I have been watching Modern Family for as long as I can remember. Season 11 episode 17/18, the final episode of the final season aired last week. It is truly the end of an era. This review is going to be pretty short (and sweet).
It is the kind of show you watch while you are doing something else. It’s a great show to watch with your family or friends during dinner time, after a long day of work. It’s funny and lighthearted. You don’t have to pay close attention to every single second of every episode.
From someone who has watched the show pretty much every week since season 1, I can tell you it’s great to see characters naturally grow instead of having a crazy time skip. I should tell you that, the reason I managed to watch this every week is because unlike other shows I didn’t have to set aside time to understand everything closely. I just turned it on went on with whatever I was doing. It was great thing to watch while I was cooking.
Final Thought –
There aren’t many sitcoms recognized as well as modern family. So, I am sure many of you have watched it. To be honest, there were times when the writing felt a bit lazy but personally I didn’t care too much about it. For those of you who haven’t seen it, right now might be a good time to start. If you end up quitting, that’s fine too. You won’t miss much and you can always come back to it since it isn’t that intense of a show.
Onward being available on Disney+ is such a huge deal. I finally got a chance to watch it in these uncertain times. I have to ask – What’s up with pixar trying to hit us right in the feels EVERY SINGLE TIME. This brought forth all kinds of emotions for me.
Onward is a story of two brothers trying to spend a day with their deceased father with the help of a magic wand. The deceased parent story is a disney cliche but what’s different about this movie is that, they try to connect the real world with fantasy. This is a world where magic has been slowly replaced by technology. Magic involves a lot of chanting, emotions and some sort of mystical energy. There is no need for all that when you can turn on the light with the flip of switch. It was definitely a great idea to explore.
The story itself is quite simple. The characters and the world are the things that will bring joy to your faces. On top of that, our main characters are played by Chris Pratt and Tom Holland. They have such amazing chemistry together and from what we have seen in previous movies, they are the perfect picks for an uplifting and fun movie.
Making this movie with monsters instead of people, allowed them to be a lot more creative with their art and comedy. Visually the movie was stunning (It’s Pixar after all). Another cool thing they did was make it a quest style movie. There was always a final goal in mind but to get there, they had to reach multiple checkpoints – Manticore’s tavern, finding the path to the gem, fighting the dragon, etc. The gamer and D&D-er in me was quite happy.
Final Thoughts –
Overall the movie was quite fun. However compared to the outstanding pixar movies we know (because of their unique story), this movie kind of just falls in the middle of the pack. We will probably talk about it for a few more months and then forget when someone asks us to name as many pixar movies as we can.
Hey guys! It’s been a while so I wanted try a new form of writing. Haikyuu season 4 was amazing and pretty much everyone knows this. Instead I wanted to talk about how the main characters of Haikyuu grew (specifically Hinata and Kageyama).
Rivalries are what fuel numerous animes today. It’s what makes them interesting and provides forward momentum. Kageyama and Hinata have been working tirelessly to improve themselves and do their best to complement each other. The past 3 seasons focused on Karasuno improving as an underdog team, but the viewer is left to speculate about what they can do beyond this specific team environment. Season 4 fills this as we get to see first-hand, Kageyama and Hinata discover how far they can go as individuals.
Season 1 and 2 showed us that, Kageyama could predict exactly where Hinata’s hand would be to get the perfect spike and set the ball without any sort of deviation. Whereas Hinata literally closed his eyes and ran to an unblocked spot and jumped as high as he could with his unreal athleticism. So, when they had to improve at Nekoma’s training camp, all Hinata did was open his eyes and aim the spike while Kageyama had to learn how to stop the ball mid-air at the perfect spiking position without losing any speed.
Season 4 started off with an eye opener for Hinata. Kageyama was asked to attend the All-Japan Youth Training Camp. This is where the best volleyball players under the age of 19 come together to practice and possibly be selected to be the national representatives for Japan and compete against the world. Not only that, even Tsukishima was invited to special training camp for rookies in the Miyagi prefecture. Hinata was beyond frustrated and Kageyama made sure to let Hinata know that he is moving on ahead and leaving Hinata in the dust. Hinata, the happy-go-getter that he is, decided to crash Tsukishima’s training camp so that he could find a way to catch up to Kageyama and watch how the best in the Miyagi prefecture play. Even at the training camp, Washijo-sensei (Shiratorizawa’s Coach) told Hinata that without Kageyama as his setter, he senses no worth in Hinata. He was not allowed to play at the camp and was only allowed to be the “ball-boy”. However, this didn’t demoralize Hinata even slightly and he was content just watching the trainees play and assist in any way possible.
