TL;DR – This is a great
episode that shows the strength of the Short Trek formula with some truly
delightful moments
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
We are back with another season of Short
Treks, one of the more novel experiments that have come out of this third Star Trek TV resurgence. These are a
number of shorts in and around the Star
Trek universe (mostly but this season not exclusively around Star
Trek Discovery). Like last year’s The
Escape Artist that looked at Harry Mudd. Today we get to dive
back into this world with a fun look at someone’s first day on the job.
So to set the scene, it is Ensign Spock’s (Ethan Peck) first day on the job.
After a long flight to Starbase 40, he beams aboard and is welcomed by Number
One (Rebecca Romijn). After some pleasantries, Number One decides to show the
new ensign the Bridge only for the turbolift to fail on transit giving them a
lot of time to chat.
TL;DR – This is and continues
to be the gold standard to adaptations of literature, capturing the heart of
the books, even if it does not hit every plot beat along the way.
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
I mentioned back in my look at the New
Golden Age of Science Fiction that The Expanse is one of the best adaptations on TV at the moment. Here
in Australia, I got to watch the first two seasons on Netflix and was
constantly entranced with just what a good job they did of bringing James S. A.
Corey’s books to life. The third season has been tricky to find but today I was
able to hunt it down on Amazon and gave it a watch. Well, how does it do? Well,
I can tell you that I watched the entire first arc of the season in one
session, being so completely engrossed that I didn’t realise how late in the
evening it had gotten … so that it is always a good sign.
So to set the scene, we open in the aftermath of season two and the turn that
put Chrisjen Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) from a position of absolute power
to her running for her life after being betrayed by Sadavir Errinwright (Shawn
Doyle). Stuck on a ship that has just been fired upon by her own side there is
not much hope for escape but then that is why she brought Bobbie Draper (Frankie
Adams) a former Martian marine along. They manage to escape, but they are still
under pursuit, and while they were gone the whole solar system has erupted into
war and the Jupiter planetary system is ground zero for the conflict. Meanwhile,
on the Rocinante the crew are dealing
with two big problems, the fact that Naomi (Dominique Tipper) lied to them, and
they have done nothing really to help Prax (Terry Chen) find his daughter. With
everything falling apart the question is: will James Holden (Steven Strait) going
to step in and help stop this war, or is he going to sit back and let others
make the tough calls?
TL;DR – An ambitious series
drawing inspiration from multiple religious and mystical frameworks that while
pioneering in many respects, completely fails to stick the landing
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
Today I get to finally explore the third pillar of 1990s sci-fi anime with the
massively influential Neon Genesis
Evangelion. For me, this was almost a form of closure given how much I have
watched the other two pillars Cowboy
Bebop and Ghost in the Shell but
I never got to see Evangelion. It was
also interesting to see a show that has been massively influential to the genre
but watching it with 20 years of extra context on top of it. Well if nothing
else, the ending stinger to last year’s Desert Bus now makes sense. With
that in mind, let’s dive in and explore Hideaki Anno’s work of gods, and
angels, and science, and man.
So to set the scene, in the year 2000 a great calamity arouse across the world
when the second impact occurred in Antarctica blasting the icy continent to
ruin and melting all its ice causing extensive flooding across the world. The
UN authority declared that the cause was a giant meteorite impact, hence common
term of it being ‘the second impact’ (okay sort of, but also sort of not, it
gets complicated). However, this is all a cover, because what really happened
is that a creature of great power was discovered under the ice, this Angel was
called Adam and something the researchers did trigger him destroying
everything. 15 years later, Shinji Ikari (Megumi Ogata/ Spike Spencer/ Casey
Mongillo) is running through deserted streets to a pick-up location. The whole
area has gone into emergency lockdown for some unknown reason, and that reason
turns out to be a second angel that everyone kind of expected was coming. Just
before he is crushed, Shinji is rescued by Captain Misato Katsuragi (Kotono
Mitsuishi/ Allison Keith/ Carrie Keranen) and taken to Tokyo-3 where a
secretive organisation Nerv has their headquarters. The leader of Nerv is
Shinji’s father Gendo Ikari (Fumihiko Tachiki/ Tristan MacAvery/ Ray Chase) who
is at best distant, but a more fair description would be icy or even abusive.
