The Legacies Pilot Review

The Legacies, the spin-off to the Vampire Diaries spin-off, priemered on Thursday, the story of a teenage Hope Mikealson, the tribrid offspring of a vampire and a werewolf at the magic school in

Landon Kirby and Rafeal Whaithe are two foster brothers living with a highly religous foster parents when Rapheal is subjected to an excorcism. Saved at the last minute by a mysterious girl

One of the underrated elements of this show is that it could have taken place within the same time period as Vampire Diaries. There’s no reference to social media, no trump jokes and no real defining trends, in fact the one pop-culture reference I caught was to Twilight and Harry Potter.

The Salvatore school was beautifully set up, with the Vampire Diaries mythology to back  up  things such as magical chemistry and history it does genuinely feel like a CW version of Hogwarts.

The actors themselves were all fine, Hope Mikealson played a great substitue for Elena, Landon was interesting and  Alaric is the perfect link between the two worlds. The girl playing Lizzie Saltzman feels like the biggest weak link in the pilot- although maybe it was the distracting wig.

The party scene at the end of the episode is a direct call back to the party in the woods at the end of the pilot for Vampire Diaries. Drunk magical teens being fun, drunk and magical, Legacies proves that even magic can’t help with a broken heart.

The Legacies is an slick, stylish story that feels true to it’s two predecessors however is there still an audience out there that cares?

Personally I loved it, it was the perfect set up to the world for new viewers and had enough Easter Eggs to satisfy viewers of the original (lol) viewers. However will new viewers care?

The most popular teen shows at the moment are Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why and a variety of superhero shows, Vampires are a thing of the past I mean most current teenagers were 7/8/9 when there was the vampire boom was the biggest thing on the planet.

I wish there’d been more of the Kevin Williamson snappy dialogue or some of the violence from the first season of it’s original show. When Vampire Diaries came out it was the better looking, sexier, more violent  version of it’s wildly popular counterpart Twilight. Legacies really doesn’t have any contemporaries to draw from, except maybe the extended Harry Potter universe. Actually Legacies could have benefitted from a twelve month delay and poked fun at the slew of supernatural shows that have priemered this month.

I’d give Legacies a middle of the road opening, it’s charming but unless it gives us a reason to tune in (despite creepy Landon) then there might be just a finite amount of episode. There’s at least one season to this show but unless it steps up its game I worry that there’s nothing else to this show.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina “Chapter 4: Witch Academy” Review

Sabrina Spellman goes to Hogwarts… well kind of.

As part of her agreement with Father Blackwood in the previous episode, Sabrina is allowed to maintain some semblance of a normal life providing she start attending the Academy of Unseen Arts and expand on her powers and so she begins a weekend of immersion at Satanic hogwarts

Ok so those Harry Potter kids have millions of dollars in the bank but do they have a sweater as cute as this? I don’t think so!

This episode is probably one of my favourite’s so far as it goes more into the witches’ lore in this universe and fleshes out more of the characters. At the same time Harvey, Roz and Susie may be one step closer to finding out what’s really in the mines at Greendale.

The Academy is part of Satan’s master plan to bring Sabrina into his fold whereas Sabrina views the Academy as a place she can learn how to summon and banish the proverbial King of Darkness.

However, it looks like Sabrina’s main issue at the Academy will be Prudence and her minions as they take her through a hazing ritual called the harrowing

Those Witches

Forcing Sabrina to go through the same levels of torture the ‘Greendale 13’ the thirteen members of their coven caught up in the Salem witch trials. Everything from staying up all night, being taunted by demons and made to experience the pain of hanging.

Watching a tree all night? Still more fun than Riverdale season 2

Headed up by Prudence and her magic plastics crew, Sabrina’s put through the torment and thanks to some typical teenager psychological mind tricks she has no real way of getting out it.

It’s actually one of my favourite plot points of the show, the delicate balance between magic and adolescence, also the outfits are amazing.

Seriously never admired someones commitment to black lipstick this much #fire

The trauma opens Sabrina up to all sorts of issues but what’s worse is the pain some other students had during their own harrowing.

Out of my mine

We have no concept of magic? Is he crazy or is he possessed or is he drunk?

Meanwhile back in Greendale Harvey and Roz find themselves at Susie’s farm, there’s been no real reference to Roz’s impending blindness or possible demonic possession this episode but rather Susie’s uncle and what he knows about the Greendale mines. Harvey’s been haunted by a goatman he saw down there years ago but is it the same thing and is it literally Satan?

