Once Upon a Time — Season 2 Review

The first season of the show felt like held a consistency because of a feeling of domesticity (i.e. a home-like feeling) and the second season moves on from that.
This season, instead, prefers to move the series into a different shift of battles and magic and arcs like a serial drama or something.
(Think True Blood and you'll know what I am talking about; the series begins to prefer using more cliffhangers and all of that.)

First off, there is not just one antagonist, but several.
And because this is has several smaller arcs put together instead of an overarching arc, it's hard not to spoil anything.
However, the series' main antagonists are mainly still the antagonists.
Rumplestiltskin is still here after the curse is broken.
Regina is still here, mostly, but makes attempts to be good, which are foiled by her mother, Cora.
Then Captain Hook joins the fray, teaming up with the aforementioned (i.e. previously mentioned) character.

Captain Hook, of course, has much to do here as he becomes a main character for this season and the next.

He goes from villain to anti-hero to villain and back forth many times.

And then there are the two that come later on. 

The two who have nothing to do with Storybrooke but have much to do with the first arc of the third season.

Emma uses her superpower on Hook.

Anyhow, the first small arc deals with the Broken Curse and how no one was taken back to the Enchanted Forest.

The second small arc deals with something that happens in the second episode: Emma and Mary Margaret are taken back to the Enchanted Forest via a portal from the Mad Hatter and need to find a way to get back.

This is where Captain Hook joins in.

When he joins in and his backstory is covered, well, that is the one and only episode in the entire series where neither Mary Margaret or Emma appear.

(Just a fact.)

Then the next small arc is slow and deals with Regina transitioning from magic to no-magic and from evil to good which is foiled by Cora coming to Storybrooke with Captain Hook because of a petrified bean they found that was made by the giants.

The final small arc deals with Tamara and Greg Mendell trying to destroy the magic in the town. 

This leads directly into the next arc and first arc of season three, as I've mentioned multiple times by now already.

Anyhow, the season felt extremely scattered because of all the different points and shifts of focus.

Like, I loved Regina's mother's backstory.

Although I definitely hated her death, mind you.

It did something to Snow and the blackness in her heart may be difficult to clear.

Then we saw Baelfire.

He's back!

Except now he's an adult...

And he left Emma stranded in jail because of August.

And August is a kid now?

Yikes.

Cora holding the product or Rumplestiltskin's tutoring.

But getting back to the actual review instead of just a rehash of what actually happened.

This season was both good and bad.

It was good because it did its best to not fill it with tons of filler like the first season and it did bad because it consistently feels like it does random things without reason.

Some things are explained in the next season and some are definitely not, like, what's up with that??

Philip in the Enchanted Forest.

Pros of the season: Prince Phillip because, and being completely subjective here, he is the best-looking prince of all the princes, even if his outfit is a bit laughable cause of how big it is.

Aurora because of how she knows of her image as a princess and tries to change it and does her best even though she's unskilled as a fighter.

Mulan because she is a fucking badass, are you kidding me, she's so great, seriously.

Cora because her backstory is great even if it later feels blotched as a result of season 3B.

Henry's birth origin story because it helps you realize just how connected everyone in Storybrooke is, seriously what a family tree.

Cons of the season: Scattered feeling all over.

Some things from the first season are irrelevant, hence me saying what a shame it was that there so much filler there (e.g. Cinderella and her prince).

A lot of things felt like they happened just so that the story would move forward and not because they could be helped; for example, at the very end the final antagonists jump into a portal with Henry and main characters all chase after them on Hook's ship even though only Regina and Emma feel as though they would've felt obliged to do so, like, it's later explained in season 3A why this is so but it still feels very unfulfilling somehow.

Grade:

Watch this but be wary of the way in which it is not perfect because you'll definitely notice either here or there, but it still adds more good than bad to the series as a whole and is worth it if you liked the first season although the formula feels largely different here.

Once Upon a Time — Season 1 Review

First of all, everything begins with a good pilot doesn't it? 
So let's first get into cause it introduces that larger story at hand.

