Gen V Season 2 Review

Gen V

Season 2 Review

Amazon Prime

 

Warning! Spoilers!

 

THEY’RE BACK. The superhero college gang who sometimes attend class but mainly are on the run from whatever evil mastermind has been appointed to run Godolkin University (aka God-U) this time.

This spin-off of the superhero sensation The Boys is a whole lotta fun, and you can tell the creators and cast are having the time of their lives making it. We’ve got the Head of Student Life who appears to be a perfectly normal girl albeit with a giant bee stinger that would bring instant death to anyone who touches it (including herself), we’ve got Modesty Monarch lecturing budding superheroes on the importance of personal brand on social media, and of course no one will forget Black Hole whose superpower is…yah, can’t go there.

The end of last season even saw the appearance of Homelander (the sublime Anthony Starr), who in no way mirrors current political events 😉, manipulating two of the gang Kate and Sam into enforcing a new terrifying status quo at God-U where Super-enabled are supreme and humans are inferior. Season 2 immediately dives headfirst into the aftermath of the uprising while navigating the extremely tragic passing of lead actor Chase Perdomo, who died in a motorcycle accident during shooting. The void left by Chase’s Andre, with his casual humor and light-heartedness hiding the pain of losing his dearest friend, not to mention a heck of a power with his ability to manipulate magnetic objects, is addressed head-on with the gang floundering without him and accusing each other for his death. It is revealed that after Homelander squashed the uprising at God-U, Marie and her friends were thrown into a horrible lab and experimented on. Marie is able to use her ability to manipulate blood to escape without her friends, but Chase endeavors to rescue them all, trying to bring down a prison wall that ultimately leads to his heart giving out.

Without Andre, Jordan steps up to center stage with Marie, the two attempting to build a relationship that keeps getting knocked down as Marie, however well-intentioned, continues to shut Jordan out, fixated on a cat-and-mouse game with the sinister new leader of God-U, Dean Cipher, who fills Marie’s head with delusions of grandeur over the god-like level of her powers. You really can’t blame Marie – Cipher is played by the brooding Hamish Linklater (Netflix’s Midnight Mass), and every line is delivered pitch-perfect with devilish gusto. The mystery builds around who is this stranger intent on staging cage matches with the students and what he wants with Marie. Kate can’t mind control him and Marie can’t detect V in his blood. The big reveal is great with all the little hints dropped along the way, but man, does it feel like we should have had two episodes at the finale to really let all the characters have their time to shine.

It's a lot. Don’t forget we’ve got Sam trying to process who he is and how much of his schizophrenia is him and how much is the V, Emma trying to learn how to control her powers without self-harm and leading a mini-revolution against the human hate group taking over God-U, and Polarity trying to find meaning with his son lost and his own heart going the same way. Kate as well undergoes a mini-redemption arc which is highly welcome, but again, it’s all an incredibly fast pace—the biggest bomb dropped is finally the appearance of Marie’s long-lost sister, estranged from Marie ever since the horrific night she accidentally killed their parents, and damn if that doesn’t need some time to unpackage.

Overall, Gen V Season 2 is a solid instant watch with all the grotesque over-the-top bodily fluids and twisted deaths shenanigans you’ve come to expect from The Boys universe, but it’s a huge cast now, especially with the official crossover. A big part of how successful the final 2026 season of The Boys will be is who it chooses to focus on to allow a satisfying emotional payoff.

As for bets on who will it finally be to take down Homelander? Can’t deny Ryan and Butcher are first in line, but it would be very poetic for Marie to purge Homelander’s blood of V and leave him a little ol’ human at the mercy of the global savagery he's amplified. Or Stinger could make the heroic sacrifice. Either way, with creator Eric Kripke fulfilling the reunion dreams of Supernatural fans everywhere with an appearance by Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins in Season 5, you can be sure this will be one helluva way to end a series.

Disclaimer: the above is depicted as fiction, not fact.

Wednesday Season 2 Review

 WEDNESDAY
Season 2 Review
Netflix

*Warning! Moderate Spoilers!*

 

SEASON 2 of the hit Netflix series Wednesday has dropped to get us in the Halloween spirit. While eager to see where the story goes next, the verdict is it all feels a bit—much?

So many villains. So many plots. The biggest and strongest arc is the evolving Addams family dynamics, in which Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) has lost her premonition gift, and she is at odds with mother Morticia (Catherine Zeta Jones) about how to get it back. Wednesday’s stubbornness and refusal to listen gets a bit frustrating, but hey, teenagers. Steve Buscemi’s smarmy and superbly odious Headmaster Dort plays a driving force in keeping Wednesday’s parents at Nevermore Academy for the deadly duel between daughter and mother to play out.

And honestly, that would have been enough right there. Focus on the classes and what the Nightshades are actually learning to advance their skills, bring in the highly talented Gwendoline Christie as Wednesday’s ghostly new spirit guide much sooner, and it would have allowed much more character development and atmospheric tension to mount. Instead we get Tyler (Hunter Doohan), the monstrous Hyde from last season galivanting about, murderous crows pecking people’s eyes out and left and right, Wednesday’s dense younger brother raising a zombie, the Sirens worrying about an offscreen cult leader, a brief stunt with a cartoonish depiction of the militarized boy scouts, and Enid's love life, to name a few.  

By the way, does Hunter Doohan not look like uncannily Millie Bobby Brown?? The entire time, I’m thinking Eleven’s having a really bad day.

credit: positivenegativity8 - Reddit

All the scattered plot lines do come together in the end, but the emotional payoff is lacking. Thing starts bonding with other “parts” of a “whole,” and trying to reconcile with its identity moving forward, but then one of the key leaders driving this group gets casually killed off in the next episode. By the time Enid calls the Nightshades together to face the Big Bad, it’s utterly underwhelming because they’ve spent the entire season apart, and their teamwork hardly amounts to much. I did like the zombie/Frankenstein monster villain but it felt like that could have been an entire season unto itself.

As much, I hope for Season 3 that things slow down. We’ve got a great set up with hopefully just ONE family insider nemesis who potentially uses ravens to do her bidding? Is the spying bird with the bloody eyes a crow or a raven? (My theory is Judi Spannegel is a red herring.) Because as Hitchcock demonstrated, you can do enough with killer birds for a whole season. Less is more.

***Oh, and the part where the Addams family blows up a stop sign and then laughs it off, even as this action promptly leads to a car accident? Yeah, couldn’t respect these characters after that.

*The above is depicted as fiction, not fact

 

Fallout - TV Show Review

Fallout

Season 1

Streaming Service: Amazon Prime

*Warning! Spoiler Alert!*



YET ANOTHER VIDEO GAME Series adaptation. That alone should have inspired me to start Fallout early, yes, early! If we’ve learned anything from Silent Hill, Castlevania, and The Last of Us, it’s that the video game foundation brings the layered world-building, plot twists, and crazy-cool monsters to screen in all their bingeworthy glory (did I hear Netflix is working on Far Cry? Because YES).

I have zero familiarity with Fallout. I’m not much for the heavily-armored dude running around punching through walls and saving the day. Luckily in Fallout, that is just one faction of this masterful depiction of nuclear apocalyptic aftermath. We’ve got the mysterious 200-year-old Ghoul who pokes fun at said “Knights of the Brotherhood,” we’ve got a Knight who’s not really supposed to be a Knight, and we’ve Lucy whose cavalier “Okie-Dokey!” and resourcefulness in the face of so much gone wrong is instantly endearing.

