Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Top 2022 Series and Season Finales

Series Finales:
1. Women of the Movement
2. Black Bird
3. Better Call Saul
4. Inside Man
5. Ozark
6. The Walking Dead
7. Batwoman
8. Blade Runner: Black Lotus
9. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
10. Man vs. Bee
Honorable Mentions:
Let the World See
The Book of Boba Fett
Five Days at Memorial
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Gaslit
Kevin Can F**k Himself
The First Lady
The Patient
Theodore Roosevelt
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Under the Banner of Heaven
Grace and Frankie
Legends of Tomorrow
Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water
Made for Love
Moon Knight
A Friend of the Family
The Flight Attendant
The Boys Presents: Diabolical
Pam & Tommy
Ms. Marvel
Stargirl
Baymax!
Inside Job
The Offer
Candy
Keep Breathing
The Girl from Plainville
Locke & Key
The Staircase
The Essex Serpent
Inventing Anna
This Is Us
The Cuphead Show!
A League of Their Own
The English
Joe vs. Carole
1899
Blumhouse's Compendium of Horror
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
I Love That for You
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl
The Peripheral
The Midnight Club
One of Us Is Lying
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Space Force

Season Finales:
1. Stranger Things fourth season finale-Chapter Nine: The Piggyback
2. The Righteous Gemstones second season finale-I Will Tell of All Your Deeds
3. The Sandman first season finale-Dream of a Thousand Cats/Calliope
4. American Horror Story: NYC finale-Requiem 1981/1987
5. The Ghost and Molly McGee first season finale-The Jig is Up/Molly vs. The Ghost World
6. Barry third season finale-starting now
7. Around the World in 80 Days first season finale-Episode 8
8. Peacemaker first season finale-It's Cow or Never
9. Euphoria second season finale-All My Life, My Heart Has Yearned for a Thing I Cannot Name
10. Severance first season finale-The We We Are
Honorable Mentions:
9-1-1: Lone Star third season finale-A Bright and Cloudless Morning
Fear the Walking Dead seventh season finale-Gone
Andor first season finale-Rix Road
Dexter: New Blood first season finale-Sins of the Father
Superman & Lois second season finale-Waiting for Superman
The Umbrella Academy third season finale-Oblivion
Rick and Morty sixth season finale-Ricktional Mortpoon's Rickmas Mortcation
What We Do in the Shadows fourth season finale-Sunrise, Sunset
The White Lotus second season finale-Arrivederci
The Devil's Hour first season finale-Amor Fati
Only Murders in the Building second season finale-I Know Who Did It
The Flash 2014 eighth season finale-Negative, Part Two
The Boys third season finale-The Instant White-Hot Wild
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power first season finale-Alloyed
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin first season finale-Chapter Ten: Final Girls
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series third season finale-Let It Go
Human Resources first season finale-Shitstorm
The Cuphead Show! second season finale-The Devil's Pitchfork (Part 2)
The Rookie fourth season finale-Day In The Hole
Chucky second season finale-Chucky Actually
Our Flag Means Death first season finale-Wherever You Go, There You Are
NCIS 19th season finale-Birds of a Feather
The Watcher first season finale-Haunting
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder first season finale-Old Towne Road Part 1
Slow Horses first season premiere-Follies
Dark Winds first season finale-HózhóoNaasháa
Wednesday first season finale-A Murder of Woes
Secrets of Sulphur Springs second season finale-Time Is Not On Our Side
Power Rangers Dino Fury finale-The Nemesis
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fourth season finale-How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
Shining Vale first season finale-Chapter Eight-We Are Phelps
American Horror Stories second season finale-Lake
The Afterparty first season finale-Maggie
Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story finale-God of Forgiveness, God of Vengeance
Killing It first season finale-The Storm
The Old Man first season finale-VII
Resident Alien second season finale-I Believe in Aliens
Snowpiercer third season finale-The Original Sinners
Upload second season finale-Download
The Crown fifth season finale-Decommissioned
Solar Opposites third season finale-The Fog of Pupa
Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty first season finale-Promised Land
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities first season finale-The Murmuring
The Legend of Vox Machina first season finale-The Darkness Within
Yellowjackets first season finale-Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Reservation Dogs second season finale-I Still Believe
Jack Ryan third season finale-Star on the Wall
Riverdale sixth season finale-Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen: Night of the Comet
Interview with the Vampire first season finale-The Thing Lay Still
The Gilded Age first season finale-Let the Tournament Begin
9-1-1 fifth season finale-Starting Over
NCIS: Los Angeles thirteenth season finale-Come Together
The Good Doctor fifth season finale-Sons