Coach Ukai told Hinata to do what only a ball boy can do. This stuck with Hinata. He started paying attention to every little detail. He finally started to understand what allowed a receiver to receive well, the exact position spikers look to hit, etc. Since, Hinata relied so much on his athleticism and Kageyama before, these are things that never crossed his mind. He soaked all this information and knowledge like a sponge. This is where he showed signs of, for the lack of a better term, ‘Observation Haki’. Observation Haki for those who haven’t watched One Piece is a sort of sixth sense that allows the user to sense the strength and presence of the people around him. If used well, it lets the user create a mental image of the immediate future. So, in the context of Haikyuu, it would allow players to predict where the ball is going next.
On the other side, Kageyama wasn’t having the best time either. He had a tendency of setting the ball somewhat timidly to not enrage others. This was probably the result of him being called the “King of the Court” in elementary school because of his inability to cooperate with his teammates. Karasuno’s Kageyama was now leaning towards the other extreme. He was too considerate for his players. Due to this, Atsumu Miya, a setter who was also invited to the training camp called Kageyama a “Goody Two-shoes”. After hearing this, Kageyama finally started to reflect on what he needed to do to become a better setter for his team.
Kageyama has the ability to help his teammates push past the limit they set for themselves. But to do that, he had to return to his days as the “King”. A role he gave up a long time ago. Instead of being a “Goody Two-shoes”, he needed to push his teammates to jump higher and position themselves better. Since Karasuno implicitly trusts Kageyama, the team members took Kageyama’s criticism and nitpicking in a positive way. They strived to match Kageyama’s expectations.
After Kageyama realized that he no longer needed to worry about teammates abandoning him, he was able to break past the wall that was holding him back. Before, Kageyama saw his setting as hitting a target. He positioned the ball exactly where the spiker was going to be. Now at the spring tournament, Kageyama analyzes the entire court as a three-dimensional grid to maximize the chances to score points for his team.
n Hinata’s case, he has not found his groove just yet. He does position himself well to make great receives but his timing is still off and, more often than not, he ends up receiving the ball with his face rather than his hands. Even so, you can tell that he is completely in the zone as the anime zooms in on to show the focus in his eyes. Each time this happens, we are on the edge of our seats waiting to see Hinata get those perfect receives and wow the entire audience.
We’ve always known the inevitable ‘Battle of The Garbage Dump’ will be a match of epic proportions. Hinata will definitely be at the top of his game. But the question remains, can Hinata catch up to Kageyama in the first match of the upcoming season. After all, the match is against Miya Atsumu’s team – Inarizaki High School. According to Coach Ukai, they are the favorites to win this tournament, so it will definitely be a tough match for Karasuno.
Final Thoughts –
This long awaited season lived up to the hype. It was even more exciting and better written. Even if this was just a build up to an important arc, it never felt like it. Every episode was captivating in its own right. Haikyuu is one of the few shows where the quality of the show increases every season.
Season 2 had an amazing ending. I’ll take as much as I can get from a great show but I would rather have it end on a highnote than drag on for multiple seasons without a good story to tell. I was definitely quite skeptical about season 3. I am sure a few of you were in the same boat as I was (or are).
Let me help you throw that skepticism out the window. Season 3 went beyond my expectations. Dracula’s death implied that we need a new antagonist for the story to go on. The vampire empresses (which included Carmilla from last season) and Isaac were pretty good replacements. Their story arc and motivations were very well developed.
This season chose to separate all the important characters to give them their own story arcs and help them evolve into better characters. There are 4 different storylines (Trevor and Sypha, Alucard, Isaac and finally Vampire Empresses) and there is 0 overlap between them. This is probably the best part about the season, not only from a story standpoint but visually too. We got to experience amazing art. We get to see snow, desert, castles, villages, ruins and Sypha roleplaying as the ‘Avatar’. So many different settings and fight scene shows us that a lot of hard work went into creating these visual effects. You can tell Netflix went all out this season. I think they took a lot of inspiration from ‘Love, Death and Robots’. This season, compared to its predecessors had a lot more violence, sexuality, darkness and gore too. It’s nice to know that writers and artists have a lot of creative freedom now.