The world you know is a lie. Lucy (Ella Purnell) grew up in an underground Vault, believing the surface world to be an uninhabitable wasteland destroyed by nuclear warfare. She and the other Vault residents train in the belief that one day they will return to bring order and civilization to the earth. After raiders masquerading as Vault neighbors leave their home in ruins and abscond with Lucy’s father, she balks her elders’ orders and sets off to rescue him.

Pretty standard plot of dystopian narratives, but Fallout sets itself apart with its use of perfect 50s soundtracks and replication of Cold War-era propaganda to create epic climate payoffs. It even opens with the Ghoul as a normal man back before society blew itself to smithereens, enjoying a normal birthday party with his daughter, the eerie tv broadcasts in the background and casual comments that the Ghoul has been involved with some sort of nuclear apocalyptic shelter preparation the only signs that things are about to go horribly wrong. Flash-forward to when Lucy meets the Ghoul as a skinless, mutated skeleton of a man without an eyelash to bat as he callously mows down his enemies, and you’re guessing it’s been a rough 200 years.

Walton Goggins has made an instant fan-favorite in the Ghoul. It takes a lot for an audience to root for someone willing to kill a dog. I was extremely excited to see him in this, given Goggins’ insanely good ability to create a core, driving chemistry with his costars (Remember that simmering rivalry in Justified with Timothy Olyphant!), and Fallout is no exception as he goes from mocking Lucy’s naivety (in between trying to sell her organs) to becoming a sort of dark mentor, recognizing in her the resilient, survival instinct it takes to persevere, even when your entire world is shattered.

Rounding out the trio is dutiful Maximus (Aaron Moten). He brings his own kind of naivety from being indoctrinated in the so-called chivalry of the Brotherhood, who scour the wasteland for enemies of the new world order. While the least engaging of the story arcs, Maximus brings the grounding of being just a kid who wants a bit of respect. No super-powered fighting skills without his Knight armor, no brilliant math skills or the like, but we see that despite his longing to follow a moral compass, he, too, ultimately is willing to cross lines to survive. Lucy and Maximus bring out the best in one another, a reminder of the good times when it was possible to trust strangers, while the grim vendettas of the shadowy organizations that rule their world make them wonder if such a reality is ever possible again.

This is just the core three—there’s a plethora of rich, complex side characters who enrich the world-building, and the question of who is responsible for the apocalypse actually has an immensely satisfying twist that makes me positively salivate for Season 2. This show got Emmy-nominated for a reason—it says a lot when there’s all these streaming shows at your fingertips, and you’d rather watch Fallout all over again. Amazon Prime knocked it out of the park.

*Disclaimer: The above is depicted as fiction not fact. 

Comedy Gems: Trying (Apple TV) and Fisk (Netflix)

 

ADOPTION AND DEATH OF A LOVED ONE are among life’s top tribulations that two underrated comedies tackle with infectious charm. Both Trying and Fisk demonstrate that when faced with grief and impossible odds, it’s time to roll out the indecent humor—done only the way the Brits and Aussies can.

 

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

 

TRYING

An Apple TV Original, Trying follows the lives of Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall), who are faced with the devasting news that it will be near impossible for them to conceive. After much soul-searching, they decide to adopt (“Do you think we’ll get a kid today?” Nikki asks hopefully on their intro to the adoption process). Well, not quite within a day, try more like a year—and that’s if they can pass the paperwork, home visits, and a grueling council interview—before we get to the kids. With a dysfunctional family night and day apart from being a cohesive group (one great scene features Jason’s dad who would rather keep sneaking off to fix things around the flat than engage in conversation with the in-laws) and pitted against bougie couples keen to snag kiddos for their mansions, the road to parenthood seems like a pipe dream—kept alive by Nikki’s ineffable spirit and Jason’s commitment to Nikki.

Luckily, the couple has Social Worker Penny (Imelda Staunton) on their side! At first I was expecting another Dolores Umbridge, but this Staunton character is wacky and kind-hearted, been in the world of social services for decades, and has no qualms about setting people straight. The less obvious scene stealer turns out to be Scott (Darren Boyd), prickish beau of Nikki’s sister, the uppity know-it-all we’ve all encountered at one point or another. He spends the first season making you just plain hate him, before emerging with an unforeseen redemption arch.

The first three seasons of Trying are effortlessly hilarious. Season Four (currently streaming) has a bit of a lackluster start, likely due to all the casting changes. Hopefully it can recover its footing before it makes all of its well-developed characters into caricatures (like the territory the supremely well-done Suits found itself in at the end). Less is sometimes more. However, the first three seasons will certainly bring that fresh touch of originality and spunk as did The Office, Ted Lasso and other comedy classics. 

 

 

FISK

Australian ABC Television; Streaming on Netflix

HELEN TUDOR-FISK was a big-time contracts lawyer before her career, marriage, and housing situation took a nose-dive, landing her at the shabby little probate law firm Gruber & Associates. Helen (Kitty Flanagan), a no-nonsense plain mouse unable to read social cues, is probably the last person you would want helping you through the grief process, but it sure makes for hilarious television. The sibling pair running the firm are played perfectly by Roz (Julia Zemiro) and Ray Gruber (Marty Sheargold), their personalities equal parts ridiculous and yet incredibly authentic for the family-run operation. Rounding out the small office is the receptionist/IT Administrator simply called “George” (Aaron Chen), the inspiration for deadpan comebacks.

It does give The Office vibes, tackling cases of wills and probate ranging from a woman whose deceased spouse signed her up to receive repeated calls from “beyond the grave” that the telecommunications company refuses to cancel, to a daughter duking it out with her deceased father’s much younger wife. Put Helen in the middle with her dutifully literal interpretation of the law and let the fireworks begin. As humorless as Helen starts out (the temp Peggy informs her she’s ‘no fun’), she proves she is willing to go above and beyond for her clients, ultimately forming her own career outside the shadow of her father (an esteemed judge), and maybe developing some empathy.

Not too soon, though—Fisk is short, sweet, and focused with limited episodes for each of its two seasons, and I can’t wait for season 3. Who knew the world of probate and wills could be so entertaining!

Drops of God: TV Show Review

Apple TV+ Original Limited Series

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

SO DON’T START THIS SHOW while on maternity leave. Watching characters swirl, sip, and savor wine in French vineyards so ripe that you can taste the sunshine in the grapes is enough to ask your wide-eyed bundle of joy if they’re ready for a whole food diet. France isn’t all you get in this lusciously slow drama about daughter Camille (Fleur Geffrier) of a world-renowned French sommelier, who finds herself pitted in a competition for her inheritance against her father’s protégé (Tomohisa Yamashita). It’s deliciously international, its own unique blend of television, as protégé Issei hails from Japan, and we also get some Italy as well.

Camille is a wine savant, trained by her famous father Alexandre Léger in the art of the senses to be able to identify most things purely by smell. However, they have a falling out when her father pushes her training too far, leaving her unable to drink wine without her body experiencing extreme visceral reactions like nose bleeds. Issei is the son of an old and esteemed family in Japan who run a lucrative diamond business. He is immediately endearing, doesn’t suffer fools, and is graciously humble. Next to Camille’s sometimes impetuous and juvenile decision-making, he’s quite easy to root for, especially as he navigates his family’s disapproval of his wine passion. However, his mother may have her own reasons for so vehemently discouraging him from competing when Issei is named as a possible heir to the fortune of his late mentor Léger. Camille and Issei face of in three challenges to test how well they know the essence of wine (and points for viewers who will likely be able to guess the answer to the last riddle :D).