However, Shinji does not have time to process that because he is announced to
be the Third Child, and one of only a few people that can pilot an Evangelion
which he has to do like now.
TL;DR – This is really a slow
burn but then it grabs you as all the different parts start to merge together
and you discover what is behind The Island and the number 39.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
One of my great joys is watching the TV Show Survivor where they throw a bunch of random people on an island and
subject them to the elements and every puzzle under the Sun. It is such an
interesting scenario, that I am surprised that we don’t see more people take
advantage of it narratively. Well, today we get to look at a show that does
just that, exploring a world where you can trust nothing and no one, not even
what you can see with your own two eyes.
So to set the scene, one morning you wake up, but you are not at home in your
bed, you are on a beach lying in the sand with waves crashing into you. To add
to this you cannot remember how you got there, or even who you are. As Chase (Natalie
Martinez) tries to get her bearings she stumbles across KC (Kate Bosworth) and
discovers that she is not alone. There are ten of them and no one can remember
anything bar waking up on the beach. As they try to find something of their
past lives, the reality of their situation dawns and soon the power politics
show their heads and worse. Now from here, we will be looking at the season
as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – This is a well-made
animation, with an interesting story, world and characters. Full of interesting
juxtapositions like magic and technology.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
I was thinking the other day of my joy at the old Monkey Magic stories. It had me wonder that it has been a long time
since I have seen a good travel story where a group of disparate people are
brought together through fate and then discover all their flaws and joys in the
face of shared adversity. Well as fate would have it just a couple of days
later a little surprise dropped on Netflix which was everything I didn’t know I
wanted.
So to set the scene, we open in on a desert wasteland on an alien (maybe)
planet with a disintegrating moon floating in orbit. Our first clue that this
is an interesting place is the image of a giant bull trampling across the
plains in search of a toilet. We cut to a town on the frontier full of dust,
wood, and a casual disregard for life. There are humans and other creatures,
and all sorts of robots, mechs, and mechanical augmentations. In the streets
walks Sam (A Special Associate Model) (Kamali Minter) from the faraway kingdom
of Botica. She does not seem to fit the tone of the local area, making friends
in a land of gunfights and wanton murder. But she is on a mission to find a
lost prince and the one person who can help her do that Philly the Kid (Kenn
Michael). One issue is that he does not really want to help, also he is cursed
and can’t die, also he had a large bounty on him that everyone is trying to
collect. So Sam, Philly, and Casey (Kamali Minter) a maintenance droid head off
on the mission in their pink coin-operated Mustang that can transform into a
bull. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will
be some [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – A campy schlocky mess
at times, but also kind of endearing when it hits its groove
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
We have been living through an interesting time for Science Fiction on TV, with
the rise of streaming services we have seen a plethora of new shows and ideas
that both look to the future and reinterpret the past. Today we are getting a
Sci-fi show that kind of does both, building upon very real concerns in the
world but framing it in a style of Sci-Fi that we have not seen in a long time.
With that in mind let’s jump in and explore the full first season.
So to set the scene, we open with a normal day on Earth in the not too distant
future after the world has been devastated by a second great depression and the
great flood. Things are starting to return to some sort of normalcy when an
alien ship smashes through the atmosphere flies across the USA and crashes into
a field transforming itself into a huge crystalline lattice. Months later, they
are still no closer to finding out what the artefact is or wants, but they have
picked up a transmission to the Pi Canis Majoris solar system. To work out what
to do they send the USIC Salvare under
the command of Niko Breckinridge (Katee Sackhoff) out to investigate. Niko had
to leave her daughter Jana (Lina Renna) and her husband Erik (Justin Chatwin)
behind as Erik is leading the scientific mission at the crash site. But before
too long things start going wrong, and we still don’t know if the aliens are friends
or foe. Now from here, we will be
looking at the season as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – This is one of those
Sci-Fi shows that has you wondering what the hook is going to be and then it
hits you.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
While there have been a lot of issues, one of the best things to come out of
the new streaming world has been a new wave or really interesting Science
Fiction TV shows. At the heart of this, but by no means the only contributor,
has been Netflix that has had a huge slate of really interesting Sci-Fi
content. Well, today we get to take a look at its newest addition Another Life with an exploration of its
pilot episode Across the Universe.