Monday, November 27, 2023

Archie and Me #132

Archie and Me #132 is part of a series that ran from 1964 to 1987 wherein each issue depicted Archie's antics and interactions with a specific character from the franchise. In the case for this comic it's the school principal, Mr. Weatherbee. This issue has a few short stories focusing on them as well as one pagers with Sabrina, Li'l Jinx, and advertisements. Stories include Archie and Jughead tricking Weatherbee into closing the school with a snow maker, Archie's team being beaten by Weatherbee's faculty team in basketball, and Weatherbee being annoyed by Archie saying lousy. It's all rather simplistic, as one would expect from Archie, but it's entertaining with good writing and great artwork. Something that's surprising is that each of the stories are written, drawn, and colored by different people. It isn't too noticeable when it comes to the writing, though with the art and coloring there are a few small differences between them. On the surface, Archie and Me #132 isn't too remarkable but does manage to be a quick and easy read. Over all: 100%
Top list so far for 3rd set of comics:
1. Green Arrow Vol. 1 #1
2. Star Wars: Dark Empire #1
3. Deadman: Love After Death #1
4. Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck: The Don Rosa Library Vol. 1
5. Hulk Vol. 5 #1
6. Avnegers: War Across Time #1
7. The Yellow Kid
8. Archie and Me #132
9. Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #1
10. Action Comics Vol. 1 #674

Friday, November 17, 2023

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Harrison Ford returns for the fifth and final time as the iconic bull whip using, fedora wearing archeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The first few minutes are set in 1944, wherein a younger Indy and Basil Shaw, a friend of his played by Toby Jones, fight the Nazis to obtain half of an artifact created by Archimedes. The rest of the movie moves forward to 1969, right after the moon landing. Indy now lives alone as his marriage with Marion strained due to Mutt's death in Vietnam and is getting ready to retire from teaching. After he reunites with Helena Shaw, Basil's daughter and Indy's goddaughter played by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, they both get entangled with Neo-Nazis who want to find the rest of Archimedes's device. The Neo-Nazis are led by Mads Mikkelsen's Voller, a former Nazi scientist whom Indy fought at the beginning, who plans to use the device to travel through time and ensure Nazi victory in the war. While Ford, John Rhys-Davies, and Karen Allen all come back from the previous films, this is the first time that Steven Spielberg and George Lucas were not involved for the direction or story conceivement. They do serve as executive producers while James Mangold takes over directing, while cowriting with Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth, and David Koepp. The writing still has that great flare that the past four films had, getting the characters right, and doing the usual globetrotting and solving puzzles tropes. Although it does lead to really well done drama and beautiful character moments elevated by Ford's performance, the decision to kill of Mutt felt very forced and incredibly pandering just because he wasn't well liked by fans back in 2008. There's also the length, at over two and a half hours, making it the longest of the series and the writing really makes you feel it. Compared to the last four, there are really long scenes or scenes that really feel sluggish. The intro, for example, could have been a tad shorter. When it isn't because of the writing going on, another aspect to the length are the action scenes. Mangold is no stranger to incredible set pieces, but it's easy to tell how his style differs from Spielberg. The action scenes, while fun and inventive, rely on a lot of close ups and often are way too long. Though they use CG effects and Phedon Papamichael's cinematography to help make it compelling as much as they could. What made the action with Spielberg so great was knowing when to end and not overstaying their welcome. Even after all these decades, Ford has never lost his touch. Whether he portrays a younger Indy through de-aging or in his older state, Harrison shows his love for the character all the way until the end. Sure, younger Indy sounds like an old man with the face of a younger one, but one could easily say he had a cold. All the while the rest of the cast are all strong, with Waller-Bridge using her natural comedic chops to the full advantage, Boyd Holbrook making for a menacing henchman, and Mikkelsen being compelling. Besides three of the cast, someone else who returned to the series is regular composer John Williams as he perfectly mixes older tracks with newer stuff. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which while finishes off a franchise that first began in 1981 thanks to Spielberg and Lucas's love of adventure serials, is a great, though very flawed, finale and while not the absolute best of the series it's at least not Temple of Doom. Over all: 98%
2023 top list so far:
1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
3. Elemental
4. Air
5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
6. Creed III
7. John Wick: Chapter 4
8. Scream VI
9. M3GAN
10. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
11. Cocaine Bear
12. Knock at the Cabin
13. The Flash
14. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
15. Renfield
16. Fast X
17. The Little Mermaid 2023
18. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
19. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
20. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Elemental

