So, fun fact, this is one of the few Smallville episodes I can remember seeing, and may well be the first time I ever saw the series. Other than that? Well… “Cool” wasn’t the most thrilling hour of television. It’s an episode that continues the show’s trend towards the more generic freak-of-the-week focus that defines … Continue reading
Suicide Squad is no doubt a messy movie, albeit a really fun messy movie. The first act is bogged down in uneven exposition, it takes a while for the supporting characters to do anything noteworthy, and it doesn’t help that the trailers already showed some of its best moments; yet despite its faults, I thoroughly … Continue reading
Expanding a short film into a full-length feature is a tricky proposition. What works over the course of a few minutes can just as easily fall apart when given an hour-and-a-half runtime. As such, I remained cautiously optimistic about David F. Sandberg’s Lights Out, despite how much I enjoyed his 2013 short film of the … Continue reading
If you call yourself a comic book fan and have not yet experienced Jason Aaron and Jason Latour’s seminal Image series Southern Bastards, I can’t emphasize how much you’re missing out. The first two volumes are some of the most gripping and well-crafted graphic novels I’ve ever read, demonstrating the true potential of this … Continue reading
So far, Smallville has done a good job of giving me something to latch on to in each episode, but the closest I found to compelling material in “X-Ray” was the appearance of an actress who would eventually have a career, Lizzy Caplan, in the role of antagonist Tina Greer. It’s not that this was … Continue reading
Mr. Robot, Season 2 Review: “eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd” The first season of Mr. Robot was a commercial and critical success, and it’s clear from this second episode that Sam Esmail has been afforded a tremendous amount of creative leeway from USA as a result. We knew going in that he would be directing all twelve episodes (a … Continue reading
Back in 2014, Netflix premiered a very bizarre TV show: BoJack Horseman. Despite a mixed response to the early part of the first season, the show quickly won over many of the detractors who made it through to the season finale. What started out seeming like a goofy show set in an over-the-top Hollywood setting … Continue reading
The graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke contains one of the most controversial moments in comics history, so controversial that even writer Alan Moore has disavowed this story. For those of you who don’t know, the infamous scene features the Joker shooting Barbara Gordon in her home, paralyzing her, and then raping her before kidnapping … Continue reading
If you were to rewrite a few scenes a bit and squint, this episode of Smallville could actually serve as a pretty solid critique of toxic masculinity in sports. If I’m being generous, I’d say that’s what the writers were going for with “Hothead”, but honestly, I think someone just threw out the idea of … Continue reading
Mr. Robot Season 2 Premiere Review “eps2.0_unm4sk-pt1.tc” / “eps2.0_unm4sk-pt2.tc” Allow me to start this review by expressing the opinion that Season 1 of Mr. Robot is a mesmerizing, near-perfect season of television. I’ve seen some exceptional TV over the years, with lots of amazing moments and some great, mind-bending twists, but Mr. Robot‘s freshman year brought more … Continue reading