Stranger Things - Season 3

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Even though I've watched it a couple of times now, I realize I still haven't actually reviewed the third season of Stranger Things. So, that's what I'm going to do. One of the first things about the third season I really appreciated was the fact that most of these kids are growing up. All of them are in relationships except for Will. But, I also like the way they dealt with Will in this season as well. I kind of think Will is the least interesting of the core kid group. But, with season 3, there's more of an effort to flesh him out. For most of the season, he's still kind of stuck in the past while his friends are growing up around him. I like it because it feels relatable. We've probably all known someone like that, or maybe we've been in Will's shoes. I also think Billy was a much more improved character this season. I thought he was kind of one-note in the majority of season two. If anything, this season cements him as one of the show's best villains. Some of the new additions are pretty fun. Cary Elwes is awesome as a sleazy politician. Murray returns for this season, and is quite a bit stronger in season 3. It doesn't hurt that he gets a bromance with a Russian defector named Alexei. Alexei's great too. Basically, he's just a big child. The motivations behind his attempts at bribery are Cherry Slurpees and being allowed to watch Looney Tunes. My favorite new addition has to be Robin. I speak so much to the characters on the show in my reviews because they are the highlights for me. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the action. I like the effects. I like the nostalgic callbacks. But, the characters and their relationships are the heart of the show. The one thing about this season I'm not entirely sure needs to be there anymore is Mike's parents and little sister. Mike and Nancy continue to feel like they are growing and developing. I'll say Mike's mom had some development. However, I don't entirely know what the dad and baby sister really offer anymore. They aren't awful characters. I just kind of feel like they are just there. I love how this season just kind of keeps building with each episode as well. There's an episode in the third season, The Sauna Test, that is easily in my top five. The episode just feels so tense, and actually raises the stakes. Overall, I think this season about on par with season one.

A

The End of the F***ing World - Season 1

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The End of the F***ing World is a black comedy Netlflix original series. The show follows two misfit teenagers on a road trip to escape their crappy lives. This is absolutely one of those shows where you watching it, wanting things to have a good ending, but you're never really sure that's what's going to happen. Alyssa is brash and rebellious, and doesn't really fit in, mostly because she doesn't seem to want to. She is the one who comes up with the idea to run away. James believes he is a psychopath. He only agrees to running away with Alyssa because he thinks he wants to kill her. I love watching these characters, and the performances by Alex Lawther and Jessica Braden are excellent. Their interactions make up the heart of the show. You hear both of their inner thoughts throughout the show. Along the way, these characters find themselves increasingly involved in robbery, breaking and entering, and murder. For this reason, two detectives (played by Gemma Whelan and Winnie Mosaku) begin searching for them. The characters are all around excellent. They all fit into this show's setting and tone perfectly.Because the show carries a dark sense of humor, the genuinely heart-felt and darker moments never feel out of place or like a tonal shift. The show is excellently paced. There are only 8 20-minute episodes. This is about the length of a two and a half hour movie. Each episode flows into the next pretty perfectly. The final episode is fittingly pretty tense. The overall ending has me curious as to whether or not there is going to be a second season. If there is, what will they do? This is one of the rare shows I have seen where everything just seems to work. The writing is great. The directing is great. The performances are great. This is a show I highly recommend watching. 

A+

The Punisher - Season 1

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The Punisher is the newest Netflix marvel TV series. Frank Castle (played by Jon Bernthal) has been declared legally dead for roughly a year (about the passage of time between Daredevil season 2 and this show). Frank is trying to live a quiet life under an assumed identity, believing his war to be over. He is pulled right back in by a man calling himself Micro (played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and learns there is more to the story than he thought. A woman named Dinah Madani (played by Amber Rose Revah) soon finds herself drawn into an investigation that puts her on the trail of the Punisher. Compared to the rest of the Netflix Marvel shows, this show particularly, should be viewed carefully if you have cautious feelings towards violence. The violence in this can be particularly gruesome at times. It never really reached a point where it bothered me, but the warning should be thrown out there. The acting in the show is really good. Bernthal as Frank Castle really stands out. Even in his quieter moments, you can really tell there's something inside him that's broken, and you can kind of tell that there's something of a rage beneath the calm demeanor. The Punisher isn't perfect, however. For example, there's a couple of characters that didn't feel like they were fully important to the plot. One of these characters could have been given a little more importance with a quick rewrite, especially because this character has a past with Frank already. There's another character who shows up near the beginning of the season. I'm not gonna lie, as soon as he showed up, I knew he was going to be a bad guy. This was based entirely off the actor that was chosen to play him. Overall, I would rank this ahead of The Defenders, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, but behind the first two seasons of Daredevil and Jessica Jones. The Punisher has its flaws, but I definitely think it's worth a watch, especially if you are a fan of the character.

