Fargo- Season 4

9/10

Whereas season 3 was the most recently set story in the series, this season is set the farthest back in 1950s Kansas City, Missouri. In it, we follow the simmering conflict between Italian and African American crime organizations, which soon draws in a mixed-race family who own a funeral home,  two outlaws, and an odd nurse. Last season had been a letdown, so I was so pleased to see the show return to form for this great season.

What we get is an interesting look inside what it is to pursue the American Dream or the illusion of the American dream and the tragic inability of groups, be they ethnic, racial, or religious, to identify with each other even if they're under the same boot. Given that this is Fargo, this is naturally told with the show's trademark combination of moments of unforgettable dialogue, characters, dark humor, and violence. Though, bare in mind that the show has the same tendency it always had of having some killings feel arbitrary. I found that creator Noah Hawley was able to find the right balance between depicting the racism of the time and being a piece of entertainment. 

This season has the same strength I thought season 2 had: a large cast, which kept things busy and managed to prevent the show from feeling drawn out. That having been said, there are parts where the flow could have been smoother. (The brunt of focus is on the mobsters.) This season's primary protagonist Ethelrida Smutney (played by Emyri Crutchfield) felt like and her family needed more screentime. The nurse Oraetta Mayflower (Jessie Buckley) felt like her story was spread too thin (usually in small bits). What makes this worse is that you could predict several points where her story went an episode or two ahead.

Again, the show looks great, maintaining a film-like auteur-heavy quality. I won't spoil it, but the episode East/West in particular takes an interesting visual choice. The music remains superb. 

The cast, including the likes of Chris Rock, Ben Whishaw, Timothy Olyphant, and Jason Schwatzman, is strong across the board. There are so many fine characters and performances, I don't have time to mention them all.

I highly recommend this. This is just some engrossing stuff. (P.S. When you get to the last episode, make sure you don't immediately turn it off when the credits start.) 

Little Hope

 

7/10

This is the second entry in the Dark Pictures anthology, a series of short horror, interactive story games from Supermassive Games, which themselves are a spiritual successor to the hit Until Dawn. In this story, a group of five passengers in a bus crash find themselves stranded in the abandoned Massachusetts ghost town of Little Hope. Soon, spooky stuff related to the town's witch trial history starts happening. Though I found the game generally fun, I didn't like this as much as its predecessors. 

Gameplay:

To it's credit, the game finally is the first to have completely polished controls. There is no hypersensitive motion sensor like in Until Dawn (many of you may not have had an issue, but I've got slightly shaky hands), or uber-hard and possibly buggy heart rate monitor segment from Dark Pictures' Man of Medan where you've got to press buttons in rhythm with your heart rate. The monitor is back, but now it's fair and beatable. Admittedly, I think Supermassive made several of the QTE segments too easy. I never found those unreasonable in the past games, I just wanted the game to be fair, not to remove the challenge.

One of the biggest complaints about Man of Medan was that you're pottering around an abandoned ship for quite some time. Here the game is better paced with various changes in set pieces. Unfortunately, there is a lot of walking around darkly lit roads and forest areas that aren't that much more exciting than ship corridors. 

Of course, what makes the game is your decisions and how they affect the story and the anticipation of whether you made the right choices. However, one of the ways your characters died felt a little like a cheat. Didn't feel like it was something anyone could figure out or see coming. 

Also,  this is the third game in which the "run" button just makes you walks slightly, and I do mean slightly, quicker. I wished Supermassive either actually let us run or gave up on the button altogether.

Graphics:

Game looks pretty good. (Though I can't say the face work is the best for the PS4). Little Hope is an appropriately creepy-looking place. The cinematic quality is strong with a slick way of panning between characters when the game requires you to immediately switch them. There is some impressively nightmarish creature design.

However, like Man of Medan, this game is too darkly lit. It's such a pain to see where you're going half the time.

Story:

I think the story might be the biggest issue I had with this. I started off really liking it, but my appreciation diminished as the game went on. It has a great opening and the story seemed promising. Though the subject of witch trials has gotten a little predictable in how they play out by now (think The Crucible, kinda), I appreciated that the delivery was well done. However, I soon realized the plot had a very cyclical nature. It'd put you through one type of similar scenario followed by the other type of similar scenario. The ending was kind of disappointing. I felt like it cheated you out of your investment in the story. 