Where are we now?

In summarising the first four episodes so far I’d say we’ve got a great series, but I don’t know if we’ve got a classic on our hands. This episode, in particular, helps usher in teen supernatural horror quite well, but I don’t know if it’s doing enough to define it.self.

I need the Whedon-esque humour to make things click as right now there’s a little bit of disconnect that would make this show go from good to great.

Slight Aside: When the Sabrina reboot was nothing but a twinkle in the CW’s eye it seemed very likely that it would crossover with the Archie comic adaptation- Riverdale given that they both exist in the same universe. Now The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina is a Netflix show this has become significantly less likely. However, both shows have referenced the other’s respective town more than once, Easter Egg or something more?

At the end of this episode, I’m pretty dam sure we exist in the world of the 1960s, but witches age slower than humans, so maybe they’re just waiting to establish a time jump at the end of the first season? What do you think, lemme know!

The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell’ Review

The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell premiered last week and had flown under the radar, so if you haven’t watched it yet, then you need to put it in your Netflix queue.

The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell is a comedy baking show centring around Christine McConnell showing you how to bake creepy cakes while in the company of her puppet pals. The show is funny, interesting and at times educational it’ll appeal to baking enthusiasts and those of us who burn toast.

The show is part Martha Stewart and part the Adams Family, combining to camera tutorials with a story about your ‘odd neighbour’ at the end of the street who may or may not live with a werewolf, an Egyptian cat god and the reanimated corpse of several animals.

Christine McConnel is a prominent baker, creative and artist who first rose to prominence through social media posting her creepy cakes and unique creations to critical acclaim. Her aesthetic incorporated vintage glam with gothy camp, tapping into an audience who appreciate great art that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

I find this show very difficult to explain to an audience who hasn’t watched it, so first let’s start with the cast surrounding Christine. They’re all puppets, and they are the best. The puppets are all Muppet Show, Henson-esque style creatures and provide much of the narrative arc with the sitcom. A selection of supernatural beings snipping and making comments perfectly offset what could be a very serious baking show because seriously they are so impressive.

I love this cat

Through every episode of Christine McConnel’s Curious Creations, there’s an underlying storyline whether it’s meeting the new neighbour, feeling left out or whether or not there might be a serial killer afoot everything is played incredibly well.

My main complaint of this show would be the lack of detail when it comes to the creations, they’re fairly complicated, and I would have enjoyed seeing more of the mechanics of each creation. Of course, some of them are borderline ridiculous for the average person, and I would have loved to have one ‘idiot proof’ tutorial an episode such as the toffee spiders.

I also enjoy the pacing of this show, I would compare the spirit of the show to something

like Great British Bakeoff, but with monsters, it’s very calming, and a lot of the humour is exceptionally dry and impactful.

Christine McConnel herself is an interesting person to watch, you can very clearly see her enthusiasm, and I’m not sure if she comes from an acting background but she carries herself with grace and elegance with every tutorial and in the humour bits as well- again very wry and sarcastic, it’s not something I would have suspected from this show within the first ten minutes of the pilot. A lot of the creations points feel like you’re watching an artist at work and it’s divine to watch.

If you appreciate good art and creations and want something Halloweeny to watch this month, then I recommend watching The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell.

 

 

 

Charmed Pilot Review

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s witchy reboot season, and the first offering is the revival/reboot/continuation of the 90s hit TV show Charmed now on the CW.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while (it’s cool I know you haven’t) you’ll know I’ve been following the Charmed revival since it was first in the works as a prequel just over two years ago.

The first episode aired on the CW last night with Madison, Macy and Mel being our new Charmed ones in a college setting with one dead mom and a book of shadows and ready to fight the forces of evil (I think.)

Ostensibly I thought it was a good pilot, things were set up but dynamics take a while to be defined, and I don’t think modern audiences are as cut out for a ‘monster of the week’ format as they were in the 90s but were this season is going remains to be seen.

Now lets got onto the thoughts I had about it as a whole, word of warning there are spoilers, and there’s no particular order to the list I’m just attempting to get a framework and pretend this blog is professional.

If you’ve watched, then please join me down below, if you haven’t go watch- it’s a fun 40 minutes- then read and please feel free to email and we will argue.

Things I liked About The Charmed Pilot.