A- 

Stranger Things - Season 2

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Just in time for Halloween, Netflix has released a new season of Stranger Things. The second season takes place one year after the events of the first season. Much like the first season, this season plays out less like a television series, and more like a 9-hour movie. The main returning characters all feel like they belong and had a part to play. Eleven's storyline is probably my favorite. They build up a sort of father-daughter relationship between her and Hopper (something the end of season 1 actually teased at a little bit). There were about six new characters added to the mix to talk about. There was a girl named Kali I hope a third season explores a little more. Without spoiling too much, she has ties to Eleven and her backstory. The second major character introduced was a journalist brought in to investigate Barb's disappearance. He kind of had some importance to the plot, and was enjoyable enough to watch.The problem is by the time I was done watching the show, I had forgotten his name, and I really felt this character could have been connected to the plot better than he was. The same could also be said about the character of Billy. Don't get me wrong. I understand why he was there, but he never felt integrated enough into the rest of the main cast. For most of the season, he felt a little too one note. However, one scene near the end of the season put the entire character into perspective for me. Bob as a character was fun enough. He was just a dweeby normal guy that was trying to help Joyce and her boys out. I also really liked Paul Reiser as Dr. Owens. At first, I was afraid he was going to be a retread of Matthew Modine's character from the first season. By the end of the season, he actually was one of the most likable parts of the season. That brings me to my favorite of the new additions to the cast. The party gets a new friend in the form of Max, a tomboy who likes to skateboard, play video games, and dresses up like Michael Myers on Halloween, while the guys are dressed up as the Ghostbusters. Despite his fate at the end of the first season, Matthew Modine appears in a couple of episodes. This is something I like because he still casts a shadow over Eleven. Outside of Eleven and Hopper, I like the stuff they do with the rest of the returning main characters to. I like the idea of Dustin taking in a new pet, that may be more than it seems. I like how Will isn't a fan of his friends and family treating him like he's fragile. I like that Nancy's trying to movie on with her life, but is still too hung up on Barb. I like that there were a lot of moments within the show's plot where I legitimately wasn't sure where it was going. Do I rank season 2 as highly as season 1? No, but it's more Stranger Things, and definitely worth your time to watch. 

A-

Arrow - Season 5

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I've been a fan of this show from the beginning, and I've stuck with it. Season 2 was the peak of the show, offering the absolute best villain of the series (and my personal favorite storyline). Seasons 3 and 4 weren't awful by any means, but they did feel a bit lacking in comparison. Season 5 was easily the best season of the show since the second one. Oliver Queen has to balance being both the mayor and Green Arrow. Prometheus was an excellent villain. Not since season 2 and Deathstroke did we really get a villain who wanted to attack Oliver on a personal level. The character was manipulative, irredeemable, and always ten steps ahead. We also get the return of Earth-2 Laurel Lance a.k.a Black Siren, who is a character I honestly really like. I always did like the original Laurel a.k.a. Black Canary, but I just prefer the more villainous version of the character. My reasoning for this is simple. I just think the character with flexible morals plays better into Katie Cassidy's strengths as an actress. The relationship built up between Thea and Quentin was also fascinating. After his daughter's death in season 4, Quentin's fallen back into alcoholism, while Thea (having dealt with drug addiction) is trying to help build him back up. She goes so far as to hire him on as an assistant while she works in her brother's cabinet. Unfortunately, after that storyline wrapped up, the writers seemed to start struggling with what they could potentially do with the Thea character. Some of the new characters introduced were pretty interesting to me. Lawyer Adrian Chase comes in as a friend to mayor Oliver Queen, and he may be hiding secrets of his own. Rene Ramirez is a new vigilante called "Wilddog." This guy is just incredibly likable. He has tragic backstory that really makes you feel for the character. Ragman was pretty interesting, but he wasn't on the show for very long. Vigilante provided a decent side antagonist to pop up every now and then, even if he was a little bit underused at times. The same can also be said of Talia Al-Ghul. Dinah Drake, the person who takes up the Black Canary mantle this season, was a character I just couldn't warm up to. I don't hate her or anything like that, but I've seen two other characters over the course of the show carry that mantle, and I felt more attachment to those characters The finale was pretty kick-ass, involving pretty much every character that was important this season (save for Ragman and Vigilante). We also get to see Malcolm Merlyn, Nyssa, and Deathstroke play a part. While season 5 has its minor flaws, I do think it is the best season the show has had since season 2.