Moving onto the plot – This season didn’t necessarily have an overarching story. I believe it was designed mainly to set up the plot and the theme for the next one or two seasons. There are a lot of minor plots that establish the kind of world our characters are living in. (Spoilers ahead; skip to next para) Sypha learns that monsters don’t only come from the depths of hell. People can be just as terrifying. Alucard and Hector learn what betrayal feels like first hand. Isaac moves in and out of having faith in humans. Now that I say all this out loud (pardon my figure of speech), I finally realized how dark this show is about to get (which I am super excited for btw).
Final Thoughts –
I loved everything season 3 had to offer. Visually it was a masterpiece. The voice acting and character development all stood out in their own regard. Season 3 might feel slow at times but thats only because it is laying down the groundwork for an awesome war next season. Except for this one tiny thing, the season was flawless and somehow managed to keep me hooked all the way through. I can wait for season 4 to arrive.
Netflix throws a lot of shows our way and there are times I fall for the clickbait. This time it was in the form of Kaya Scodelario. I liked her in Maze Runner and Pirates of the Caribbean, so I decided to check this show out.
At first glance this might look like a generic sports show. I am glad that wasn’t the case because I don’t think I would have been able to finish the whole season in two sittings like I did. This show first-and-foremost is all about family, mental health, love and aspirations and then comes the ‘figure skating’ part.
The show starts off focusing on Kat Baker (played by Kaya) who has been trying to get back into competitive skating and achieving her olympic dream after a brutal fall on the ice. Slowly, as the story builds, the focus shifts around all the characters of the show. This is where the show shines. Kat’s Mom, Kat’s skating partner, her sister, etc.. are all given their time in the spolight. Each of them evolves in his/her own special way.
I have never watched any female sports drama before (except for Million Dollar Baby and Soul Surfer). I think this was a great introduction to the genre for me (as a TV show I mean). The show breaks down how being bipolar has affected the relationship between the mother and the daughter as well as the people around them. It also shows some of the stress that female athletes have to endure such as injuries, predatory people-in-power, the social ostracism that comes with having mental health condition, etc. Watching the characters overcome adversities slowly but surely made the entire arc of the season quite heartwarming.
Obviously, not everything is perfect. There are a few generic tropes like ‘kissing the guy that your bf likes’, ‘leaving home because you want to escape the overbearing mother’ and ‘the party boy who is too good at the sport to care about anything but he cares about the main character’. This is the intro season so I expect a few of these. Season 1s tend to be slow and sometimes predictable but in this case, I am willing to look past those.
I think this show could have gotten a lot more interesting in the second season. I would have even loved to see more figure skating and learn all the skating jargons that come with it. By my phrasing, you can probably guess what happened. The show got cancelled last month, so there won’t be a season 2. There was a lot of backlash from fans and a petition to renew the show. However, there is no new information as of yet but a lot of shows move onto a different platform so maybe, just maybe we get a season 2.
Final Thoughts –
If you are browsing Netflix and don’t know what to watch next to satisfy your binging needs, then I would definitely recommend you give this a try and see if it pulls you in. Then again, I know I personally lose my motivation to watch a show if I know it is cancelled and can’t get closure, so I understand if you don’t want to start something you can’t finish.
We all saw that horrendous first sonic trailer. THE TEETH!!!! I never wanted to this movie no matter what they did it to it. Even after seeing the revamped sonic, I still wasn’t interested in watching it. The only reason I did was because the reviews were alright and I had 3 hours to kill before another commitment.
Having said all that, I did enjoy the movie. It was a lot of fun. It was another one of those – “turn your brain off” kind of movies. If you love Sonic and understand that not all movies are about story and logic, then you will love this.
As I have said time and time again – Give me a good bromance and I will love the movie. James Marsden did an amazing job playing Sonic’s partner. He was just as witty and hilarious. The same goes for my love for a good antagonist. Obviously, Jim carrey is not meant to be a serious villain. Quite the opposite actually! I loved him as the riddler and I love him as eggman. He was the right amount of over-the-top that we have come to expect from our favorite Sonic villain (although I would’ve loved a fat suit but then again they did nail the moustache).
I have to talk about a few plot holes. It’s just who I am. As awesome as James Marsden was, the writers didn’t work really hard to make him helpful to Sonic. There were many times when Sonic could have just used his superspeed to do a lot of things but he only used it when it was convenient to the plot and James wasn’t being overshadowed. They were times when the plot devices that writers themselves created were abandoned (for example, when Tom became a fugitive. It had almost no impact in the movie).
