently come into action where their skills were needed the most. The shows finale felt like a complete rush job to power through to an ending that neither felt like a closer to a complete story or a cliffhanger ending that leaves you wanting more and eagerly anticipating the next season. A show that is more style over substance and what little substance is there, is so bloody damn convenient for apparently no reason at all - Sensate randomly targeting individuals that grow up to become skilled individuals? Purpose driven, how can they hope to predict such a thing? Why do all 8 have such unique sets of skills? Why is there no ordinary character/human being among them? None of these questions are remotely given the time of day over the course of the first season, this is a case of Netflix throwing an unlimited budget at The Wachowski's and saying "do whatever the hell you want" and the result is a complete mess of a show that is narratively non-existent and characters that are unbelievable; everything feels fabricated and while the show has its moments of being entertaining, it just doesn't do enough thematically or story wise to really recommend it to anyone. A lacklustre season finale to a rather lacklustre show.
4/10
Hemlock Grove (Episodes 1-2)
This I will keep very short but nowhere near sweet - I don't know what enticed me to check out Hemlock Grove; maybe it was the title or the description that intrigue me, going in I was hoping for something along the lines of Grimm but more adult in nature and rather graphic; but what I got was a teenage driven, brooding nonsense of terrible acting and a narrative that was totally un-engaging. These two episodes were enough to warn me off the rest of the series, I saw very little to offer moving forward with the show; in a lot of ways it reminded me of my reaction to American Horror Story when I gave that show a try a while back, so I guess if you were a fan of that shambles then you might find something here with Hemlock Grove, but for me this was utter drivel at best. Literally having no idea what the hell was going on come the end of the second episode and then being hit with what starts off begin a rather graphic and gruesome transformation sequence of a werewolf, that has you cringing from the gore ends up making you cringe at the laugh out loud pathetic end product; if you American Horror Story and Twilight had a devil child then I'd imagine that Hemlock Grove would be it. If you have any sense of sanity left in your soul you'll heed my advice and give this show a bloody wide berth. Avoid Avoid Avoid like the damn plague.
No rating required.
Arrested Development Season 1 (Episodes 1-20)
Got to admit that going into this show my expectations were very low, as for years now for a reason that either never existed or I've plainly forgotten - I had convinced myself that I would absolutely hate Arrested Development and had it not been for my Netflix subscription I probably would never have given the show the time of day and for that very reason I'm starting to see my decision to sign up to Netflix as being one hell of a decision and one of the best I'll probably make all year, because damn this show is fucking hilarious. What a great ensemble cast the show has to offer, I can't pick a favourite at this moment in time and I couldn't even pick a least favourite; and while I'll say that the show isn't always laugh out loud funny - but given I'm 20 episodes into this show and I can't remember a joke that the show made that wasn't funny, it's pretty much been Home Run after Home Run in terms of the comedy. Outside of Friends, I'm not really a big fan of American comedy shows, but Arrested Development is certainly something wonderful and if you're like me and have never seen the show, or more so like me and told yourself you wouldn't be a fan of it. I urge you to reconsider and put this on your Netflix queue right now to watch as soon as possible. I thought I had a good set of friends but now I'm starting to question this - how could they not tell me about this show and berate me into submission to delve into the series. On the down side and it's not much of a bad thing just a viewing consumption method - I have managed to cram 20 episodes into little more than 2 days and at times I do feel like the show and its effectiveness has suffered due to this, so maybe its a show that shouldn't be rushed through but rather watched casually and let the quality of the comedic writing work its magic.
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