1. I love me a college setting with a solid reason for every sister being there; it’s like having a small-town setting with all the amenities of a big city- a perfect choice
2. I enjoyed all the sisters as individual characters, everyone was clearly defined, and I believe that helps with the witty banter that weaved itself into the show
3. It was campy af, from the dialogue to the way the story goes  and I love me some camp we’ve seen too many gritty revivals give me something silly
4. Enjoyed the White Lighter character- looking at other comments I think I’m in the minority for this- but I guess they objectively need a light sparring energy to play off some of the more serious elements- again campy shit is something I enjoy
   Did not realise the eldest sister was British until I googled so I’m impressed with the accent
5. The main ‘humanistic’ (is that the right word?) arc of the story to do with sexual assault within a college based environment I felt was handled well
   I liked all the acting  everyone was charming and seemed to have a hold on their character
6. The sorority captain was also very funny, and I hope she stays around as like their human adversary
7. Overall I liked it because it was fun, silly and an enjoyable piece of TV, I will be watching the next episode however if they don’t find their feet quick enough I am worried that this won’t last long

Things I didn’t like About The Charmed Pilot

1. This should have just objectively been a two-hour special to settle into the rhythm of things as we moved very quickly from mom’s death to secret sister to we’re witches to there’s a demon oh wait that’s the wrong demon. We’re introduced to all these characters and what’s more these characters are added to each other, it just felt natural that it would take them a little longer. Two hours would have also given them time to set up the mystery more although I will be watching the next episode I’m not desperate to watch it if you get me
2. At the moment I don’t understand why this is a Charmed reboot (or is it a revival or a continuation I don’t know atm) add one more sibling and make half of them male, and you could do the same storyline without the connection to Charmed. I feel like this show could have worked on its own merits it’s not like a Book of spells, and the Source of All Power are two unique concepts to the original Charmed.
3. On a different but also kind of the same note, most revivals/reboots at least have a connection to the original and at least casting Daryl as campus security would have been a nice homage. I feel like Charmed fans are really loyal (we would have watched that Billy spin-off for christ sake.) Even the way the book and the whitelighter worked didn’t seem cohesive with the old show if you want to get the old fans on board you have to give us something.
4. WHY WAS THE MAIN DEMON LITERALLY WALMART THE NIGHT KING- I will eventually find a screenshot but my god none of them mentioned it throughout the whole fight scene even said the shocking similarity to the Game of Thrones character- it was right there just put a lampshade on it
5. I just feel like I don’t know what I’m in store for this season, will this work or will it be cancelled after three episodes who tf knows at this point.

Anyway, I’m here for the next lot of episodes, and I’m secretly hoping for an original cast appearance here’s the trailer for the second episode.

Sirens ‘Pilot’ Review

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Plot

A fishing boat accident sparks a serious of mysterious events in the ‘world’s mermaid capital’

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Quick Review

A sci-fi fantasy adventure that plays by its own rules Sirens is an interesting take on an overlooked myth

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The Deets

It’s strange to see a woman as the aggressor in fantasy romance shows, I was a teenager throughout the vampire craze so I automatically read brunette heroines as passive and weak (vampire diaries, fallen, twilight it  was a trope of the genre.)

Elin Powell plays our main mermaid ‘Ryn’ named after a children’s TV show character and she is ridiculously good in this role. She’s a fish out of water (I’m here all week people) and her physicality embodies that. From the first shot of her feet lagging behind her, the head movements and thousand yard stare you see something that isn’t of this world without any explanation except the audience figuring out she’s helping her captured mermaid sister. It’s fascinating to watch her work even if she says barely three words during the whole episode. More than anything her story feels natural even if we don’t know all the ins and outs of it.

Ben, our main character, our Elena Gilbert is doing excellent accent work (both of the main actors are British) but there isn’t much to hold onto in the way of character. He is the rebel son of the town’s founding family and a marine biologist, other than that we don’t really know anything. Bad Boy with a heart of gold? Misunderstood heartbreaker? Ted Bundy-esque Serial Killer? Who the fuck knows, at this point he’s the audience avatar.

The story unfolded naturally from the town’s founding day to the fisherman’s story of an attack and a mysterious sea creature. Interactions between our two leads as well as Ben with Maddie allowed us to get a feel for the main characters. Action scenes were also fun to watch and set the tone for what this series is going to be about. The introduction of the military and their awareness of mermaids provided another hook to the series.