A-         

Stranger Things - Season 1

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Stranger Things debuted on Netflix in September. I have finally finished watching the first season. Basically, a kid named Will Byers disappears after a night of playing Dungeons & Dragons with his friends. Mike, Dustin, and Lucas go searching for him, and come across a girl named Eleven. Stranger Things plays out like an eight hour long movie. There's sort of an 80s Spielberg vibe to this show, with a dash of Stephen King for good measure. Most of the characters feel well-rounded. There's a sort of mystery to the character of Eleven. She's odd, but carries a likability and loyalty to the people she perceives as her friends. She speaks very few words. All of this, actress Millie Bobby Brown portrays excellently, and I hope to see more from this young actress in the future. Winona Ryder as Joyce Byers, the missing boy's mom, is the best she has been in a very long time. This is a character who may or may not be going crazy, and Ryder pulls it off with apparent ease. David Harbour portrays police chief Hopper. This is a broken man who is trying to help Joyce, due in part to his daughter dying of cancer prior to the show's beginning. The one character who I felt was a bit too one-note was Troy. He was a bully that didn't really have any depth to him, or any redeeming quality. I never understood why he was the way he was. He was just a bully. The show takes place in 1983, which makes that 80s feel work in the show's favor. Great pacing, awesome writing, and generally excellent characters make for a show that I highly recommend. There's a second season coming in 2017, and I can't wait to see what's coming next.

A      

The Walking Dead - The Day Will Come When You Won't Be

The Day Will Come When You Won't Be is the title of the seventh season premiere. Overall, this was a pretty tense episode. And yes, I know the episode aired on Sunday night. Now, I am definitely going to be spoiling the hell out of this episode. If you haven't seen it yet, stop reading here. For everyone else, let's get going. The episode opens right after Negan has done the deed. He proceeds to drag Rick off into his trailer. They reveal the big moments through flashbacks. Negan proceeds to drive Rick towards a walker-infested area, tosses Rick's hatchet out of the trailer, and forces Rick to go get it. We also get to see the world's most terrifying game of "Eeny Meeny Miney Moe" ever. Some subtle hints and red herrings are thrown in that made wonder exactly who it was Negan killed. Ultimately, the person Negan designated as being "it" was Abraham. Abraham did have some of the best last words ever written for anything, ever. "Suck my nuts!" he mumbles before Negan finishes bashing his head in. Where things really get hard is when Daryl gets up and decks Negan out of anger. Negan feels as though he has to remind Rick and his group about the first one was free. But, if anyone were to try anything afterwards, he would "shut that shit down immediately." Before the audience really gets a moment to breathe, Negan proceeds to beat Glenn over the head. What we see of a barely still alive Glenn is pretty fucking gruesome as is. The sad moment is his gurgling out "Maggie, I'll find you" before being finished off by Negan. Back in real time, Negan brings Rick back to the group. Negan finally manages to break Rick when he tells him to cut off Carl's arm. Negan stops Rick just short, knowing he has broken Rick. We also see a little different side to Maggie. She has reached the point where, despite being sick, all she has left is her unborn baby. She has just lost Glenn, and is officially out for blood. So, this may just be about as perfect of a season premiere as it possibly could be. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is perfectly cast as Negan. The tension is the best in this episode as I think it's been in a while. I can't wait to see what's coming this season.

A+

     

Luke Cage: Season 1

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Luke Cage is the newest Marvel Netflix series leading up to The Defenders next year. Much like the previous two Marvel Netflix shows, Luke Cage is fantastic. Mike Colter owns the character of Luke Cage, playing a sort of black Superman, if you will. Luke Cage is just a good guy. He doesn't really want to be a hero, or hoisted on a mantle, but he has to be in order to deal with corruption in his Harlem neighborhood. Mahershala Ali as Cornell 'Cottonmouth' Stokes works spectacularly in the role of a nightclub owner / drug and weapons dealer who has a painting of crowned Biggie Smalls hanging in his office. Alfre Woodard portrays Stokes' cousin, Mariah "Black Mariah" Dillard. She is a Harlem councilwoman that genuinely wants to save Harlem, but also has her own monsters inside that she must contend with. Rosario Dawson reprises her role of Claire Temple. The character feels as though she has progressed, moved forward, and Dawson and Colter have spot-on chemistry. The fairly unknown Simone Missick shines as Misty Knight, giving a performance that could earn her well-deserved recognition. Theo Rossi likened his character of Hernan "Shades" Alvarez to that of Littlefinger from Game of Thrones, and it totally works, to the point that Shades was my favorite villain in the show. All of the main characters feel well-rounded, and are genuinely well-written. The soundtrack is phenomenal, whether it's recreating the sound and style of old-school 1970s shows, or Luke Cage beating bad guys down in hallway to the tune of Wu-Tang Clan. The music always fits the mood. If I have one flaw, there are roughly four or five main villains, and it does feel a touch overcrowded at times. But, that also works, too. I had an idea of where the show was going. Halfway through, something happened, and I had no idea what to expect from that point on. Overall, despite some overcrowding in the villain department, Luke Cage is a great show that I recommend checking out for yourself if you haven't already.

A