Who else but Pixar could give emotions to anthropomorphic elements of nature with Elemental and manage to mix a love story with themes of immigration, prejudice, and inheriting traditions. Set in Element City where people based on air, water, earth, and fire all reside, it centers on Ember Lumen, a young fire based girl whose family owns a convenience store that one day she'll inherit. After dealing with overbearing customers, Ember's anger causes a pipe to break and as water floods the basement, a water based city inspector named Wade falls out after he had been stuck in the city's pipes. Since Wade finds the plumbing to the store faulty and sends a report that may close the store, Ember tries to keep him from sending it. From there, the two go on an adventure where they find out that the wall protecting the fire based people from flooding is breaking, meet Wade's family, and learn how fire based people are often looked down upon by the other elements due to their seemingly destructive nature. What sets this apart from much of Pixar's work is that there isn't a villain to face or an antagonist who keeps the heroes from achieving their goals. There are characters who judge Ember and the other fire based characters, but they're not the main focus and by the end their prejudice does start to soften. For the most part it's a romantic comedy-drama inspired by Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Moonstruck as well as director Peter Sohn's experience as the child of immigrants. The writing doesn't do anything too outstanding or new in terms of the genres and subject matters but how it handles those themes together as well as how the characters are all written really show how careful and understanding. You couldn't have this well rounded characters without the impeccable performances from the cast, most importantly Leah Lewis and Mamoudou Athie as the leads. Lewis makes Ember's anger and impatience feel believable, while Athie gives Wade such an endearing vulnerability, all while the two give off great chemistry. It should be no surprise that the animation from a Pixar movie is stunning, but you add that with the incredibly vibrant colors and how fluid the many elements are, you start to wonder what they could do next. Despite the initial belief that this movie would bomb despite just how incredible it is due to how Pixar's last few since COVID hit have either made under or went straight to Disney+, Elemental becoming a sleeper hit is one of the best success stories of recent times. Over all: 100%
2023 top list so far:
1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
3. Elemental
4. Air
5. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
6. Creed III
7. John Wick: Chapter 4
8. Scream VI
9. M3GAN
10. Cocaine Bear
11. Knock at the Cabin
12. The Flash
13. The Super Mario Bros. Movie
14. Renfield
15. Fast X
16. The Little Mermaid 2023
17. Shazam! Fury of the Gods
18. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
19. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Thursday, November 9, 2023

Top 10 New Shows and Season Premieres of 2022

New Shows:
1. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers
2. Women of the Movement
3. Around the World in 80 Days
4. Five Days at Memorial
5. The Devil's Hour
6. Let the World See
7. Andor
8. The Sandman
9. I Love That for You
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Honorable Mentions:
Dark Winds
Inside Man
The Old Man
Ms. Marvel
Our Flag Means Death
Under the Banner of Heaven
The Gilded Age
Theodore Roosevelt
Inventing Anna
Moon Knight
Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Tales of the Jedi
Fear the Walking Dead: Dead in the Water
The Afterparty
Welcome to Flatch
The Offer
Severance
Tales of the Walking Dead
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
Wednesday
The Thing About Pam
Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin
The Girl from Plainville
Peacemaker
Walker: Independence
Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Pam & Tommy
Black Bird
Gaslit
Man vs. Bee
I Am Groot
The 101 Scariest Horror Movie Moments of All Time
A Friend of the Family
Welcome to Chippendales
Blumhouse's Compendium of Horror
The Boys Presents: Diabolical
The Legend of Vox Machina
The Essex Serpent
Hamster & Gretel
Quantum Leap 2022
Shining Vale
Tulsa King
Fleishman Is in Trouble
The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
The English
The Cuphead Show!
The Winchesters
Let the Right One In
Killing It
Candy
Bel-Air
The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder
The Staircase
We Baby Bears
National Treasure: Edge of History
Loot
Slow Horses
The Baby
The Rookie: Feds
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window
Tokyo Vice