Overall, there was a lot of interesting facets in this first episode, but one
thing I really liked was the production. The design for the Salvare has facets
that are instantly recognisable but also are a little unique. The rings have a
visual language of a rotating gravity ship, but there is internal gravity so
there is an interesting juxtaposition. The standing sets are also really
interesting mixing a bland of high-tech and also
maybe-we-filmed-this-in-a-warehouse-somewhere that kind of works. Also, I am a
sucker for astronomy, so you had me sucked in the moment you stopped at Sirius
A, which they showed in all its glory.
TL;DR – It builds on
the season before and becomes a much more intense show that maybe holds its
cards bit too close to its chest.
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
Early last year I got a chance to watch the first Netflix show to come out of
Scandinavia. The Rain had a fantastic
premise with strong characters, overarching story, and design work. Though it
was a show where it would have been great to see it take some more risks and
chart a more independent course. Flash forward to a week ago and the second
season dropped onto the service and at once it captivated me back into this
world of post-apocalyptic Denmark.
So to set the scene, one day everyone’s lives in Denmark and at least Southern
Sweden changed for the worse. For that day it started to rain, nothing new in
Scandinavia, but this time the rains did not bring life, but death. Something
we are reminded about in the opening moments of Season Two when we see the carnage
once more to give us perspective moving forward. We jump back into the story
just when Season
One ended with Simone (Alba August), Rasmus (Lucas Lynggaard
Tønnesen), Martin (Mikkel Følsgaard), Jean (Sonny Lindberg), Lea (Jessica
Dinnage), and Patrick (Lukas Løkken) escaping from the Apollon headquarters
along the barrier wall in Sweden. Just when all hope is lost, Simone and
Rasmus’ father Frederick (Lars Simonsen) gives them a location where they might
get some help, moments before he himself is killed. So with a plan, they set
off for this hidden base, but there could be an even worse danger within
because the virus in Rasmus is adapting and changing and it is destroying
everything in its path. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a
whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – Time travel, parallel
universes, and the end of the universe, oh my.
Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Review –
Time travel is a dangerous thing because you never know just what you may accidentally
do. Today we are looking at the second part of an interesting look at the past
of The Orville. It gives us time to
see characters in a new light, in new circumstances, and asks the question:
what could really happen when you know the future?
So to set the scene, at the end of Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) was meant to be sent
back in time with her memories wiped so she could not accidentally change the
crew’s past and her future because of the knowledge she knows. Well at the end
of last week’s episode we discover that the memory wipe didn’t take, and out of
a need to not cause any pain Kelly decides not to accept Ed’s (Seth MacFarlane)
proposal for a second date. I mean that can’t change anything, right, it is
just one date, right …? Well, as it turns out it might have changed everything. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode
as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR – We look to the past
and find out how much we have changed, the show included
Score – 4 out of 5 stars
Review –
Time travel, oy vey, nothing quite gives me a headache like a temporal mechanics
headache and today we are looking a doozy of one. Now, of course, this is not
the first time that The Orville has dabbled
in the world of time travel with Pria
happening all the way back in Season
One, which also set up some stuff that the show has yet to quite follow
through with. However, today’s temporal jump is a much more personal affair.
So to set the scene, we open with Ed (Seth MacFarlane), Kelly (Adrianne Palicki),
Talla (Jessica Szohr), and Gordon (Scott Grimes) sharing a drink and reminiscing
about the past. Talking about the past has Ed reminiscing about lost loves but
Kelly makes it clear that it would not be good for the ship or them if they
repeated the past. The next day Isaac (Mark Jackson) and John (J. Lee) are
showing Kelly a potential new temporal device when the ship is hit by a massive
gravity wave. Not only does the damage the ship but it interacts with the
device and all of a sudden a Kelly from seven years ago is standing in the
science lab. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so
there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.
TL;DR Movie Reviews and Analysis 