(Spoilers Ahead – jump to final thoughts if you don’t want anything spoiled)
I am sad that they didn’t have any of Sonic’s friends in the movie (until the post credits scene) but I understand where Paramount is coming from. The first game didn’t have any other sonic characters so this makes sense. However, if they keep going on this trajectory then the second movie will only have Tails (because the second game only had tails). I want to see the whole gang as soon as possible. Give me knuckles, Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Big and even Espio and Vector. I am super excited for the second movie now. Please be good.
Final Thoughts –
It’s a great pass time. If you are feeling down, go out with your friends and have a great time watching this. If you have a kid sibling/niece/nephew, take them to watch it and I guarantee that you will become the best brother/sister/uncle in the family.
Arrow ran for 8 seasons. The show evolved and changed significantly throughout the seasons. I watched it since the beginning and so as a comic book and dc fan, I had to see it till the end.
Arrow was the first superhero show in a long time. It’s the first one that I religiously watched. When I first found out that there was a new show called ‘Arrow’, I was so excited to finally get some superhero action I can enjoy weekly. I had high hopes and boy did it deliver.
The first season was grounded in reality and decently dark. It was a great introduction to the character. The best part was the fact that non-comic book readers weren’t put off by the show since there aren’t any superpower or magic involved. It was so much easier to convince my friends to watch it and discuss the plot with them. Not having sci-fi jargon thrown at your from the beginning is a lot more paletable (mind you this was back when there weren’t any superhero shows).
The show created the “Arrowverse”. More importantly, it introduced Barry Allen and The Flash TV show. I am so grateful for that. The flash is definitely the best out of all the CW Superhero shows. Arrow made superheroes on TV a norm. Even Netflix hopped on the hype train and gave us amazing shows such as Daredevil and The Punisher (I know it’s Marvel).
There are a lot of things that Arrow did right. The first few seasons were amazing and I couldn’t bare missing even a single episode the moment it aired. Malcolm Merlin, Slade Wilson and Ra’s Al Ghul were all amazing villains. The flashbacks were an interesting addition, which gave the show a lot of diversity in terms of the plot. We weren’t always stuck with the ‘villain of the week’.
However, somewhere along the way, all that was lost. I don’t remember much of the show after Ra’s. The show added magic and became repetitive. As much as I love Oliver Queen, his arc became a vicious cycle of – “I need to do this alone.” at the beginning of the every season and “I have to be honest with my friends and bring them along in my crusade.” at the end of every season. They even ran out of good flashback stories. I wasn’t a fan of the future/2040 arc. It wasn’t futuristic at all (and I’m probably not going to watch the spinoff).
I also was not a fan of revamping the team. Thea (Oliver’s sister) and Roy had such a great character arc that random characters added in the middle just didn’t feel great. I didn’t feel any attachment to them. The worst part was – They removed Felicity (Oliver’s wife) from the final season (although it may not have been the director and writers’ choice). The final season and the final episode seemed really mediocre. They could have just ended the show with the Crisis episode where Oliver says goodbye.
Final Thoughts –
I watched this show because it was a start to everything. However, I am not sure if I can recommend this show to anyone. I don’t even know if it is binge worthy (Maybe one of you could tell me). Also, it wouldn’t make sense to tell you to give the first few seasons a try, if I know that the later seasons don’t hold up the standard. The only people I can recommend this to are people like me, those who want give every supershow movie or show a fair chance.
I always love a good crime-drama. I know You isn’t the typical crime drama we come across. However, I enjoyed watching a different take on it.
You somewhat reminded me of Dexter (note: dexter is far better show obviously). I presume when dexter was starting out in his crusade/killings, he probably would have stumbled across similar circumstances. Dexter had a code he abided by. I know Joe doesn’t have that and his moral compass is flawed greatly but he has his moments. Season 1, it was Paco and this season it was Will. All I am saying is that, we are used our main character being very calculating but Joe hasn’t reached that point of perfection yet.
Some of you might have had the notion that season 2 was going to have the same plot as season 1. I thought so too. I took a while debating if I should watch it. In the end, I decided to give it a chance and I was pleasantly surprised. Even though, season 2 had hints of season 1, the writers managed to add a decently unique plot to the new season.
They mixed Joe’s ex-girlfriend (Candace) in to add more complex scenarios. She is the one that got away (literally from getting killed) and she was back for revenge. On the other side, we got Love (our new love interest…. a little on the nose isn’t it). She is quite different from Guinevere (in season 1). She is a lot more expressive and you can tell she has been through a lot in the past. You watch her back story slowly unfold throughout the season. She received a lot better character development than Beck which in turn made her more memorable.