This show takes its time to develop the characters and their back stories. At first I was impatient for Camille and Issei to have more dialogue, since it’s not a high stakes contest without a bit of mud-slinging—but thankfully when the pair do finally get screen time together, they quickly make up for lost ground and establish a complex and meaningful relationship. I did find that Camille’s aversion to drinking to the point of manifesting physical symptoms to be too easily resolved though. Two side characters, Lorenzo (Luca Terracciano) and Miyabi (Kyoko Takenaka), who aid Camille in her quest to beat Issei, also stole the show at times with their effable charm. There are lots of great cultural immersion, exploration of traditions, and different views of wine and the sometimes snobbish hierarchy that can make or break the livelihoods of enologists (wine makers).

The scenery is stunning, gorgeous people abound, and there’s a satisfying conclusion. All in all, a wonderful way to spend an afternoon imagining yourself relaxing and enjoying life in the French countryside. For those longing for more, this TV show was inspired by the Manga series written by Tadashi Agi and Shu Okimoto.

His Dark Materials: TV Season Review

 

His Dark Materials

Season 1 Review

Where to Stream: Max

*WARNING! Season Spoilers below*

THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Also titled THE NORTHERN LIGHTS) by Philip Pullman was such a beloved, magical book of my childhood. The image of a little girl riding a large armored polar bear surrounded by the unforgiving stars and tundra of the far North has stayed with me forever, as have its unforgettable characters: our bold and indomitable heroine Lyra, her soul daemon Pan who likes to take the form of an adorable little ermine, aforementioned bear king bad ass Iorek Byrnison, and Lyra’s childhood friend Roger are just a few of my favs (plus Lord Asriel’s daemon Stelmaria because hello snow leopard cool).  The other memorable scene is when Lyra spies on the scholars at Jordan College and sees her supposed uncle, Lord Asriel, stun his audience with a photograph of an otherworldly city flickering in the Northern Lights, framed by Dust.

A bit more special than the type we sweep off the floor, this Dust, Lyra soon discovers, is the subject of a brewing war between rebel minds like Asriel and the ruling Magisterium, this world’s version of an all-powerful Catholic Church, who believe Dust to be the incarnation of Sin accumulating over time and corrupting us all, especially since Dust is photographed appearing on adults, not children. This particular interest in the relationship between children, their daemons (physical incarnations of a person’s soul that takes its final shape at puberty), and Dust sends Lyra on a journey to the North of her dreams, where a mysterious woman is running experiments on kidnapped kids under the guise of freeing them from Sin once and for all. Lyra soon captures attention of the Gyptians (a river-roving nomadic group who have suffered the bulk of these kidnappings), the armored bears, the witches (whose daemons can travel large distances from them), and the aeronaut Lee Scrosby, especially as it becomes evident that Lyra is a Chosen One, with the incredibly rare ability to read the alethiometer, a compass-like instrument moved by Dust that tells the truth to any question asked.

The TV series captures the wonderfully fantastic imagery of the book and is able to dive much more personally into the complex world Pullman has created than the movie—the cast is perfectly lovely, which is quite a feat when the movie had the likes of Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and Ian McKellen. Ruth Wilson particularly stands out as she assumes the immensely difficult role of Marisa Coulter, chief antagonist, a woman who is brutally ruthless toward her enemies but genuinely caring for her daughter; she dances the line of the Magisterium while it serves her agenda but does not suffer fools. “We cut out your daemon, not your brain,” she snaps in a particularly vicious mood toward the subject of one of her experiments at Bolvangar, the delivery so spot-on that it’s horrifyingly funny. Indeed, the whole sequence at Bolvangar was extremely well-done. As a child, I remember the part that wounded me the most was Roger’s fate, but this time around as a parent, seeing what was happening at Bolvangar and experiencing Ma Costa’s pain hit the hardest for me.

The witches in this be like mad-skilled—would not go up against them in a fight! And we can Lin-Manuel Miranda as the aeronaut Lee Scoresby—now Sam Elliot, pretty perfect, but I found Miranda just as light-heartedly entertaining and love his dynamic with his very patient hare daemon who always has to be the voice of reason. He always brings a genuine passion to every role he plays, and you can tell he’s having a fun time doing it. Plus, I see we’re going to get Andrew Scott (an amazing Moriarty in Sherlock) as Will’s father John Parry and am really looking forward to Season 2—granted, The Golden Compass was the hands-down favorite book of His Dark Materials trilogy for me, but I’m willing to give The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass depictions a chance (please cut down Mary Malone’s scenes pretty please and more of the angelic duo Balthamos and Baruch).

The biggest change is the introduction of Will in Season 1, possibly to ease the heartbreak of what befalls Roger (sob!), which is interesting—his scenes felt like filler to me, but at least a lot of backstory is out of the way to now focus on Lyra and Will’s relationship in the strange new world they find themselves in.

This is a series that is wild, fantastical, and will challenge core beliefs around authority while still staying grounded and heart-warming in the little moments between complicated, morally gray characters who are all just trying to make sense of an immense universe that expands and humbles in more ways than could ever be imagined. Truly a classic in the same vein of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, two of my faves. Heartily recommended to jump on this journey with Lyra, Pan, and their truth-reading alethiometer to the North and beyond!

Here is a trailer below:

Maya and the Three: TV Show Review

 
Netflix Limited TV Series – 1 Season (hopefully with more to come!)

*Warning! Minor spoilers*

 

CURIOUS to dive into more of the Mesoamerican mythos behind Year of the Snake (Changeling Sisters #5)? Don’t miss Jorge R. Gutierrez’s rich tapestry intertwining legends from the Aztec, Maya, Inca and even Caribbean culture, all effortlessly depicting distinct civilizations who must overcome their differences to defeat a power-hungry god of death.

Maya (voiced by Zoe Saldana) grows up a princess of the great city of Teca. Her father and brothers are Jaguar warriors, believed to be the prophesized warriors who will one day defeat the gods of the underworld—Lord Mictlan and Lady Micte, influenced by legends of Mictecacihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli, who ruled over the Aztec nine-level underworld Mictlān. In this story, Lord Mictlan is the God of War, a cunning and terrifying vision as voiced by Alfred Molina. On the day of Maya’s coronation, the party is crashed by Zatz, Prince of Bats (played by Diego Luna, so all good), who bears the message from the underworld that Maya’s real mother is none other than Lady Micte, the goddess of death herself, and she was only allowed to live to the notable age of fifteen so she could be sacrificed and increase Lord Mictlan’s power.

Stunned and seeking answers, Maya uncovers the truth of the prophecy that it was her all along destinated to face the Underworld—and not with her brothers, but with three warriors from each of the other kingdoms. She sets off to recruit outcast Chimi (Brooklyn Ninety-Nine’s Stephanie Beatriz), bumbling magician with a power greater than he knows (Allen Maldonado), and adorable giant warrior with a heart of gold Picchu (Gabriel Iglesias), who are each reluctant to help Teca. Along the way they are menaced by various deities of Mictlan, one of which, Zatz, proves to be more sympathetic the greater Mictlan’s cruelty toward even his own grows.

Oh, and Maya rides Chiapa the royal family jaguar who is simply the best.

It is truly amazing the heights animation has climbed to, and the distinctive kingdoms brought to life with a masterful use of geometric shapes and colors creates a gorgeously complex world in which to lose yourself. The story is deep, complex, with enough action to keep you on the edge of your seat every episode, and all the little nods to various legends are exciting to pick out. Vucub, God of Jungle Creatures, may possibly be based on Seven-Macaw (Vucub-Caquix) from Maya mythology, a bird demon defeated by the Maya Hero Twins in one of the only surviving written documents of the time, the Popol Vuh. Bats, of course, like Zatz, continue to play an important role, as notably they are part of the challenges the Hero Twins face in the Maya underworld Xibalba. The level of detail in world-building such as the distinctive orange cempasúchil (marigold flower) known for helping the dead remember to find their way back to the land of the living are a feast for the senses.

