Silo: Solo Review – The Battle of Flexibility vs. Rigidness

TL;DR – Today’s episode is all about the tension between flexibility and rigidness, and it was a fascinating discussion.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
Eyes peer out behind a door.

Silo Review

In the first two episodes of the season, The Engineer & Order, we got to catch up on what was happening in both of the Silos. Now that we have our grounding, it is time to start propelling the narrative forward. Well, that is what we will explore today.

So, to set the scene, back in The Engineer, Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) managed to survive cleaning and walked through a valley of corpses to the next Silo over. In it, after much exploration, she finds the one person left alive in Silo 17 called Solo (Steve Zahn). The only problem is that Juliette discovers that the fracture point for Silo 17 was when someone didn’t clean, and that caused the rebellion and deaths. And then it dawns on her, this is what she just did to Silo 18. Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Continue reading

Silo: Order – TV Review

TL;DR – We get to see a society on the brink of collapse, where years of lies have come home to roost

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

Juliette Lives Graffiti.

Silo Review

While the opening episode, The Engineer, was all about what happened to Juliette, I wondered if we were just going to keep following their story. However, the casting list showed me that we were still going to stay linked to the Silo from the first season in some capacity. Well, today, we see just what those links will be.

So, to set the scene, after being set up by Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) and Robert Sims (Common), Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) was forced to go outside and ‘clean’ in the season finale. However, she does not clean and just walks away, breaking centuries of tradition. Also, Nichols was well-liked in many sectors of Silo, and people were upset and asking questions. The whole Silo is on the cusp of rebellion. Everyone just saw Juliette walk over that hill, and everyone, especially those down below, wanted to know what that meant. Is it safe? Can they all leave? What else is management lying about? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

Continue reading

Last Days of the Space Age: Only Kids Dream About Being Spacemen – TV Review

TL;DR – This is an interesting, if overwhelming, exploration of the characters that we will be getting to know across the series.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ Service that viewed this series.

The Moon rising through a smashed windscreen.

Last Days of the Space Age Review

One area that truly excites me is space, its exploration, and the history and impact that it has had on the world. Everyone can cite that one story about a pencil v pen in a spaceship or one small step for man, and that is this far removed in time from when it happened. What must the impact did those events have on the world in the years just after it happened? Well, in today’s series, we explore just that.

So, to set the scene, it is a tumultuous point in Perth’s history as several competing factors look to crash into each other just when the world’s spotlight is placed on the city. These fracture points are brought into stark highlight when a brick goes flying through the front windscreen of Tony (Jesse Spencer) and Judy Bissett’s (Radha Mitchell) as they travel at 60km an hour. How do you get on when you have a house divided? Now, from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.     

Continue reading

Silo: Hanna – TV Review

TL;DR – After some meandering around, we start making a run to the end of the season.   

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this series.

An underground corn field.

Silo Review

When we last reviewed Silo with Truth, it was setting up this world of mystery and intrigue, and then it proceeded to meander around for the last couple of episodes, which was fine but didn’t quite capture me in the way those opening episodes did. Well, now we are at the pointy end of the season, and the plot has picked back up as we dive back under the surface to a world on the cusp of falling apart.

So to set the scene, in The Flamekeepers, Juliette Nichols discovers that a group of people have tried to keep information from before the rebellion. With a secret book that shows that the is/was a world outside of the Silo, and it was full of expansive beauty. Alas, Juliette did not notice that the flowers had been removed from her mirror, so now Robert Sims (Common) and the others also know that she knows. But as she tries to find out who is moving people from behind the scenes, Juliette discovers that Judge Meadows (Tanya Moodie) might not be the villain she expected her to be. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

Continue reading

Movie Review – The Windermere Children

TL;DR – A deeply emotional and confronting film that looks at the aftermath of trauma and how you can walk back from it.   

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Awards:

Nominated: The Emotion.

The Windermere Children. Image Credit: Fremantle.

Review

There are those moments in life where we get to see the full depths of human cruelty and few moments have exemplified it more than the Holocaust. It was a moment where human depravity was industrialised and weaponised in the endeavour to exterminate an entire race. Today we explore a film that deals with the aftermath and trauma through the eyes of the children that survived it.     