The episode introduces Emma Swan, a woman who is completely alone and is apparently an orphan with no friends or family or anything to speak of. 
(She is also a bail bonds-person which seems to be like a bounty hunter, but super different??)

Emma in the pilot making her birthday wish before Henry's entry.

As she sets down her birthday (cup)cake and makes a wish and blows out the candle she gets someone ringing at the door. 

(The wish she makes is important, though, so keep an eye if you're interested in the series.)

Henry allegedly speaking to Emma, his birth mother.

The person at the door is none other than Henry Mills, a random 11 year old boy who barges in and tells her that he is her child and that he wants to take her back to where he lives because she must do something there, which is shown to be a curse. 

He wants her to break a curse that has caused his town, Storybrooke, to come into existence and trap fairy tale characters in it with no memory of who they are. 

Regina picking apples from the tree in her backyard.

After arriving in the town he realizes that his adoptive mother is the most important woman in all the town, the Mayor. 

Appropriately called Mayor Mills or Madame Mayor at times. 

Her name is Regina Mills. Henry accuses her of being the Evil Queen from the Snow White tale and his teacher, Mary Margaret Blanchard, of being Snow White.

Snow White in her Storybrooke dress as Mary Margaret Blanchard.

Anyhow, a lot of shit goes down and the mayor is shown to be a very aggressive person who will stop at nothing to get Emma out of the town which really irritates her and makes her want to stay in town just to see what's up with her and Henry and stuff.

She doesn't believe in the curse, of course.

Anyhow, that's the pilot's plot and it introduces the show's simple format for storytelling.

As in most shows, there is an A plot/B plot formula which here is established as being a Storybrooke in the present/Enchanted Forest in the past formula.

The Enchanted Forest is the name of the place where all of the fairy tale people originate.

Anyhow, as for the season's overarching plot:
Emma Swan, dubbed "The Saviour" by Henry Mills and Rumplestiltskin also known as Mr. Gold, is meant to break the Dark Curse cast The Evil Queen. 


In the beginning it is hard to tell exactly what the show is trying to do. 
A lot of its plots feel random and erratic.
But over time it establishes its point and goal, which is for Emma to believe in magic, and the curse itself.
Sure, she goes on Operation Cobra with Henry trying to find out how to break the curse and who to help and things like that, but she never truly believes.
At least not until the season finale, anyways.
Moreover, it takes them 18 episodes for them to even get into the reason why the Evil Queen is, oh, so hated by Snow White.
And getting to that episode was a breaking point, for me personally, anyhow.
It was then that I could relate the most to her.
It is then that her character is given so much depth and her character only grows as time passes.
But then again, so is Gold.
His character is given depth with the introduction of three characters, one of which does not appear until the second season.
The characters are his son, Baelfire, his wife, Milah, and his true love, Belle.

Mr. Gold in his shop.

Most other characters grow as well because of the plots, like Prince Charming also known as David Nolan.
His way of finding and loving Snow White is long and arduous and it even costs him and her big at times.

Prince Charming in his David Nolan attire.

Anyhow, is this worth watching?
Yes, I'd say so.
The CGI is awful, though, be warned.
And it can be corny sometimes, although it's literally fairy tale about fairy tale endings, so that's only to be expected.

Grade:
"Watch this if you are a fan of magic and fairy tales with a more serious touch to it. It is nowhere near as serious as The Wolf Among Us or the comic books it's based off of, Fables, but it's definitely like more grown-up Disney."

Game of Thrones Season 4 Finale Review

A few things happened in this episode the definitely set up the show for next season. As I've stated previously, this show climaxes in episode 9 and episode 10 tends to be more of an epilogue than anything.

Here, we saw how Stannis seized the Wildlings with Mance Rayder and the dead were all burnt from the previous episode. Ygritte, of course, was burned separately after Mance and Tormund reminded Jon that she loved him, no matter what. And she died in his arms last episode, so that was tragic. Yet another character death.