Now don’t be fooled by the TV-Y7 rating – this show deals with extremely dark themes and images that will be frightening for younger audiences. The aforementioned Mictlan really ramps up the fear factor in the final few episodes, and the series does not shy away from putting sacrifice, a very important foundation in many of these ancient cultures, at its core.

Did I mention Maya has two younger half-siblings Eagle and Jaguar who are *twins*? They’re only kiddos in this series, but given the great significance of Hero Twins in many Mesoamerican cultures, we can only hope this foreshadows a spin off season two to focus on their adventures!

Here is a trailer below:

 

 

The Boys - Amazon TV Series Review

 

Warning! Minor Spoilers!

 

THE BOYS truly is the answer to superhero fatigue. While some movies like Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War took some interest in the sheer catastrophic toll all of these larger-than-life fights would take on society, The Boys forces you to stop and feel the sheer untouchability superhumans would have over us average mortals—then asks, what if they didn’t have the best intentions?

Again, we see a take of evil Superman in Justice League, but it just doesn’t hit home nearly as hard as Antony Starr’s impeccable depiction of The Boys’ equivalent Homelander—the charismatic virtually indestructible leader of the Seven—whose menace just feels so terrifying and real. In this not-too-distant America, a pharmaceutical company called Vought manufactures and markets superheroes, the most elite of which are held in worshipful adoration as members of the Seven—America’s top protectors against crime, flashing their sponsors’ products while stringing up the bad guys just in time for the cameras. Gawky, nerdy Hughie (Jack Quaid) is just one of the Seven’s legions of fans, convinced they can do no wrong—until one of them blows through his girlfriend at superhuman speed, leaving him showered in guts and reality.

For those of us who were Supernatural fans, the show is especially a treat because of the parade of familiar faces you’ll see over the course of three seasons as Hughie’s quest for vengeance takes him deeper into the dark side of the superhero franchise dominating the country along the likes of no-rules Billy Butcher (Karl Urban) and similarly disillusioned Seven member Starlight (Erin Moriarty). It’s as if creator Eric Kripke has found the platform he could take the kid gloves off and really go all-in with the gore, the WTF moments, and the unmasking of every character upheld on a pedestal (and when Jensen Ackles shows up as Solider Boy…there may have been fangirling #sorrynotsorry).

There have been some over-the-top moments that made my eyebrows disappear into my hairline (yeesh, like the twisted take on the Deep and his obsession with sea creatures), but from the beginning, the show is honest that there are very few lines it won’t cross (fair warning to the faint of heart).

With all the world-building and character back stories advancing steadily each season, I feel like the end of Season 3 has prepped Season 4 for a full-on sprint. The set up of Season 3 addresses the political scene of the USA today head-on with narratives around fake news, the lack of consequences for those in power, and the chilling polarizing rise of Us v. Them: there are those who are superior, those who are inferior, and middle ground is non-existent.

With just a few minor quibbles (some slow spots here and there; Stormfront’s initial characterization in Season 2 felt confusing with her true motivation reveal, and it seemed strange that someone as shrewd as Stan Edgar would have ever supported her joining the Seven), The Boys is a modern-day bingeworthy Game of Thrones that I’m heavily looking forward to, and can’t wait for the Season 4 release date! In the meantime, watch the teaser trailer here.

Wednesday - Netflix TV Series Review

 WEDNESDAY

Season 1 Streaming on Netflix

~TV Series Review~

*Warning! Moderate Spoilers!*

 

AS AN ALL-AROUND NEWBIE to the Addams family (originally created by Charles Addams), I came into Netflix’s mega-hit with vague recollections of pale people, dark hair, and yes, I did remember the severed hand—who is this series’ MVP. Even being a casual Tim Burton viewer, I was still familiar with the iconic characters of Morticia, Wednesday (played by Jenna Ortega), and Gomez, but boy, is this take ever like Veronica Mars goes to magic school—and I am here for it.

After teenager Wednesday (named after a line from her mother’s favorite poem “Wednesday’s child is full of woe”) sets piranhas on her younger brother’s bullies, she is whisked away to her parents’ old boarding school called Nevermore, where she discovers an entire class of outcasts and odd-ducks—you know, sirens, gorgons, werewolves. Headmistress Larissa Weems (Gwendoline Christie) protects the school from increasing scrutiny by the hostile neighboring town of Jericho, which was founded by a diabolical pilgrim. Wednesday’s magical abilities range from strange visions to deadpan humor to sleuthing, which she immediately puts to use when someone starts attacking students. Like I said, Veronica Mars with magic.

Ortega is hysterical. It does suspend belief that someone could be quite this witty and have the perfect comeback to every authority, but it’s entertaining, and I love that she fully embraces herself and dances like no one is watching (the dance scene had me in stitches). I loved Wednesday's thorny relationship with her mother and the softer side with her father and brother, but the best partnership of course goes out to Thing (the aforementioned severed hand that likes manicures), her closest confidante in cracking the murder mystery of Nevermore. Thing’s origin did make me curious to look up, since in Wednesday’s family, having an animated hand keep tabs on your daughter at boarding school is, ya know, tots normal.

You may guess that Wednesday has a problem with trust, considering the Hand-best-friend-thing, but her intrepid classmates don’t give up on her—including a beekeeper and Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), her bubblegum-pink late blooming werewolf roommate. I could have sworn Enid would turn out to be a cat instead (give the werewolf trope a break), but I still liked how she finally came into her own. Thankfully no vampires—but will be very interested to see more of the sirens and gorgons in future episodes. I think they jumped the shark a bit on humanizing Bianca Barclay (Joy Sunday), the siren queen bee of the school—her relationship with her mother and the influence that had on her upbringing was too rushed, introduced at a moment where there was too much going on to get the focus it deserved. I also found Wednesday and Xavier’s relationship to be a bit unbelievable, not really seeing what the attraction was when she continued to treat him like gum on the bottom of her shoe.

Despite some moments when there is so much going on, the characterization suffers for it, this is overall another bingeworthy Netflix series that will entrap you for the long haul. We’ve got former Wednesday alum Christine Ricci back in a new role, and gosh does Gwendoline Christie (Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones, Lucifer in The Sandman) continue to demonstrate her acting versatility in the sweet-but-lethal headmistress character. Plus you’ve got Catherine Zeta Jones as Morticia, Wednesday’s darkly ethereal mother, and Luis Guzmán as her doting father. Here’s to eagerly awaiting Season 2!

 

*The above is depicted as fiction, not fact

The Rings of Power (Season 1) - Amazon Prime - TV Series Review

 

*Warning! Spoilers Ahead!*

I can still recall the excitement when my mother first introduced me to Tolkien’s The Hobbit—that treasure of a first line, riddles in the dark with Gollum, the dragon Smaug, our favorite wizard Gandalf, and this bedeviling ring that would capture the imagination of Western fantasy for ages. I grew up in the age of animated Tolkien movies, and even today still find “Down, Down to Goblin Town” catchy. Easily my favorite scene in this era of Lord of the Rings is when Éowyn slays the Witch-King of Angmar (although kid self thought he was ridiculous cool, up there with the likes of Darth Vader). The series was an utter success at creating a memorable story that would stick with me for decades.