Here the town and the marine wildlife are playing second fiddle. I have no idea about the mythology surrounding mermaids or sirens, breadcrumbs were dropped but you’re not going to find anything particularly significant. Rather than just hints towards the mermaid/siren of it all it would have been better to see scenes such as the sirens song through a pov (such as being told ‘oh sirens songs do xyz’)

I overall enjoyed the pilot and the subsequent episode however with the pacing I’m worried that this show won’t find it’s audience. The post-college mermaid drama crowd isn’t all that big and there isn’t a clear definition of the show’s type to bring in genre fans it may need to drop a full season (+netflix!) before it starts getting the attention it deserves.

This new freeform show is solid sci-fi that refuses to push its story too quickly and right now I’m definitely tunaing next week.

Netflix ‘Death Note’ Review

Overview-

A troubled boy named Light Turner stumbles upon an ancient notebook that bestows him with the ability to kill anyone he writes in the book.

★★ ☆☆☆

In a sentence….

Deathnote US appeals to anyone that has never seen the original anime and manages to ignore plot holes it reveals in…

Good points

• With its use of colour, imagery and the occasional throwback to the original anime, the film itself is well shot and dynamic in it’s framing
• Lakeith Stanfield is a fantastic co-lead as enigmatic detective L, he has the mannerism and cadence down that felt familiar almost instantly. His energy was a welcome addition.
• Ryuk was fantastically portrayed by William Defoe, creepy and subtly played in a film that tried heavily to stay in the real world

Bad points

• The tragic misunderstanding of Light Turner was the downfall of this movie. The dichotomy between  Kira the serial killer and Light the pretty boy/academic student was more of a shock than the pink-eyed Nat Wolf serial killer style that happened in this movie.
• This was a looong move, even at 1:40, it dragged unbearably for the first half an hour. Things weren’t explained or stated explicitly, the rules of the Death Note felt annoying
• Fridging of Mrs Turner and sister Turner said a lot about the attitude of this story
• And/all backstory felt weird and clunky, an add-on that felt rushed after the fact
• Mia Sutton was a dividing figure, interestingly played with her persona being more on the edge than in the anime, her initial introduction and lack of backstory

Overview-

Sexist and one dimensional, there could have been an interesting interpretation of  Light’s justice in modern-day America but still felt like the fantasy of a certain demographic

Game of Thrones ‘Dragonstone’ Review

Shall we begin?

As close to god damn perfect as TV can be the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere proved to be a satisfying payoff to a year of waiting.

An opening scene depicting Arya in Walder Frey’s face murdering the rest of his family kicked things off showing that the Stark’s are well and truly meaning business this time.

Stark power struggles as Jon and Sansa are still new to the whole ruling thing. Looking back it’s amazing to see how far these characters have come and now as Sansa wants to immediately go after Cersei whereas Jon is more worried about the white walkers their perspectives clash and Little Finger looks like he’s trying to use that to his advantage.

Cersei redecorates with a full map of all the people that hate her, Jamie looks on helpless as she alienates everyone and ignores intrinsic war problems like hunger and that one lady with the three fire breathing lizards with wings. Euron Greyjoy also pops up again as the sassy pirate he always should have been and I’m excited to see where that alliance goes.  I’m interested to see how long Cersei has left on the show. As one of the primary antagonists in Westeros, her death will remove a significant amount of the conflict.

I’m interested to see how long Cersei has left on the show. As one of the primary antagonists in Westeros, her death will remove a significant amount of the conflict.

Sandor Clegane makes an unexpected but welcomed return with the Brotherhood without Banner, the Hound’s ultimate quest to embrace his humanity has found him in one of his several love/hate relationships and I’m kinda here for it.

Across the sea, Sam is an apprentice Maester which look most entry level jobs these days involves a lot of manual work with a very tentative link to the field he wants to work in. He works out that the Dragonglass is at Dragonstone just as Stannis had said all those years ago and he sends a raven to Jon immediately.

And who should be making their way to Dragonstone but Daenerys herself with her fleet of ships and Tyrion by her side it’s a beautiful sequence acted in complete silence as she steps back in Westeros for the first time since childhood.

I’m anxious to see how this season plays out, there are plot points that have been seasons in the making and are about to explode this season, I hope things are burnt through too quickly.

Wynonna Earp ‘Whiskey Lullaby’ Review

The secret from last week is kicked up a notch and the town of Purgatory goes into a deep sleep as Wynonna Earp comes face to face with the literal Sandman.