Season Premieres:
1. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman fourth season premiere-Billie Eilish
2. Stranger Things fourth season premiere-Chapter One: The Hellfire Club
3. The Cleaning Lady second season premiere-Sins of the Father
4. 9-1-1: Lone Star third season premiere-The Big Chill
5. The Righteous Gemstones second season premiere-I Speak in the Tounges of Men and Angels
6. The White Lotus: Sicily premiere-Ciao
7. Only Murders in the Building second season premiere-Persons of Interest
8. The Problem with Jon Stewart second season premiere-The War Over Gender
9. Rick and Morty sixth season premiere-Sola ricks
10. What We Do in the Shadows fourth season premiere-Reunited
Honorable Mentions:
The Boys third season premiere-Payback
Documentary Now! fourth season premiere-Soldier of Illusion
Who Do You Think You Are? 2010 eleventh season premiere-Billy Porter
Ozark fourth season premiere-The Beginning of the End
Resident Alien second season premiere-Old Friends
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series third season premiere-Happy Campers
Young Rock third season premiere-The People Need You
Better Call Saul sixth season premiere-Wine and Roses
Secrets of Sulphur Springs second season premiere-Only Time Will Tell
The Cuphead Show! third season premiere-The Devil's Revenge (Part 3)
9-1-1 sixth season premiere-Let The Games Begin
Made for Love second season premiere-I Have a Rotten Finger
The Umbrella Academy third season premiere-Meet the Family
Stargirl: Frenemies premiere-Chapter One: The Murder
Are You Afraid of the Dark?: Ghost Island premiere-The Tale of Room 213
The Orville: New Horizons premiere-Electric Sheep
Reservation Dogs second season premiere-The Curse
Barry third season premiere-forgiving jeff
Superman & Lois second season premiere-What Lies Beneath
The Crown fifth season premiere-Queen Victoria Syndrome
American Horror Story: NYC premiere-Something's Coming
The Flight Attendant second season premiere-Seeing Double
NCIS: Hawai'i second season premiere-Prisoner's Dilemma
The Mysterious Benedict Society second season premiere-A Perilous Journey
Avenue 5 second season premiere-No One Wants an Argument About Reality
American Horror Stories second season premiere-Dollhouse
Law & Order: Organized Crime third season premiere-Gimme Shelter - Part One
Jack Ryan third season premiere-Falcon
Rutherford Falls second season premiere-White Man in the Cupboard
The Good Doctor sixth season premiere-Afterparty
Physical second season premiere-Don't You Want Me
Euphoria second season premiere-Trying to Get to Heaven Before They Close the Door
Snowpiercer third season premiere-The Tortoise and the Hare
Pretty Hard Cases second season premiere-Pencil Skirts
Raven's Home fifth season premiere-The Wrong Victor
This Is Us sixth season premiere-The Challenger
The Simpsons 34th season premiere-Habeas Tortoise

Sunday, November 5, 2023

Carl's Date

Originally meant to be part of the Disney+ Dog Days series, Carl's Date was put before Elemental and is also the final entry related to 2009s Up after the death of Carl Fredricksen's voice actor Ed Asner in 2021. The Pixar short sees Carl decide to go on his first date since the death of his wife but not entirely sure how to prepare himself. With help from Dug, though many of his efforts start out as dog related, Carl eventually realizes that he doesn't have to go too extreme and something simple will be best. Before he goes out on his date, to which he brings Dug as backup, he assures a picture of his late wife, Ellie, that she will always be his girl and that it's the start of a new adventure. This final epilogue to the Up franchise not only serves as a wonderful way to say goodbye to Carl, but especially to the long and incredible life of Asner. Joining Asner is Bob Peterson coming back to not only voice Dug but getting to write the final story to the same franchise he cowrote in 2009. Even if this was not meant to be the last project related to Up, the performance from Asner and the writing for him definitely feels so well done. Dug, as always, is fun thanks to Peterson's performance and his interactions with Carl will always be sweet. His writing is just incredibly sweet, emotional, and manages to round out the key aspects to Carls' character since the original movie. It also helps that, this being from Pixar, the animation is perfect and when you combine it with the music from Andrea Datzman you get something quite tearful and complete and all just from a short film with very little settings. Ed Asner had a very long and incredible career that began in 1957, so to end with Carl's Date is a perfect sendoff.