Look how cool I am! - Return of the King 1980

I was enraptured with Peter Jackson’s later adaptations. The bar was set high for any succession to Tolkien’s work, especially when Amazon announced a TV series based around the lesser-known Silmarillion material. As a newcomer to this age of Middle Earth, I waited with trepidation for the first trailer to drop.

Now as we all know, sometimes the trailer is better than the show. However, it was clear from the start that this was a teaser with nothing to tease. There was nothing particularly compelling at stake, especially when everyone knows how it all works out in the Third Age.

I regret to report that this lack of particularly compelling characters ultimately makes “The Rings of Power” a lackluster fantasy series, its only saving grace the star power that names like Galadriel and Elrond have. Frankly, I was bored.  As others have voiced, for a series titled “The Rings of Power,” the first season fails to convey the scale and grandeur of crafting rings that would grant Galadriel and Co. unparalleled authority.

Let’s appreciate the good. The story arch of Elrond’s deep friendship with Durin and Disa under duress by the animosity between their peoples is by far and large the high point of the season. The dwarven society was interesting and the actors made me care about them. Seriously, the rest of the elves were as bland as cardboard, but Robert Aramayo as Elrond pulled off the bantering chemistry with Owain Arthur’s Durin so well that I somewhat cared if The Tree was failing.

I also thought Charlie Vickers as Sauron in hiding did the best with the lines he had, but again, he was paired up with meanderingly dull plot lines and didn’t have strong actors to play off. Morfydd Clark’s Galadriel was distant and unrelatable, Isildur and Elendil were a big letdown, and the entire Harfoot plotline with the Stranger was painful to watch. Arondir as the obligatory ass-kicking elf was cool and I think Adar could have been used much earlier to create a sense of menace. Númenor, visually a feast for the eyes, but a yawn-fest in terms of plot, could really benefit from taking some notes from A Song of Fire and Ice and The Wheel of Time when it comes to court intrigue (or simply from Tolkien himself—who could ever forget how much fun King Théoden and Steward Denethor were to watch?)

Overall, the season would have benefited from a more focused plot tied around the challenges of crafting the rings themselves. There is maybe one episode dedicated to this, which makes it look like Sauron is a patient instructor walking the elves through how to make the best homemade bread. Using little known actors can be extremely effective (just see the Harry Potter trio’s breakout performances), but if they can’t convince the audience to care for them, it becomes just another generic fantasy no matter how big Tolkien’s name is. The Rings of Power has stunning imagery and a clear love for the world; now it needs to find its captivation factor.

Westworld (Season 1) - HBO Max - TV Series Review

*Warning! Spoilers!*

IT’S COME A LONG WAY from this - 

Remakes can neglect the old magic, but hat’s off to the creators of HBO Max’s stunning Westworld (Season 1), a masterpiece that tells the story of AI awakening to a horror story in the hands of indifferent human masters. It’s the Matrix except we’re the bad guys.

Set in the not-too-distant future, Delos Corporation runs virtual-reality-come-to-life theme parks, in which wealthy visitors can enact their wildest fantasies. The Wild, Wild West offers saloons, brothels, and adventure on the frontier, guided by biomechanical “Host” characters who aid the guest’s every beck and call even if it means death—until they start to remember every gruesome detail about their former “lives.”

The cast is fantastic. Evan Rachel Wood evokes sympathy as the “Farmer’s Daughter,” Dolores, who endures an awful invasion of her home at the hands of Ed Harris’s “Man in Black,” a guest of great importance with a mysterious history to the park who mows down the various Hosts on a single-minded mission to discover a deeper level to the “game.” Anthony Hopkins plays one of the park’s creators and evokes his Hannibal-esque machinations here in performances that are so devious you’re glued to the screen. Jeffrey Wright plays the Head of Programming, and the clashes between engineering and quality assurance will be very entertaining to anyone who has ever worked in product manufacturing.

The pacing takes its time. We get perspectives from Hosts such as Brothel Owner Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) who get touched by the “code” that incites her to remember all of her lives over the course of her time in Westworld (like the fact that she was once a frontierswoman raising a daughter), and then we also experience the theme park from human visitors like the idealistic “white hat” cowboy William (Jimmi Simpson) and his sadistic business partner Logan (Ben Barnes), treating it like a no-consequences video game where he does whatever he wants even to bystanders. It’s fun. It’s finding out who you really are when all the rules are lifted. The Hosts can’t do visitors any serious harm, so best of all, it’s safe.

Then someone starts messing with the Hosts’ coding.

I can’t recommend this show enough. The shots from the majestic desert plateaus of Santa Clarita, CA, Utah, and Arizona suck you in. The plot twists are top-notch, and one of them definitely made my jaw drop (one of them I did guess, but the reveal was still supremely satisfying). The juxtaposition between the living, breathing Hosts galloping across the plains with the cold, clinical reality of the lab where they are stitched back up after bullets, strangulation, or worse is masterful. The end of Season 1 gratifies in every way.

**SPOILER My one complaint:

I love that Maeve changes her “attributes” to have a chilling level of intelligence and influence, but I can’t buy that she successfully bullied two human technicians into doing it and didn’t get caught. Given how encompassing security infrastructure would be, especially at a company like Delos, it seems highly doubtful that the tampering wouldn’t get flagged. Supposedly Felix may be crushing hard, but if he had that much sympathy for the Hosts’ plight, there wasn’t much build up. Granted, QA seems to miss a lot!

Westworld has four seasons, and the fifth which would have concluded the series was cancelled. Rumor is the show loses the plot (which we American shows love to do), but we’ll see! On to Season 2.

Westworld is streaming on HBO Max.

Foundation (Season 1) – Apple TV – TV Series Review

**Warning, Spoilers!**

 

A WORLD CONSUMED BY RISING TIDES is now eerily at peace, giant manta rays swimming among submerged ruins; above, dramatic planetary rings arch through the sky like rainbows. This image is just one of the many sensory treasures that awaits you in Apple TV’s ambitious adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. It’s a slow-moving epic that spans centuries. Characters go to sleep in space pods and wake up light-years from where they began, space-jumping ghost ships can be harnessed as planet-destroying weapons, and a small collective toils on the Outer Reach, striving to protect the knowledge of civilization before the prophesized thirty-thousand years of darkness falls—foretold not be a priest, but by psychohistory professor Hari Seldon, who can, through the galaxy’s most complicated math problem, predict actions of the masses.  

I am a newcomer to Asimov, and from word ‘round the net, series creators David S. Goyer and Josh Friedman introduced many of their own elements, such as the Galactic Empire being ruled by the Genetic Dynasty, clones of the original Emperor Cleon, so that stability may always be preserved. There are three clones awake at any given time: the young boy “Dawn,” the middle-aged “Day,” and the elder “Dusk,” who rule with an iron fist. Early on, they punish perceived terrorists who destroy the Star Bridge by destroying half of their home worlds. “Must we choose this?” young Dawn Cleon asks Demerzel, the last intelligent robot in the galaxy sworn to protect Empire at all costs.

“No,” she replies, played with eerie icy brilliance by Finnish actress Laura Birn, “but you always do.”

Lee Pace gives a captivating performance as middle-aged Brother Day, the Cleon at the height of his power. We get to see him play various clone versions throughout the years, and despite being a stone-cold bastard, Pace wins sympathy through his journey in the hellish Spiral and his redeeming relationship with teenage Dawn, whom he comes to see as a son despite signs that Dawn’s genetic code has been tampered with.

