Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 11th, 2017
Things are about to change in big ways for the Disney series Once Upon A Time. The sixth season is now out on Blu-ray, and the seventh season has just begun its run on ABC. If you try to go back and forth between these seasons, you might be puzzled more than usual. The show goes into a serious reboot this year. The economics of the show have been pulling it towards either cancellation or pulling in the purse strings. While the ratings aren't exactly blockbuster, it's been a clever way for the Mouse House to keep their properties buzzing as they continue to remake many of their fairy tales in live action these days. So there's a value beyond merely ratings and advertisement revenue to be gained here. The best solution was obviously to rework the show, and that meant most of the cast are not returning. Only Regina (Parrilla), Hook (O'Donoghue), and of course Rumple/Gold (Carlyle) are returning as regulars in Season 7. So if you want to see the show's swan-song (pun intended), pick up Season 6 on Blu-ray.
Well, you're invited; now gather up your Disney Fastpass and get in line for more television adventures in Storybrooke. Ah, but before you get on the boat for this year's ride, you might want to be sure you're all caught up on the adventures of these characters. This is not the place to start. The mythology of Once Upon A Time gets quite complicated over the previous seasons. This is not the place to start if you want to watch the show. Check out our previous reviews of the first four seasons of Once Upon A Time. Bang it here to get caught up: Once Upon A Time Reviews.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on October 6th, 2017
“In our conversation, he seemed relaxed, unfailingly candid, earnest, and trustworthy. That is his talent and his curse.”
You probably know the name Bernie Madoff, the notorious fraudster who used a Ponzi scheme to steal almost $65 billion dollars from his victims. (Yes, that's “billion” with a B!) But if you were hoping to gain some insight into the man and his methods, this HBO film isn't really the place to look. The Wizard of Lies features a fantastic cast, some effective directorial touches, but is too often guilty of telling rather than showing.
Posted in: No Huddle Reviews by J C on October 2nd, 2017
“You love this type of drama.”
When Fox’s Empire premiered in early 2015, it became an instant sensation that re-wrote the ratings record books. The show’s mix of high drama and hip-hop obviously struck a chord with an underserved segment of TV viewers. Of course, that sort of otherworldly buzz and ratings success was never going to be sustainable. So while Empire has inevitably lost some of the sizzle from its unprecedented debut, this unapologetically over-the-top soap rap-era continues to entertain by leaning into its Twitter-shattering craziness.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 27th, 2017
“Ma'am, you need to understand that the president doesn't actually want you to do anything other than continue to be a woman — which you're doing a pretty okay job at.”
While Selina Meyer has done a passable job as a woman throughout the first five seasons of Veep, the vice president-turned-(temporary)president and her staggeringly incompetent staff have failed at pretty much everything else. The good news is Veep itself still does far more than an okay job of poking profane fun at the absurdity of Washington, D.C. and its swollen egos, even though season 6 finds Selina's squad more scattered than ever.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 27th, 2017
"My name is Oliver Queen. After five years in hell, I returned home with only one goal: to save my city. Today I fight that war on two fronts. By day, I lead Star City as its mayor. But by night, I am someone else. I am something else. I am the Green Arrow..."
Who the heck is this Green Arrow of whom you speak? If that's your first question, you need to go back a couple of grades and catch up with the rest of us. The comics are good place to begin, but the television universe is its own place and not tied so tightly to the DC comic book universe. Your best place to go to catch up would be the first three seasons. It'll be worth the effort, and I can get you started with those reviews found Here.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 23rd, 2017
Mixing science with comedy appears to not only be funny; it also has some serious staying power. It's been 10 years since Big Bang Theory first exploded on our television screens. The show continues to be one of the highest-rated comedy shows on television and seems to be going strong. The show takes the time and money to employ actual science consultants, so you might even learn something along the way. The secret to the show's success is that it's a situation comedy that really manages to be about the characters. All of that geek and science talk is background music to the main theme, which continues to be the characters and their relationships. Watching the 10th season I found myself a little amazed at how little story movement often occurs over a single 20 minutes. I was also amazed how little most of that mattered. But there is a formula here that delivers predictable laughs and has found quite a comfort zone with fans.