Then, we go and see Daenerys in Mereen. A man's daughter has died because Drogon burnt her to death. The girl was three years old and Daenerys is forced to lock up the two dragons of hers that she knows are there while Drogon roams free in places unknown to her.

[Addendum:]

Somewhere in the episode Bran appears with Hodor and Meera and Jojen and Summer and they finally find the tree that they have been looking for. Jojen dies before he reaches it by being stabbed by a skeleton and The Children are finally shown. These faerie type creatures appear and Bran reaches the three-eyed crow telling him that he can never walk but will learn to fly.

Afterwards, Cersei confirms that she and Jaime have been having an affair for the longest time and Tywin denies it and she decides to go back to Jaime and stay in King's Landing because she wants to stay near both her brother and her son.

Jaime, later on, releases Tyrion and lets him know that Varys is willing to take him to the Free Cities to escape his execution and Tyrion, before going, wishes to visit his father and give him some sort of farewell only to find that in his father's chambers and within his own bed is Shae. Shae calls Tywin "My Lion" the same way she called Tyrion and Tyrion is obviously hurt by this. He is even more hurt when she attempts to kill him and he is forced to kill her to live. He even sheds a tear and apologizes after she has died. When this is done, Tyrion grabs the crossbow and goes over to visit his father who is in the loo. Tywin tells Tyrion that he is his son and that he should leave the restroom so that they can have a more civilized talk elsewhere. Tyrion disagrees after telling him about Shae and Tywin calls him a whore. After being given a warning not to utter the word whore, Tywin does it once more and gets shot by Tyrion. After being shot, he says that Tyrion is not his son and never has been, which prompts Tyrion to denies this and shoot his father once more, killing him. Tyrion then goes back and gets taken by Varys to leave for the Free Cities and after Varys hears the bells tolling, he decides to leave with Tyrion as well.

One of the final, and more important, scenes is the one that takes place after Podrick loses his and Brienne's horses. Brienne finds Arya and she and The Hound fight to the death, unbeknownst to either of them, I presume. This fight was intense as both lose their swords at one point and decide to kill each other brutally and mercilessly. Arya hides whilst this happens and later on finds the Hound. He practically begs her to kill him and all she does is steal his silver and leave him to die. After she walks away and takes her horse, she rides to a small harbor and asks a man to take her away to the Wall. He refuses, naturally, and says that she cannot have a cabin and will not even let her work to be aboard the ship. After he mentions that he is a Braavosi man she says the famous words Valar Morghulis and gives him the coin which was given to her in season to and he responds with the appropriate Valar Dohaeris and we see her leaving Westeros aboard the ship looking towards the small harbor from whence she departed.

This season finale is extremely important considering how both Tyrion and Arya left Westeros after struggling for the longest time, and how Tywin is finally dead. Additionally, Brienne now knows that she's lost Arya and that will be major next season. This was a good season finale, although far from perfect because it's execution felt a bit iffy at parts and the pacing certainly made the plot points feel less important than they actually are. Nonetheless, the show continues to be good and will definitely have a good season next year, as much has happened and the set up will be interesting for the fifth season premiere.

Samurai Flamenco EP1 Review

The first episode of Samurai Flamenco was very...interesting.

At first, it begins with the certain formula of guy being the straight man, kind of like in a comedy, and he lives alone and he's a cop so it's all good. This guy is Goto.

Then, as we witnessed at the beginning of the episode, he encounters our second main character, Masayoshi.

This guy is a model. He grew up with superheros and the like and then found himself wanting to be one. He is eponymous (the show is named after him) and is much more fun and quirky than Goto who is slightly more serious and down to Earth. They have the popular best friend dynamic that is popular in anime and media in general that for some reason really reminds me of Domeki and Watanuki from xxxHolic.

Anyhow, onto plot and stuff.

Basically, the show begins with a very interesting first impression where Masayoshi is nude in an alley beside his superhero outfit and Goto meets him and then the outfit is set on fire and through a list of events Goto ends up rescuing Masayoshi after encountering a band of middle-schoolers who just beat him up cause they're thugs and stuff.