The rebellion against the Genetic Dynasty is led by Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) and his unknowing accomplices, genius mathematician Gaal Dornick (gender-swapped from the books, played by Lou Llobell) and Seldon’s adopted son Raych (Alfred Enoch). It’s really cool to see a character like Gaal have a math superpower, and there’s one neat scene where she wakes up on a strange ship that won’t tell her their destination and yet through a series of “twenty questions,” she’s able to use astronomy to figure out where she is.

Layered on top of Hari’s prophecy that the collapse of civilization is imminent is a futuristic plot where Hari’s followers, exiled to the Outer Reach world Terminus, try to preserve society’s knowledge. However, a mysterious vault hangs in the sky, spreading a “null” field that paralyzes anyone who comes too close. The only one who can withstand the null field is Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey), the warden of Terminus who possesses the uncanny ability to predict events. The vault’s true purpose, Hari’s secrets, and Salvor’s heritage all collide with the Galactic Empire’s past war crimes against the Outer Reach planets when vengeance-seeking Anacreons take Terminus by storm. Again, we get a riveting performance from Grand Huntress Phara (Kubbra Sait), furious at being framed for past terrorism that shattered her family and home world.

It's a television series that you really have to pay attention to, but those who do will be rewarded with the rich world-building, twists, and entangled plots. The series doesn’t answer some questions like who really destroyed the Star Bridge (my money is on Demerzel) and what Hari is up to on his home world with the second Foundation, but I loved the creativity and vivid scenery. You really feel like you’re on a space adventure, and although some efforts fall flat (hard to get invested in the romances), there’s so many cool snippets of worlds, creatures, and the details of traveling in space that it’s utterly immersive. Now that the groundwork has been laid out, I predict the ensuing seasons will be unstoppable!

Foundation is streaming on Apple TV. 

The Wheel of Time (Season 1) - Amazon Prime - TV Series Review

 

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

 

I remember being introduced to Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time book series by my mother. She wasn’t a diehard fantasy fan by any means but kept an ear to the ground. The Redwall Series, The Belgariad, The Chronicles of Prydain, The Death Gate Cycle—I had devoured all of these and wasn’t afraid of a new epic fantasy.

How little did I know!

What would happen was I, like countless other Wheel of Time fans, would get sucked into the lives of Rand, Egwene, Matt, Nynaeve, and Perrin, and then ten more characters, and then ten more, until it was impossible to keep track of all the braid tugging without a fully illustrated map and several books of genealogies. However, I still remembered the magic of the first few books in the series—Eye of the World, The Great Hunt, The Dragon Reborn, still had a soft spot for the main characters sans Egwene, and it’s impossible not to admire Jordan’s creativity and richly layered world-building in the Aes Sedai, the Forsaken, and the Aiel.

The Wheel of Time is a classic high fantasy in which The Dark One and his enemy, the Dragon, face off in a cataclysmic struggle that ends up destroying the world and the male half of the One Power is tainted with madness. The Dark One is sealed at the Eye of the World until the Last Battle, at which the Dragon will come again and either defeat or join him—thus dooming the world. As such, only women can channel the One Power without succumbing to madness, and a powerful order of mages arises, called the Aes Sedai, who advise kingdoms and “gentle” men who can channel before they go mad. Moraine Sedai, of the Blue Ajah order, finds five young folk in the quiet mountain village of the Twin Rivers, who are each important to the Pattern. One of which is the Dragon Reborn.

So how did Amazon Prime do with The Eye of the World, a whopping 782 pages?

The Wheel of Time isn’t Game of Thrones (it is pretty funny seeing Roose Bolton show up as Rand’s dad, though). I love that it’s little known actors, but they have a long way to go to be capable of commanding the screen with the charisma and star power of Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, and Lena Headey. This is more like Chronicles of Shannara, but where Wheel excels is the excellent world building foundation that Jordan has laid. The scenery is beautiful. Trollocs, the Fade, the Darkfriends—all well done. I love the actors playing the villainous Padan Fain, Logain, and  Eamon Valda—they all seem like they’re having a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for the main cast. There isn’t enough time spent on building the core group’s bond to really care about them, and I can see how someone without the book background knowledge would fight through tedious episodes of walking and serious talks lacking chemistry. Nynaeve, for example, is one of my favorite characters in the book, but here she just is missing fire and presence. Perrin, too, is incredibly wooden. Ironically enough, Egwene, who irritated to me to know end in the books with her insufferableness—was fine in the television series. Rand, I’ll give it, is very Rand, but the actor has a ways to go to give the character depth. Mat didn’t have that roguish charm. They opted to give him a dark edge, but that missed the point that Mat was supposed to bring the levity, the fun. Rosamund Pike as Moraine was spot on perfect, though.

So there you have it—there is a lot of unevenness in the acting levels of the cast and the pacing of the series. There are moments that are really well done, like hiding from the Trollocs in the dark city of Shadar Logoth. This is a place with a fascinating history about a people who hid from the world so much that their isolation and hate finally ate them alive. I liked the White Tower and what we’ve seen of the Aes Sedai so far. However, it’s a tough sell when the supporting cast are more interesting. The season finale, especially, was disjoined and started trying to add too much with the arrival of the Seanchan.

You can tell there was a lot of attention paid to ensuring a diverse world, but the television series starts to make the same mistakes as the books by getting distracted with side characters. It doesn’t build up enough sympathy for Rand, who is the titular character and driving force in the series. An interesting direction to go, but honestly, as a fan of the book series, I identified with Rand as the hero thrust into this world of politics and raising an army the most. By trying to redo the angle and perspective of the story, the television series risks alienating the most sympathetic characters that kept readers coming back to the book series for even after it spanned well over ten books. I wanted to see what happened to the "wool-headed" Rand, Nynaeve, and Mat (and Demandred, because I am a big Forsaken fan).

The rest of the hundreds of characters who show up are just momentary weaves in the Pattern.

Season 2 of The Wheel of Time is in production.

Best Comedy TV Series - Netflix

WITH THE HOLIDAYS AROUND THE CORNER (there were so many Xmas decorations out early we expected to be handing out candy canes to trick-or-treaters instead of Twix), let’s take a look at outstanding comedy recommendations from Netflix. Check out my favorites below and feel free to share your own!

 

Best Witty Comedy

Call My Agent: This is such a hands-down favorite. Welcome to ASK, a boutique agency, where its perfectly cast agents work tirelessly for big-name French movie actors and actresses, no matter how outrageous the demand. This is on top of juggling the drama of their personal lives and some cutthroat office politics that would make Cersei Lannister proud. Camille (Fanny Sidney) journeys to the big city and scores a job at ASK helping the notorious Andréa Martel (played with wicked charm by Camille Cottin), but really her plan is to meet her father, legendary cinema agent Mathias (Thibault de Montalembert), who had an affair with her mother. She soon learns he may be the real office monster who will stop at nothing in his climb to the top and must make a choice about her own career aspirations.

Camille may be the anchoring story, but Call My Agent comes to life with a cast of truly memorable and witty characters, all of whom get their time in the limelight. Andréa is a badass, and assistants Noémie (Laure Calamy) and Hervé (Nicolas Maury) are the most adorable scene-stealers. There’s a ton of fun cameos from well-known actors such as Sigourney Weaver, and we learn that even the silliest grievance can spin out of control quickly. We get 4 seasons of nonstop entertainment that wraps up the loose ends satisfactorily, and there’s even a Bollywood version now available.