If there is a theme at all to the 10th season, it's certainly that of family. You can't miss the point from the very first episode of the season where Leonard (Galecki) and Penny (Cuoco) perform a second wedding ceremony so that their out of town family members can be a part of it. We already met Leonard's mom as the somewhat snarky psychologist Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, played by Christine Baranski from The Good Wife's (and its new spin-off The Good Fight. We had just met Leonard's father, Dr. Alfred Hofstadter, played by Judd Hirsch, at the end of last season. Hirsch might be best known from the 1970's classic Taxi, but he's been a constant force on television and films ever since. Of course, these two don't get along, and to the horror of both Leonard and Sheldon (Parsons) it seems as though he might be hitting it off a little too well with Sheldon’s mother, reprised by Laurie Metcalf.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by J C on September 22nd, 2017
“I don't want to be just guys in a house.”
Since its debut, Silicon Valley has brilliantly lampooned the tech industry by showing us both the proverbial “guys in a garage” and the self-important, aggressively eccentric billionaires obsessed with staying ahead of the curve. The show's central tension (and cruel joke) is that the ultimate endgame for the scrappy underdogs is to become...self-important, aggressively eccentric billionaires obsessed with staying ahead of the curve. Season 4 pushes the limit of the immoral behavior our alleged heroes will justify while continuing to deliver the best mix of brainy and bawdy laughs on television.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 22nd, 2017
When I first heard that the Lethal Weapon franchise was moving to television, I had very mixed reactions. Like most fans of the films, I remained hungry for more. My hopes of future films were dashed around the time Mel Gibson began his career as a Hollywood pariah and was abandoned by many in the industry. I guessed almost immediately that the films were over, at least for a very long time. You go through the usual stages of grief, and about the time I reached the acceptance stage, Matthew Miller comes along and decides to revive the franchise for the small screen. At first I was thinking, yes, this is great. Moments later it was more like Why. Apparently I had a few more stages to get through after all. The final stage was really watching the show on Blu-ray from Warner Brothers. And no matter what I say here, that might just be the only way you're going to be able to figure this out for yourself. All I can do is act a bit like a guide.
Lethal Weapon has been and still is about the two main leads. We're talking about Martin Riggs, who was played by Mel Gibson in the films and is now played by Clayne Crawford, and Roger Murtaugh, originated by Danny Glover in the films and now portrayed by Damon Wayans. At the heart of things these are the characters you have come to know and love in the films. But they are different in many ways. The pilot episode introduces us to each of them in their "native" element before bringing them together for their 18-episode first season adventure.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 21st, 2017
"Don't you get it? This is all meaningless. Heaven, hell, this world if it ever meant anything, that moment is passed. Nothing down here but a bunch of hopeless, distraction addicts, so filled with emptiness, so desperate to fill up the void. They don't mind being served another stale rerun of a rerun of a rerun."
No stale reruns here. Season 12 of Supernatural picks up exactly where the previous year left off. The brothers are not together at the moment. Dean has just helped out God's sister and gets a pretty sweet gift in return, while Sam's at the bunker and is surprised by a British lass with a gun. She shoots him, and it's off to join these stories into another wild year with an addition to the Winchester family. Who the heck are the Winchesters, you're asking yourself. Man, this is going to take some time, like about 200 hours of time, to get you up to speed. You can't start here, that much is certain. You can find a ton of our Supernatural reviews here Supernatural Reviews, and then you need to cash in those Amazon rewards points to pick up the previous seasons. Once you've done that, you can join us back here, because there's more to the story.
Posted in: Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2017
"I made a big mistake.... I wanted a new life. I wanted to start over, and that's what I did. But somehow I made things worse. So I reset everything. I put everything back to the way that it was before, except some things weren't the same any more. Not even a little bit."
That something is called Flashpoint. It's one of the biggest events not only in the Flash comic universe, but it had ramifications across the DC landscape and led to more than a few changes in that world. This season of The Flash uses that story arc to guide Season 3, but like everything else in these comic shows, it is quite different than the printed event. That's going to either excite fans or make some of them a little angry. If you can treat the series as its own thing, you're in for a high-speed adventure with the release of The Flash The Complete Third Season from Warner Brothers. But you had best be caught up. This speedster doesn't slow down for anyone, and if you hope to tag along, you should look into the first two seasons. Of course, we're happy to help with our reviews of both seasons that you can catch Here.