While the concept is similar to Kick-Ass, I certainly love the originality here, and the characters. For an anime, it surely seems like it could even be a TV series and is extremely grounded but still has an anime feel to it that is nice and makes it much more lovable.

Looking (HBO 2014 TV series) Review

Alright, so, I will be reviewing this in story arcs and not individual episodes. That seems best for here. Yeah? Yeah. Alright, let’s do this.

First arc let’s go over, Patrick’s. He’s the main character, it only makes sense.

So, first off, Patrick begins the show by doing his thing on OKCupid, and then after a bad date, he meets his love interest, Richie. And he’s Mexican and he clearly charms Patrick (Pato) and then at the end of the episode they meet. Patrick then messes their thing by trying to have sex too quickly and showing interest only in that. Well, after that happens, they meet again at a club and dance together. The next episode is all bonding type shit. Like, seriously. Then Richie meets Patrick’s friends and shit goes down and Richie agrees to go to Patrick’s sister’s wedding and, [sigh], they have an argument and Richie leaves. Then, at the wedding, a drunk Kevin (who is Patrick's boss, by the way) kisses him and Patrick pushes him away. The following episode they hook up after Richie told Patrick that he needed space, and Richie confesses the fact that he’s falling in love and then leave their relationship at a strange place.

Fuck, that was long. Anyhow, out of the three main arcs, I liked his most. So, there’s bias there, but he’s also the main character, so I think it’s logical.

Secondly, let’s move on to Dom. Dom’s story is pretty basic and easy, for the most part. In the beginning, he decides to talk to an ex from long ago. They agree to be friends or whatever, still, his name’s Ethan, I think? Anyhow, Dom asks him for eight thousand dollars that he was gonna use for his business with Portuguese (Peri-Peri) chicken, but the guy refuses because “it was a gift”. Anyhow, Dom then meets a guy at a bathhouse who has a business, and he tries to get help for his business idea. The guy agrees, and they meet with some other guys who have money for investments in the business and eventually this guy from the bathhouse, Lynn, just does a pop-up with Dom even though they have no one else, and after the attitude Dom gives Lynn, Lynn decides to not do business with him, and because there is no business tying them together anymore, just as Doris predicted earlier, Dom kisses Lynn attempting to expand their relationship into romantic territory.

Alright, so, Dom’s story was larger than I thought. Certainly didn’t feel that long when I was watching it.

Thirdly and lastly, there is Agustin’s story, who is also my least favorite character. No offense to his actor, Frankie J. Alvarez.

Agustin’s story is quite a mess, really. In the beginning, he moves out and leaves Patrick behind in pursuit of a closer relationship with his boyfriend, Frank. They’ve been long-term, so, next step? Living together. Anyhow, Agustin is this artist guy, and he gets fired from working with this woman very soon. Afterwards, he decides to make his own exhibit with Pauline, a contact of Frank’s. The exhibit idea he has in mind is one that involves a “sex worker”, as he calls him, named CJ or whatever. CJ actually looks like a sex worker, though, so kudos on that casting. But yeah, though, CJ films Frank and Agustin having sex, and then Agustin films Frank and CJ having sex, and that makes Agustin uncomfortable, so he cancels on the exhibit. Agustin has a confrontation with Frank and Frank tells Agustin what’s up and to leave. His story then just kinda involves him getting high and eventually crashing at Patrick’s and moving back.

The last scene is a laptop turned on and paused on The Golden Girls with Patrick stumbling onto the scene, sitting on the bed, and unpausing the video where the dialogue involves dating and such.

Overall, the season was quite good. Hopefully, it does not pull what Girls did, and having the second season be just awful because the continuity was kinda blotched in the term of themes and mood and tone.

However, on a scale of “Satan invented this TV series just to warn humanity about the tortures he has in store for the future” to “this is proof that god exists” I’d having to say that the series is “pretty good”. It was not perfect, but it definitely has a lot of potential. Lots and lots and lots. All’s to hoping the second season does not change things far too much. (For the worst, anyways.)