Monthly Archives: October 2018

TV Review – Bodyguard: Season One

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TL;DR – This show is a masterpiece of building tension and always keeping you wonder, just who is telling the truth.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

 

Bodyguard. Image Credit: World Productions

 

Review –

Across the internet, I had heard these whispers about the show dropping in the UK called Bodyguard. It was the kind of whispers that instantly makes you wonder, just what kind of show this is going to be, and then it dropped over here on Netflix. So, I thought, hey let’s give this a look, and then those first twenty minutes of the first episode happened and wow, never have I experienced such a tense twenty minutes of television before. From that moment onwards, I knew I had to see all of this as quickly as I could and I am so glad I did, even if it meant some essays might be returned a bit late, so a belated sorry to my students.

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Explore It – University of Queensland Bloom Festival

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TL;DR – Today I explore the University of Queensland Bloom Festival, the festival where purple was king, which should be no surprise if you have ever taken a medieval art history class before

The University of Queensland Bloom Festival. Image Credit Brian MacNamara

 

Article –

Every year here in Brisbane the University of Queensland turns purple as the Jacarandas come out to bloom. It is a beautiful time of year unless you are a university student in which case it heralds the coming of exams and the onslaught of rumours about what happens if you get hit by the falling flowers. We explored the flowering time last year with our walk around the UQ St. Lucia campus (see here), however, this year they have expanded on the Jacarandas with the UQ Bloom Festival, and today we get the chance to explore the Jacarandas after dark.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: Arachnids In The UK

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TL;DR –  If you have a deep-seated fear of spiders, well this might be one of those hide behind the coach kind of episodes for you.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Doctor Who: Arachnids In The UK. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review –

Today we continue looking at Doctor Who’s 11th season, a season with a lot of promise but also some recurring issues. This has created a bit of a problem that you see all the good they are trying to do, but also how they are being held back for some odd reasons. Well, today we come crashing back to Earth for a creepy episode just in time for Halloween that is going back to a Doctor Who staples, monsters, running, and the failure of capitalism, oh my.

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TV Review – Daredevil: Season Three

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TL;DR – Season Three pares everything back to the core and by focusing on our trinity and a truly phenomenal big bad.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Daredevil. Image Credit Marvel/Netflix

 

Review –

So this is an interesting moment, I don’t think I have ever been halfway through watching a series and finding out that its two sister series has been canned, but that is what happened here. I was two episodes in and then bam bye Iron Fist and then three more and then bam bye Luke Cage. So besides inserting something witty about the Thanos snap, it should have ripped all the wind out of my sails to make it through the rest of Season Three. However, it didn’t, not even close, because Daredevil Season Three might be the best Netflix MCU series since … well maybe since the very first Daredevil all the way back in 2015.

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TV Review – Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Season One

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TL;DR – Sabrina is a show that blends the occult with whimsy in a way I have not seen in a long while. It is a show where cannibalism and finding your one true love go hand in hand, and that is either going to interest you or put you right off.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Image Credit: Netflix

 

Review –

I do not envy the task of anyone who is given the job of rebooting something that has not one but two beloved incarnations. Whether it was the original comic or the 1990s TV series, a lot of people have grown up with Sabrina being a touchstone in pop culture. So, will bringing Sabrina to a new generation create that same moment, well only time will tell, but today we take a look at how the first season came together.

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TV Review – Chilling Adventures of Sabrina – Chapter One: October Country

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TL;DR – A fascinating first episode that is both full of charm, determination, and also gets super dark … it had to be spiders …

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. image Credit: Netflix

 

Review –

When I was growing up there was this charming fun show on TV called Sabrina The Teenage Witch. It was this fun romp through the dangers of high school when you have to hide half of yourself away, though in this case, that half was the fact that you are part-witch. It had everything you needed in the 1990s, fun adventures, hilarious scenarios, oh and a sassy talking cat. So when I heard it was being resurrected, I was a bit concerned, and then when I heard it was part of the Riverdale universe I was more concerned because I get why Riverdale is popular, but it’s not for me. But this year we have already had one successful reboot from Netflix of an old beloved TV show in Lost in Space (see review) so I thought I would give it a look and well what an interesting first episode it was.

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TV Review – Doctor Who: Rosa

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TL;DR – While on the technical side of things this was not the best episode of Doctor Who, the story is leaps and bounds above the norm, and it shows the power this show can have if they apply themselves.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Rosa. Doctor Who. Image Credit: BBC

 

Review –

When you can travel through all of time and space, you can visit wondrous alien worlds, go back and visit key moments in history like the construction of the pyramids, or even explore what looks an awful lot like a quarry on the outskirts of Cardiff a couple of times. However, would you go back in time a visit the less fun parts of our history, those parts that we politely pretend do not exist, even though the ripple of those events still dominate our world today. Well in a world that needs to visit this part of its past Doctor Who has decided to do so for them as we delve into the world of the 1950s segregated America.

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TV Review – Daredevil: Resurrection

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TL;DR – This is a more quiet character driven episode than pilot episodes of the past, but all that means is that the actors get a platform to shine.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Daredevil. Image Credit: ABC Studios/Netflix

 

Review –

Well, we are back to where it all started, the very first entry into the Marvel world on Netflix was the first season of Daredevil all the way back in 2015. For many people, me included, that the first season is still the high water mark for the Netflix project, so there is both a hope and a trepidation when you start that first episode. Also, it felt like just last week we got a new Iron Fist, and I am wondering is it all getting a bit too much. Well, today we explore if Daredevil Season Three can be the touchstone that it was.

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TV Review – The Good Place: Jeremy Bearimy

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TL;DR – Today we get to see the direction of where Season Three is going, and it is a very cool direction, while also exploring rock bottom for Chidi.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

The Good Place: Jeremy Bearimy. Image Credit NBC/Netflix

 

Review –

As Season Three has been going on, there has been some concern as to where the show is going, and it did feel like there was still a penny waiting to drop. This week we get to see that penny drop, right when everybody’s plans fall apart and we get to see what happens when you hit rock bottom and how you respond to that.

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Exploring the Past – The Great Buddha+ (Dà fó pǔ lā sī, 大佛普拉斯) (2017)

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TL;DR – This is a film of dissonant halves, both funny, yet confronting, sad but also hopeful, engaging but also infuriating

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene but it does not offer any answers

The Great Buddha+. Image Credit: MandarinVision

Review –

Today I get to review a film thanks to the Brisbane International Film Festival that I would not have normally been able to see. I have been trying to increase the films that I have seen from Asia, and while this has included films from Hong Kong and China, today is my first dive into Taiwanese filmmaking with Huang Hsin-yao’s odd The Great Budda+. This is an interesting film but also a frustrating one at times, so to properly review it we will first give a general overview before we enter into spoiler territory as we dissect its ending, and what an ending it is.

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