Sex Education: So your mum’s a sex therapist and everyone at school comes to you with their bedroom problems. Meet Otis (Asa Butterfield), who lives in an amazingly cool mansion overlooking a valley and attends Moordale Secondary School, where everyone from the students to the staff are in over their heads with relationship angst. They deal with it, naturally, by getting a goat as a pet or having epic meltdowns. Otis and school bad girl Maeve (Emma Mackey)  see an opportunity and start a clandestine clinic giving out advice. Sex Education is not shy about tackling an entire spectrum of issues and has no shortage of colorful characters. Otis’s best mate Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) is particularly endearing, and you can’t ask for much better than Gillian Anderson to portray Otis’s archly mother. The show starts getting a little tired after three seasons, but the great thing about British comedy is they know when a series has run its course, so we’ll see what new direction season 4 goes.

 

Best Heartwarming Comedy  

Never Have I Ever: Just before you say you’ve seen every trope of high school girl caught in a love triangle, check out this fun, heart-warming romp through the San Fernando Valley. Devi (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) enters her sophomore year after the traumatic loss of her father. The trauma resulted in the loss of the use of her legs for a couple months, and naturally, this is what everyone at school is talking about. (“Whoa, is this comedy?” you ask— “Yes, stay with me.”) Determined to change her social status, Devi embarks with the help of her loveable friends to embrace change in her life by completing a series of “never-have-I-evers”, beginning with losing her virginity to the hunky, minimally-verbal Paxton (Darren Barnet). She also negotiates a new relationship with her strict traditionalist mother (Poorna Jagannathan), who she was never super close to. Devi is lively, makes mistakes, and feels like a true teen, and the show clips along at a snappy pace that always leaves you ready for more. There’s a lot of heart and feeling (dare you to watch the last episode of season 1 and not cry!), and it feels fresh with something new to offer.

 

Best Satire

The Chair: Dr. Ji Yoon Kim (Sandra Oh) gets the English Department Chair job of her dreams after fighting tooth and nail both as a woman and as a person of colour. It’s a quick celebration, as she is quickly beset by the demanding expectations of students, colleagues, and the school alike, such as being told to fire the three oldest professors who are failing to enroll students in their classes. The colleague she has longstanding feelings for, Bill Dobson (Jay Duplass), gets embroiled in a viral scandal after he pulls a mock “Heil, Hitler” in class, and oh, her adopted daughter (Everly Carganilla) is either a budding psychopath or quite normal for her age. It’s enough to tear anyone apart, and the show lands solid hits in its deft critique of the higher education system. The dry humor of veteran professor Joan Hambling (Holland Taylor) trying to get an office out of the basement is particularly hysterical.

 

Best Fun-&-Silliness-Taken-Seriously

Cobra Kai: The Karate Kid (1984) was a classic, and when I first heard about this sequel series set to follow Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka), Danny’s original nemesis, I questioned if he was strong enough to carry it. However, the show’s creators smartly juxtapose blue-collar, down-on-his-luck Johnny as struggling to navigate high-tech, social-media-obsessed society. However, some things never change, like high school kids’ enthusiasm for epic martial arts battles. I absolutely love Johnny’s relationship with his neighbor kid Miguel (Xolo Maridueña), who he reluctantly takes under his wing to teach his own “middle way” karate creed. Even better, plenty of the old cast from The Karate Kid movies are back, notably Danny LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) who has gone on to own a successful car dealership, and he takes issue with Johnny opening his own dojo. The only thing missing is Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), who sadly passed in 2005. He’s still the show’s moral anchor, but things aren’t black and white, and both Johnny and Danny realize how difficult it is to be sensei with a whole new generation looking up to them.

I haven’t even gotten to the amazing cast of kids who become part of Johnny or Danny’s dojos respectively, but the comedic martial arts battles are just as intense as they ever were. The show has fun and laughs at itself, dropping sly digs at the guys’ All-Valley Tournament feud through Danny’s down-to-earth wife, and it turns out to be the best decision to hand the story over to the anti-hero’s perspective.

Outer Banks: The first season of this show is a lot of fun. The outer banks of North Carolina are starkly divided between the wealthy Kooks and impoverished Pogues. Best buds John B (Chase Stokes), JJ (Rudy Pankow), Kiara (Madison Bailey), and Pope (Jonathan Daviss) spend their days living it up on the surf and hunting for the lost treasure of the Merchant ship, which has ties to the disappearance of John B’s father. Their search entangles them with the Camerons,  local rich family who is also after the treasure, and plenty of shenanigans commence. It’s kind of like a geocaching beach party adventure, and John B’s crew is a loveable bunch who are easy to root for. The plot gets a bit tired in Season 2, but Season 1 is absolutely recommended.

 

Best Dark Humor

You: You’d think a show from the point of view of the obsessive stalker would be icky, but somehow Penn Badgley (Gossip Girl) has pulled it off. Joe Goldberg grew up an orphan learning how to restore old books under the tender tutelage of the foster care system (his last guardian had a vacuum sealed cage in his basement), but his rough upbringing hasn’t dissuaded him from searching for “The One.” Seemingly mild and charming, Joe demonstrates his love by infiltrating the life of the object of his affection—in this case, Beck (Elizabeth Lail), an NYU graduate student trying to be a writer. Joe woos her with dirt he digs up from her social media, all while entertaining the audience with his critique of how much of ourselves we put online. Heaven forbid anyone get in his way, or Joe, knowing what is best for Beck, will take matters into his own hands. It gets bloody, messy, and thanks to Joe’s inner monologues—utterly hilarious. Each season has a different setting (NY, LA, a Californian suburb), giving Joe plenty to criticize and new frenemies to play cat-and-mouse with. Will he ever find peace with “The One”? Probably not, but it’s entertaining watching him try!

 

Best Originality

Sense 8: For those who like a show that defies genre, check this one out. Eight people around the globe become mentally and emotionally linked when their “birth mother” kills herself to escape a mysterious man known as Whispers. This connection gives them incredible abilities—not only are they telepathic, but they can essentially “download” their consciousness and abilities into each other’s bodies to make them one super human—a Sensate cluster. How well they work together will determine their survival due to the mysterious organization that is after them, and even more awesomely, there are other Sensate clusters with unique makeups as well (think ability of fighter pilot, actor, police officer, hacker all rolled into one person). The show is definitely slow moving and takes its time exploring our different Sensates and their stories, since they all keep their freewill. There’s lots of laughs, tears, and a deep dive into what it is to be human, and it creates a most beautiful story.

Bingeworthy Fantasy TV Series - Netflix

IT'S OCTOBER, the month of the mysterious, the otherworldly, and the dark. I’ve compiled my top favorite fantasy shows from Netflix sure to be as addictive as Halloween candy. Check out my recommendations below and share your own!

 

Best Dystopia

3%: Dystopian societies are all the rage in YA fiction these days (Divergent, Legend, The Hunger Games). Usually a calamity has befallen the world, and the group in power has come up with some obscene scheme to handle the remaining resources. Featuring a Brazilian cast, 3% offers a fresh and enthralling take on such a future civilization. 97% of the population of “Inland” live in a slum after the world is devastated, but come their 20^th birthday, they have one chance to earn their spot on the luxurious “Offshore” paradise through a set of grueling tests known as the Process. The series opens with hundreds of hopefuls journeying up from the underbelly of the slum to a gleaming futuristic hall, where they participate in trials of character and skill to determine if they are “worthy” to join the technology affluent Offshore population. If they lose, they face living out the rest of their days in poverty.

The show nails it with creating sympathetic and compelling characters. Participants Michele (Bianca Comparato), Fernando (Michael Gomes), Rafael (Rodolfo Valente), and Joana (Vaneza Oliveira) are particularly memorable with their own motivations for competing in the Process, and even the Process’s leader, Ezequiel (João Miguel), has his own secrets. Best of all: if you hate it when television series get canceled without a definite conclusion, 3% wraps up satisfactorily after 3 seasons.