I think Supermassive is starting to suffer from character fatigue, as the characters aren't quite as interesting in the last two games. The couple in the not-yet-defined relationship felt particularly basic.

Cast:

As is the course, the game has a fine cast, who did the motion capture as well as voice acting. My favorite was Alex Ivanovici as a slightly controlling college professor.

I originally wasn't the biggest fan of Dark Pictures' host Pip Torrens (from Preacher). However, his character The Curator has grown on me. I guess I initially wanted someone more sinister, but I grew to appreciate his wry playfulness.

Music:

I really liked the music in this. Sets the mood. No complaints.

Conclusion:

I've seen a lot of people online say this was better than Man of Medan. I guess I'm in the minority. I felt that the game, especially the characters, left more of an impression. (LH has the better gameplay, though, no argument.) I really wanted more out of the story. That having been said, I still recommend this. It's not as strong as the previous games, but it's still an interesting playthrough and still scratches that itch if you need more of these type of games.

Big Sky- Season 1- Pilot episode

 

5/10

This new show from David E. Kelly based on the book The Highway by C.J. Box follows a a rural Montana private detective agency as they search for a couple of missing teenage girls. I felt the pilot was just okay and there wasn't enough to entice me to keep watching.

The biggest issue was that the detectives didn't interest me. They are all given immediate personal conflicts, but not enough effort is given to make the characters themselves interesting or relatable. Nor is enough teased to make me want to find out more. It doesn't help that their conflicts feel petty in the grand scheme of things. A lot of other stuff in this is watchable, but it feels like the show is merely fulfilling the basic requirements of a drama.

That having been said, there were a couple interesting twists in a road. Also, John Carroll Lynch, who's usually good, is fun as an oddball sheriff. The show looks great, combining the northern landscape and a fine use of color.

Overall, I wouldn't say I downright disliked this. It's that with so many shows out there, I felt there were better uses of my time. It is possible that some of you could get more out of this.

Animaniacs (2020)- Season 1

 

9/10

Yakko (voiced by Rob Paulsen), Wakko (Jess Harnell), and Dot Warner (Tress Macneille) and Pinky (Paulsen again) and the Brain (Maurice LaMarche) return for more crazy shenanigans. I love this resurrection of the popular 90's cartoon. 

This show is really funny. (I particularly recommend the episode Good Warner Hunting which is comic perfection.) There is a perfect mix of verbal comedy and classic physical slapstick. The writers are miraculously able to capture the basic essence of the original while also giving this iteration it's own jive. Even in its first season, the show is developing it's own new recurring characters during the segments. 

Fans of the original be forewarned that a lot of the supporting cast has been culled with the focus mainly being on the Warners and Pinky and the Brain. I'm actually okay with this as they were the truly funny members of the cast and the main reason I watched as a kid. The others never matched up. However, I can see how fans of Slappy the Squirrel or Buttons and Mindy will be let down. (However, if you're favorite show was the Goodfeathers, then I do not wish to know you sir or ma'm.)

The show does try to maintain the variety feel by offering a handful of quick sketches. One's pretty funny, one's alright, and one just feels derivative. 

Hello Nurse was cut from the Warner sketches, but considering that she was there basically as a lust object, I can see how that wouldn't work in today's climate. They also replaced Plotz, with a new female CEO of Warner Bros. Studios Nora Rita Norita (Stephanie Escajeda). I'm okay with this. Plotz was a basic greedy, rich guy, but Norita leaves more of an impression. She's more of a grandiose openly self-serving character. 

I do worry that adults may like this more than today's kids. I know the original had adult jokes, but I fear this new version might lean a little too much toward them and satire. (There's an entire episode bashing Russia and a reference to Oldboy. Who wants to explain Oldboy to their kids.) There's also a lot of references to this being a reboot and the original show. I fear all that could go over children's heads.

If you're one of those parents, who don't like your kids watching shows like Teen Titans Go, because the characters are jerks and there aren't any good role models for you kids, you might have issue with this. The Warners have always been known to mess with people, but there were a few times in this reboot where they felt too mean. Course, I could've been remembering things wrong. It's been quite some time since I've seen the original. Maybe, it just feels out of place in this climate. Brain physically abusing Pinky feels more uncomfortable from the eyes of an adult, too. The P&B episode The Mousechurian Candidate in general felt too dark. Sure, the Brain has always humorously tried to take over the world, but this time it felt like they took him too far. (Though weirdly, the Brain is depicted as more caring or forgiving of Pinky than in the original.) 