So to set the scene, we open in on a bus full of children as they make their way through the British countryside at night. The bus is full of children refugees rescued from Holocaust camps. One thousand children brought from the camps to Brittan and 300 of them came to Calgarth Estate on the shores of Lake Windermere. As they arrive, there is a real fear that they have swapped one camp of despair for another. Their families are likely all dead, and all of them have suffered travesties that make every dog a threat and food something you hide when you can. They only have funding for four months to help them with their trauma, which is not enough time given everything they had gone through.

Continue reading

TV Review – Game of Thrones: The Dragon and the Wolf

TL;DR – Tonight is the beginning of the end, as people come together and others get wrenched apart

Score –  4.5 out of 5 stars

Stormborn

Review

So today we have reached the end of Game of Thrones’ penultimate season, and more than probably any than have gone before the game has changed completely again, though the more things change the most they stay the same. Now, this is the final episode of the season, so now more than ever There Will Be [SPOILERS] Ahead, if you have not seen the final episode then I would recommend not reading any further.
Continue reading

TV Review – Game of Thrones: Beyond the Wall

TL;DR – The Magnificent Seven venture beyond the wall to seek fame and fortune and a whole lot of dead people

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Beyond the Wall

Review

Ok so today’s episode Beyond the Wall is the penultimate episode of the season, and if you know anything about Game of Thrones, you know that this is the episode where usually we get those spectacular moments that people talk about for weeks on end. See, for example, Battle of the Bastards, The Watchers on the Wall, The Rains of Castamere, Blackwater, and indeed the moment that started for everyone in Baelor, where Ned lost his head. Well, tonight’s episode has a lot to live up too, and while it might not quite get there, it has moments that will leave you speechless.
Continue reading

TV Review – Game of Thrones: Eastwatch

TL;DR – This week everyone is moved into position, across all of Westeros, for the dead are on the march

Score –  4 out of 5 stars
Stormborn

Review

So to set the scene of where we start today, at the end of last week’s The Spoils of War (review) the dragons came to Westeros and they were everything we have waited seven seasons for. After losing allies left, right, and centre Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) was left with one issue, she had to act, or she will have lost before she started, but what should she do. So she targeted the Lannister food convey taking the plunder of Highgarden to King’s Landing. This created the first moment since maybe Season Two where we had a battle with multiple people on both sides that we didn’t want to see die. The battle was vicious, devastating, and a reminder that war has forever changed in Game of Thrones. This week we find out how Cerise (Lena Headey) responds, but also we are reminded that while people faff around in the South, in the North a greater enemy is coming, and it is not going to wait to find out who wins the game of thrones. As always, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] incoming.
Continue reading

TV Review – Game of Thrones: The Spoils of War

TL;DR – Beware the cornered queen, and Starks reunite

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Stormborn

Review

So today we have reached the half way point in Season Seven of Game of Thrones, and if you thought they were going to let up after last week’s slaughter you will be sadly mistaken. So at the end of last week’s The Queen’s Justice (review) Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) had lost pretty much all the allies she came to Westeros with. Yara (Gemma Whelan) is a prisoner of Euron (Pilou Asbæk) her weird uncle who is making a point to woo Cersei (Lena Headey) like right in front of Jamie (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), like dude, that’s a party foul. So the Greyjoys are done, Dorne has been lost as Ellaria (Indira Varma) is chained in the dungeons of King’s Landing watching her daughter die, oh and with Highgarden falling and the apparent death of the Lady Olenna (Diana Rigg) #QueenOfThornesUntilTheVeryEnd she has lost the Reach as well. All of this is topped off with Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) being outmanoeuvred by his brother leaving Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson) and the rest of the unsullied trapped in Casterly Rock. Everything, all her carefully laid plans have failed, but when you back Daenerys into a corner, history has shown that this is when she is the most dangerous. Now, of course, there will be [SPOILERS] incoming.
Continue reading

TV Review – Cleverman: Season 2

TL;DR – A brilliant follow up from Season One

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Season Two

Review

So Season Two of Cleverman has come, hit us hard, and it’s now over. So we have had some time to think back and contemplate on the overarching themes for the season and how it worked, which is what we are going to do today. So today with our review we will look at how Season Two improved on Season One, look at the central themes and characters, and finally conclude on the importance of Cleverman.  Before we start, just a warning that we will be talking about the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS]. Also, this will be looking more broadly at the season, if you what to look at individual episodes, then you can look at our reviews here: RevivalBindawu, Dark Clouds, Muya, Skin & Borrowed Time.

Continue reading