 

Best Thriller Competition You Would Never Enter

Squid Game: Since we’re on a roll with shows about disturbing contests that pit people against one another, look no further than the breakout Korean hit Squid Game. Unlike 3%, the contestants of Squid Game are no angels. They’re billions of won in debt, down on-their-luck gamblers like our lead Lee Jung Jae (Seong Gi Hun), or flat-out violent. A mysterious man approaches these downtrodden folks and offers them a chance to win riches beyond their wildest dreams—all they have to do is compete in a series of children’s games with nasty twists (namely, losing means paying with your life).

It’s Hunger Games meets The Purge, but Squid Game is wholly unique in its great care with character development, artistic expression (which is no small feat considering each games murders tons of people), and stylish overseers with very cool masks. Each scene is extremely well-shot to be candy for the eyes, and episode 6 is absolutely heartbreaking. If the majority of contestants vote to end the game, then the overseers will honor it, but time and again, they choose to continue to the next brutal level. Personally, by game three I’d be a goner! A must-watch for fans of murderous game competitions.

 

Best Fantasy 

Shadow and Bone: I adored the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo, and so I was thrilled to hear of the Netflix adaptation, doubly so when Ben Barnes was cast to play the fascinating and brooding Darkling character (known in the show as General Kirigan). This series also intertwines the plot of another Bardugo offering, the Six of Crows. I’d found that book to be a bit dense, but it really works in this series with the splendid casting of Inej (Amita Suman) and the scene-stealing Jasper (Kit Young).

A long time ago, a sorcerer created the Fold, a place of darkness and monsters, which cleaved the land of Russian-inspired Ravka in half. The West seeks independence, but both sides are targets of the warmongering Fjerda, who seek to destroy Ravka’s Grisha people who can control different elements. Orphan pair Alina and Mal find themselves swept up in the struggle when Alina discovers she is the mythical Sun Summoner capable of destroying the Fold. Alina (Jessie Mei Li) struggles to come to terms with her power even as forces such as General Kirigan conspire to use her magic for their own purposes.

The plot is action-packed with never a dull moment, and the show does justice to the multiple vivid personalities that made this series a best-seller. Very excited for Season 2!

 

Diablero: For fans of Supernatural and Wynonna Earp, meet Elvis (Horacio García Rojas) and Keta (Fátima Molina)—brother and sister living in México City who were trained to be Diableros: awesomely cool demon hunters. Well, Elvis was—Keta didn’t get as much love because she was a girl, but she has picked up enough tricks to be just as dangerous as her wise-cracking, smooth-talking brother. Elvis and Keta reluctantly sign on to help Father Ramiro (Christopher von Uckermann) when a demon begins stealing children for nefarious purposes. Rounding out this adorable ass-kicking crew is Nancy (Gisselle Kuri), who can withstand demonic possession, and is quite simply the best.

Season 1 starts out a bit rough—the pacing is uneven, and it loses some of its suspense as it takes a very convoluted road to discovering the identity of the person summoning demons. However, I loved the main Scooby Doo gang and the side characters are equally fun (I love Elvis’s snarky nieces!). The stakes get raised by the end of Season 1, and Season 2 really hits the ground running and doesn’t look back. The mythology is wonderfully incorporated and the show feels darkly humorous and unique.

Based on the book El Diablo me obligó by Francisco Haghenbeck, Diablero has really found its rhythm in Season 2, and I’m so pumped for Season 3!

 

Best Scooby-Doo-Gang-Feel

Stranger Things: Speaking of loveable Brady Bunch types who will steal your heart, there’s no better smalltown group to take on a secretive government-run corporation than Mike (Finn Wolfhard), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin), and the mysterious Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown). When their friend Will disappears under strange circumstances, the kids arm up with their bicycles and set out to uncover the truth about the sinister facility in the woods. Meanwhile, Will’s mother is convinced she can communicate with her missing child via Christmas lights, and a horrifying monster from an alternate dimension known as the Upside Down begins hunting the frightened townsfolk. That’s just Season 1.

Eleven is very compelling as a child with supernatural abilities escaped from the government-run facility, and the main gang is a joy to watch. Season 2 stumbles a bit as it tries to give storylines to too many characters, but Stranger Things doesn’t run out of chilling monsters from other dimensions, and I’m interested to see what Season 4 brings.

 

Best Horror

The Haunting of Hill House: For me, the best types of horror stories are those that keep the ghosts at arm’s length—they’re there, out of the corner of your eye, or just a fleeting glimpse, but it’s terrifying enough that you can’t bear to look. The Haunting of Hill House is excellent at this. It succeeds at distracting you with the everyday troubles of the Crain family, and the ghosts are such a soft, subtle presence, that you don’t realize they’re right behind you until it’s too late. Recommended not to watch when drinking red wine over carpet.

In a truly tragic tale, we meet the grown-up Crain children, who’ve been estranged after the terrible loss that defined their childhood. The series alternates between flashbacks of their lives in the creepy mansion to present day, where something sinister continues to haunt the Crain family—and it won’t stop until they return to where it all began.

For a chilling Halloween nail-biter, you can’t ask for much better than this.

*For Religious Horror, check out Midnight Mass. Philosophy, madness, and mayhem descend on an isolated predominantly Catholic island community.

 

Best Suspense & Mystery

Lupin: Is it fantasy? No, but Gentleman Burglar Assane Diop, played brilliantly by the magnetic Omar Sy, has enough tricks up his sleeve to make you believe it’s magic. Lupin is Paris’s answer to Locke Lamora, with a dash of Ocean’s Eleven thrown in. It’s fun, it’s thrilling, and it has artistic flair, with the cat-and-mouse games between Diop and Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre) climbing to increasingly precarious heights.

As a child, Diop was fascinated with the stories of the legendary Gentleman Burglar Lupin, who pulled off a series of heists with his wit and mastery of disguises. In present day Paris, Diop takes on the charming thief persona to help cope with the loss of his father, who hanged himself in prison, and to uncover the true reason behind his father’s death.

Lupin moves at a breakneck pace with lots of hijinks and plot twists, but it balances them all with effortless skill. Best of all, there may be a Season 3.

 

Best Potential

Warrior Nun: It’s really a toss-up between Warrior Nun and the King-Arthur-folklore-retelling in Cursed, but I think Warrior Nun has such a fascinating premise. The title alone are two words you don’t see together, and, as promised, it’s about a secret sect of demon-hunting nuns in picturesque Spain who have mad martial arts skills. Ava Silva (Alba Baptista) is a quadriplegic orphan who endures a truly awful Sister in the orphanage. She dies, only to wake up in a morgue with a strange symbol on her back and the ability to not only walk again but mind-bending new abilities. The spirit of the Warrior Nun has chosen her—mistakenly, some of the Sisterhood feel—to lead her fellow Sisters in the age-old battle against evil.

This show, like Diablero, doesn’t really know what to do with itself at first. It has so many interesting ideas—the mythos; who is the real evil; Ava not believing in the faith or wanting anything to do with demon fighting—but it isn’t focused, and a couple episodes fall into a lull whenever Ava and the Sisters are separated. However, the nuns Shotgun Mary (Toya Turner), Beatrice (Kristina Tonteri-Young), and Lilith (Lorena Andrea) are really well-cast, and the show has started to find its footing by the end. Very curious to see what Season 2 brings.

 

That wraps up our adventurous shows with a dark streak—next up, we’ll get more light-hearted with Comedy recommendations!