I should mention that there was a bit of a repetition from the first season in the form of – ‘Joe needs protect the young kid living next door’. The addition of Ellie just felt like a replacement for Paco in a new city which I didn’t think was necessary. Other than this, I enjoyed everything else in the season.
I believe that a lot of the credit goes to Penn Badgley for playing our favorite obsessive and charming stalker. I think he alone makes the show go from “meh” to “pretty good”. Usually I am not a fan of too much self-narration or fourth wall break but in this case, I feel like it enhances the show. I love how he describes his thought process which once again reminds of Dexter (however in Dexter’s case he also spoke to his imaginary father to help the audience understand what he was doing and going through).
Final Thoughts –
All in all, I would recommend that you give the second season a try if you enjoyed the first. I am pretty confident you will not be disappointed.
I should preface this review by saying that even though I am a gamer, I haven’t played the witcher or read the books. So, this review is coming from the perspective of a simple TV show watcher. I think many of you are in the same boat as well.
Trust me you don’t need much decription and preview to understand what’s going on in the show. There is a good amount of exposition to get you through it all. To simplify it here, the story revolves around Geralt of Rivia played by the amazing Henry Cavill who is a witcher (which basically means a magical monster killing badass).
To start of, I would like to say that Henry Cavill did a great job portraying our main character. His love for the game probably has a lot to do with it. The show is quite enjoyable most of the time. You get to see numerous monsters being slain, many great characters and locations being set up for the future and much more. However, I feel as if this is another one of those shows that is trying too hard to fill the void that was left to us by ‘Game of Thrones’. This show is great in its own regard and doesn’t need to do that.
Carnival Row tried to do this as well and failed miserably I might add. The Witcher did not fail in any sense but it could’ve been flawless otherwise. The show doesn’t need to take itself too seriously. The fantasy and the fights are great on their own. The best parts of the show may have been the times when Geralt was hanging out with the bard listening to “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher” on repeat or swinging his sword around and proving to people how powerful he really is.
The show starts a little slow because of all the exposition and seriousness but gradually picks up the pace and becomes a lot more entertaining. A lot of people have shown concern about the timeline. It is true there were time jumps that weren’t explained really well. I personally had to go back to a previous episode just to make myself understand the show better (not saying you have to, maybe I wasn’t paying attention). Having said that, it doesn’t make the rest of show any more confusing. It will be a mild annoyance in the grand scheme of things.
I want to get something out of my chest here. Some of you (maybe a lot of you) might disagree with this but I think Yennefer wasn’t a great character. Her arc was very predictable. (Spoilers) You could tell that she would work on fixing her hunchback and strive to become powerful because of how she was treated. Also, I didn’t feel like there was much connection between her and Geralt but maybe that’s just me.
Final Thoughts –
I think you will definitely enjoy the show if you like fantasy and cool sword fights. You just need to give the show some time to grow on you and grow on you it will.
I am a huge fan of old school Dracula stories since the first time I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula. This was a BBC One show with three 90 minute episodes. What else was a 90 minute long 3 episode per season series from BBC One ……. SHERLOCK! (My favorite show of all time). It was also made by the same people who worked on Sherlock – Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat. Sadly, this show ended up being very mediocre.
A lot of people believe it was an “intelligent” take on the blood sucking horror. And, I understand where they are coming from. This Dracula is quite horrifying and is just pure evil. He lives to take lives and drink blood. That is probably the best part of the show. The gore and gruesomeness bring something different to the table. It’s nice change of pace from…… turning every villain into an anti-hero or making us sympathize with their back story (Joker, Harley Quinn, etc.)
The problem of this show lies in how inconsistent the episodes are. The first episode was truly great and if it ended there as a ‘part-1 kind of movie’, then this review would be a lot different. But it didn’t. Episode 1 kept the gruesome and intriguing nature through and through. You will be sucked right in. Episode 2 is still pretty decent. It serves as an advancement to the story and there were some interesting points in the episode. Episode 3 is where it all goes downhill. Everything that was done well in the first episode gets thrown out the window and we have to deal with something that is entirely different.
Spoilers Ahead –
We are put in an entirely different era. The dracula is no longer as terrifying as before and they even changed his personality. There are new characters that I don’t care much about but are given a lot of importance and screen time. There is comedic relief added, which I find very unnecessary (even though it was in the form of Mark Gatiss).
Final Thoughts –
I would suggest giving it a try and seeing how you personally like it. It is one of those shows that would divide the audience (although I am confident you will agree with some of what I have said in this review). The beginning is truly brilliant and quite enjoyable. Let me know what you think.
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