TV Review – Westworld: The Riddle of the Sphinx

TL;DR – In an interesting turn of events, this is an episode with probably the biggest reveal so far in the series but it also feels like the weakest so far.

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

 

The Riddle of the Sphinx banner

 

Review
Well, this is an interesting episode, to say the least, in many respects, it drove the narrative forward in leaps and bounds, something I have been hoping for after the last three episodes just felt like moving people into place. However, while it was great to finally get a look at the Delos’ endgame, somehow I left today’s episode feeling more than a little lacklustre. So in today’s review I will try and reconcile those opposing forces, and as always we will be looking at the episode as a whole so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – 3%: Season One & Two

TL;DR – This is a fascinating look at a world of complete inequality, and how that affects the lives of those within.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

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Review

Today after watching The Rain (see review) I wanted to continue to explore more of the different Sci-Fi TV shows from around the world, and it just so happens that with the ending of The Rain I was recommended 3% from Brazil. So today we jump from the Post-Apocalyptic realm, and into the world of dystopia, stark power differences, and a world where the haves and the have-nots could not be further apart. In today’s review, we will be looking at both Season One and Two of 3% so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead for especially Season One but also some of the events that happen further along.

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TV Review – Westworld: Virtù e Fortuna

TL;DR – We start to delve into the larger world of the parks near Westworld, and discover what everyone could be hunting this season.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Virtu E Fortuna

 

Review

What is life, is it the drive to accumulate as much power as possible before we die, is it to live as honourably as possible, is it to care for your family at all cost, or is it to feel alive in whatever way possible? This episode looks at what drives us as humans (maybe not just humans), indeed what would you do to stay alive?

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TV Review – Westworld: Reunion

TL;DR – This first episode is like watching an oncoming storm approach. It is beautiful but also full of trepidation as it unleashes its torrent.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

 

Reunion

 

Review

What is life? It is a question as old as time itself. Were we created? Did we evolve? A little of both? Well in this week’s episode we take a look at some of those questions when the created become the creators and the created fight back. While Journey into Night (see review) had to do a lot of setting up to get the season started again, Reunion doesn’t have that baggage and as such it barrels full steam ahead into the season.

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TV Review – Westworld: Journey into Night

TL;DR – This first episode is like watching an oncoming storm approach. It is beautiful but also full of trepidation as it unleashes its torrent.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Journey into Night

Review

I didn’t get the chance to see Westworld Season One when it first aired because it was locked away on the only cable provider here in Australia and I just simply couldn’t afford to access it. So for me, it was just this show that was rumbling across the internet each week. Well a year later, and that same provider finally had to compete with something and they put out a half-ass streaming service for Game of Thrones (see review) and one of the bonuses was Westworld was watchable for the first time. So I sat down to see what it was all about and I was entranced. There were these fascinating stories that encapsulated you and that is before you realise that we are dealing with different timelines. There is the look at what makes something alive and how far you will go to make something sentient. There was a hunt for a child that you can’t remember, the greed of corporations, nudity that is first used for titillation but then used to make you deeply uncomfortable with the whole scenario. Now all of this was captivating but then that episode happened and everything changes, and at that point, I knew I was hooked. Well, today Season Two starts and I happy I get to see them live with everyone else, so let’s go back to the universe of Westworld and deal with the fall out of The Bicameral Mind.

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TV Review – Lost in Space: Season One

TL;DR – Blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, Blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, blar, blarrrrrrr

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Review

Rebooting an old and much-beloved TV series is a fraught proposition. Now from a business perspective, it makes perfect sense because you have an inbuilt fanbase to launch the show to. However, it also comes with a lot of baggage with fan expectations and a wealth of information that you have to wade through and decide what you will keep and what you will ignore. So for every Battlestar Galactica or Doctor Who you have a Knight Rider and Bionic Woman that failed to get that balance right. Today we have a chance to look at a series reboot that actually gets that balance right, both showing it understands and respect of the original, but also a show stepping out and doing its own thing. Now as we go on there will be some [SPOILERS] as we will be looking at the season as a whole, so just be warned if you have not seen it yet.

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TV Review – Lost in Space: Impact

TL;DR – Blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, Blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, blllaaaare baba bi bop bum barrrr, blar, blarrrrrrr

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Lost in Space

 

Review

Can you reboot a TV series that has been off the air for 40 years, and which the last attempt to bring it back to life on film was mixed at best and the last time on TV didn’t make it past the plot? Well, that is the question being asked here in this new Netflix series, and right from the start, we can see that Netflix is not here to play games. Today we are going to look at the pilot episode Impact, an episode that shows you how to do the first episode, and do it right.

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TV Review – Altered Carbon: Season One

TL;DR – Imagine if Westworld and Blade Runner had a baby with Ghost in the Shell as the midwife.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Altered Carbon

Review
What do we do as a society when the body is no longer the final resting place of the mind, or maybe even our souls? Well you get a world where you can wake up the dead and get them to tell you who killed them, where a child in a hit and run can get a second chance at life, where the rich can live forever jumping from one cloned body to the other, and where jail terms can last hundreds of years and you will wake up in a different body than the one you came in on. It is a world of great possibility but also a world of great sadness and inequality. So today we will be unpacking the first season of Altered Carbon an interesting show with highs and lows. However, quickly before we start, I have not read the books this show is based off, as such, I won’t be able to tell you how the show works as an adaptation on the source material. As well as this, because we are looking at the season as a whole, there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: Will You Take My Hand?  

TL;DR – In the end, we started with a group of people on a ship in space, and over the season, as adversity after adversity piled up, we ended with a crew.

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Will You Take My Hand?

Review

Oh wow, we have reached the end of Season One and what a season it was, there were jumps in time and space, war with the Klingons, even a sojourn in the Mirror Universe. Now all of this was like a freight train barrelling towards tonight’s finale and here we are. So today we are going to take some time to look at how the episode worked on its own, before looking at how the whole season worked as a while in an article a bit later this week.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: The War Within, The War Without  

TL;DR – The season is hurtling towards the season finale and today is about putting all our ducks in a row waiting for next week’s growing dilemma.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

The War Without, The War Within

Review

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the first season of Star Trek Discovery, and that today’s episode is the penultimate entry for the season. Now, this more than any episode this season was all about getting everything ready for what I am assuming is going to be a massive season finale. Which is good because you can see where it is going in the future, but does leave this being one of the weaker episodes this season, but given the strength of the season it still is a fascinating one to watch. Now as always, we will be going into depth with the episode, so there may be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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