Still reeling from the discovery she’s pregnant, Wynonna Earp is practising the ‘if I ignore it maybe it will go away’ method of problem-solving. Even when Waverly, the proverbial angel on her shoulder that she should tell Doc (btw Doc is older than the state of Colorado and has a whole mess of magic keeping him alive, what does that do to a baby?)

Waverly and Nicole continue to be adorable as they stumble into relations in a post-possessed Waverly world and Dolls and Wynonna look like they are FINALLY heading towards romance and then the entire town goes into a deep sleep.

As the Sister’s Grimm blackmail the clockmaker demon into stopping time by letting Tucker the-worst Gardener kidnap his daughter and use her for a creepy Waverly inspired sex game.

The ‘sleeping beauty on steroids’ story is simple yet effective, upping the creepy factor and not having to worry about the CGI budget, the clockmaker looks to be a contender for my favourite Earp demon.

So the town of Purgatory takes the ‘big nap’ and Wynonna is awoken by peacemaker having a panic attack and she realises she’s now well into the pregnancy big stomach and all. Luckily her penchant for big coats manages to cover it as she and Dolls try to find out what on earth is going on.

The seals come into play a lot this episode as the Widows in black are attempting to break out of the Ghost River Triangle. Jeremy works out that it’s under Shorties. and the team get together to try and stop them.

Meanwhile, baby Earp makes its presence known to everyone as Nicole sees the belly and is literally the calmest person. Whereas Dolls and Doc both have very different reactions and it turns out that Jeremy just knew anyway.

The episode ends with the death of the Clockmaker at the behest of Dolls who has been slightly off kilter due to his former agency noping out and leaving him without back up + the girl he likes is pregnant with another man’s baby.

I liked the clockmaker, as a villain and as a character he was was definitely interesting. I wonder if with his death his powers will pass down to his daughter, I can’t imagine we’ve seen the last of her.

Twin Peaks ‘Part 9’ Review

After a two week break (just enough time to recover from the existentialist crisis episode eight gave me) episode nine of Twin Peaks returns with a decidedly more character based episode that drives the plot forward- at least for now-

In a tale of two Coops, the evil one has made his way out of prison and to a ranch where a-list actors Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tim Roth as the rednecks waiting for him almost like this all just some part of Evil Coop’s master plan. Meanwhile, Dougie’s still in his stasis after nearly being murdered, at the police station his identity looks to be almost revealed with a coffee cup DNA test. But if I’m being honest I probably won’t get my hopes up for that until the last half of the episodes.

However, in Twin Peaks, the Sheriff department looks to be onto something with Bobby’s mother revealing that Major Briggs knew that one day Bobby and the rest were going to come to his house looking for information and reveals a secret coded message about two Dale Coopers.

Alternate dimensions are spoken into the ether as Matthew Lillard’s whimpering high school principal Will Hastings is revealed to be one of the many authors behind an alternative dimension blog that may or may not be linked to the death of time-travel of the Major.

Are we finally seeing the dots connect in the case of the Black Lodge and the White Lodge?

The episode ends with two young women at the Roadhouse talking about penguins and bears in a way that suggests they are not talking about penguins or bears, is this coded language suggesting some kind of drugs drop-off or the passage way into another dimension, with Twin Peaks it could be neither or it could be both.

Netflix ‘Okja’ Review

A ‘super pig’ discovery inspires a farming competition headed by the glorious Mirando corporation as 26 of these new animals are shipped across the world to see who can raise the best one.

★★★★☆

Cut to ten years later and the South Korean super pig Okja is living her best life in the mountains with Mija, a wily girl who loves Okja and wants to keep her in the mountains away from the competition.

But when Johnny Wilcox comes to the small remote farm and takes Okja anyway the race is on to rescue her from the evil corporation’s hand.

Mija forms an uneasy alliance with the Animal Liberation Forces, led by the kind hearted Jay, who want to expose the Mirando corporation and their unethical practices.

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Okja is everything a movie should be, it feels like a Disney movie for the 21st century. The plot of a girl and animal being ripped apart has happened several times but usually, it’s a dog or a horse here we have a CGI superpig whose character comes through with enough charm and charisma to make the whole thing work.

Seo-Hyun Ahn is completely refreshing as farm-girl Mija who breaks out of the safety of her mountain life in order to save her best friend. And Tilda Swinton is perfectly jarring as the American CEO using the whole situation to pretend her company is eco-friendly.

It’s beautifully shot and very funny, Okja is uncynical in its execution, surprising and ultimately heartbreaking Okja is what you want to watch again and again….