This version also feels like it has more of a political agenda than the original. Conservatives may not be fans. (There's a whole episode that is an allegory for gun control.)

I won't lie that I miss the original cell animation with its brighter colors and greater detail and cleaner linework. That having been said, I'm not knocking the current animation. A lot of effort went into this, which includes a lot of characters, motion, and sets. I appreciate that they tried to stick to the general looks of the characters instead of going with new, simplified redesigns. I also liked the looks of the humans in this, which all have a newspaper satiresque appearance. (Some of the character motion can be a bit messy and the Warners have this odd yellowish-white look to their faces, but those aren't deal-breakers). What I liked about all the new sketches is that they also tried something different with the animation style.

The show retains the type of the songs that made the original fun, too. I can't say any of them are as good as the countries or states song, but they're quality.

The original voice cast is back, however Paulsen can't quite nail Yakko's voice like he did in his prime.

Yeah, I nitpicked some stuff pretty longer than I talked about the stuff I liked, because this was a big part of my childhood and change can be jarring when you've got nostalgia. Plus, a lot of this so well done that it's hard to articulate. Overall, I do highly recommend this. 

High Score

 

7/10

This six-part documentary series on YouTube looks at the the history of the video game industry. It was an interesting watch. You get to learn about such things as programmers dealing with technical restraints for early games and stuff that happened when the industry was still new and the rules were being built.

Visually, High Score makes good use of 8-bit video game-inspired interstitials.

The composition of this can be kinda sloppy. Each episode has a general theme, but the material connections can sometimes be tenuous. The show picks and chooses what it goes with and doesn't necessarily feel substantive. It feels like the creators couldn't decide on a tone either. The third episode is joke heavy, while the others aren't. 

The show focuses on whoever they could get to interview. If you're expecting focus on big name video game creators or producers, they're not mentioned much if the show couldn't get them. A lot of video games are made in Japan, so if you're not a big subtitle fan then be forewarned.

I recommend this. It has a lot of interesting info., just be forewarned that this isn't as comprehensive as you'd think.

The Social Dilemma

9/10

The Social Dilemma, a Netflix documentary, looks at how social media and advertising logarithms have had an unhealthy affect on psychology and politics. I found this interesting. 

This documentary is a really cautionary tale on where the world is headed. And is intriguing in how social media came from a place of good intent and went in a path unintended by its creators.

All the major aspects are addressed and the whole thing is well paced. Has some nice visuals and an engaging group of interviewees.

The documentary also uses some filmed segments about a family's relationship to social media to help get the point across. I'm not hating it, but I'm not loving it. You ever see one of those anti-drug cautionary films in school? It's kinda like that. I think the documentary would be just as effective without these segments. Also, the lead character is played by Santa Clarita Diet's Skyler Gisondo, who while not a household name has been in a decent number of shows and films over the years. The casting of a known actor kind of derails the illusion of a sample family but maybe it's just me.

I recommend this, especially if you're raising kids during this era.

Retrospective Review- Lupin the 3rd: Blood Seal of the Eternal Mermaid

 

8/10

In this, thief Lupin III and his cohorts go in search of two jewels that are the key to a treasure that is not what it appears to be. Pretty much par the course for this guy. I thought this was one of the better Lupin specials/made-for-TV movies.

Blood Seal does follow the general Lupin formula, but it brings a certain amount of creativity that makes it memorable in the vast crowd that of Lupin films that tend to blend together. One of my favorite Lupin movies has always been Mystery of Mamo, because it went with some far-out sci-fi concepts. This may be why I liked Blood Seal, too. The film goes with some weird stuff, though not quite as heavy as Mamo, you don't see in every Lupin film. (If you don't like when Lupin goes sci-fi, this probably won't be for you.) 

The film continues the tradition of frequently paring up Lupin with a new female character. Here its' a young orphan. She stands out a bit more than the rest. I'm not saying she's the most original character ever, but her backstory is more interesting than most.   

The villains in this are in the traditional Lupin mold and not that original or fleshed out, but they are appropriately vile. They offer some some nice fight scenes. The final battle is definitely a standout in the series.

The animation is television quality, but seems to make the most of its budget and has a rather distinctive color scheme. 

Overall, I consider this one of my top ten Lupin films and recommend it for any fan.