Watchmen Episode Five, Little Fear of Lightning, Review. The Trauma of Looking Glass.

I can easily say that the fifth episode of Watchmen, “Little Fear of Lightning” is the best episode of the series so far.
Directed by Steph Green, it mainly centers around the character Looking Glass, who was a character I had been intrigued by since the first episode, and this episode definitely makes him my favourite.
His arc in “Little Fear of Lightning” is just fantastic, with Tim Blake Nelson doing an amazing job bringing his trauma to life.
This trauma was created in 1985 when Looking Glass was just Wade Tillman, a young, conflicted and naive Jehovah’s Witness, played by Philip Labes.
His nativity is proven by how he literally approaches the most aggressive looking people at a carnival and is then dragged into a house of mirrors by a female member who manipulates him into getting undressed and then steals his clothes.
Ironically, this ends up saving his life as the mirrors seem to save him from the psychic blast unleashed by the alien squid Ozymandias drops on Manhattan, killing half its population.

threatening people.jpg — Wade somehow chose the most threatening people to approach but, hey, at least it saved his life.

The squid is then shown in all of its glory and I was honestly surprised by how well it is incorporated into the story.
I had always supported Zack Snyder’s decision to make Ozymandias blame Dr Manhattan for the attack in his adaptation because I felt the giant squid would not work on screen.
Well, “Little Fear of Lightning” proved me wrong with a perfect portrayal of the hoax.
The effects the event had on Wade is also perfectly displayed, hinting that his truth telling ability may have been generated by the blast that traumatized him.
Wade’s trauma is so great, in fact, that it is the reason he joined the police force after the White Night because it allows him to wear a mask made of a material that will supposedly protect him if another giant squid were to attack.
It seems that Laurie’s speech in the previous episode about people wearing masks to hide from the pain and trauma applies more to Wade than it does Angela.
Unfortunately, the Seventh Kavalry are fully aware of this trauma, using it to manipulate Wade by sending one of them to his support group and then purposefully alerting him to her Seventh Kavalry affiliation to lure him into a trap.
Inside their base, Wade learns that they are experimenting with teleportation and is quickly apprehended when he confronts them.
Following this, we get the reveal that Senator Joe Keene is involved with the Seventh Kavalry.
While this was expected, it did led to some interesting comments from Keene about his and Cheif Crawford’s connections to the Kavalry.
One especially interesting thing to note is that Kenne calls the Kalvary racists, implying that he is not on their side ideologically and may just be using them for a greater purpose.

wade and keene.jpeg — It will be interesting to see what Keene’s true role in the Seventh Kalvary is.

What this purpose is remains to be seen but it is clearly not aligned with Trieu and Will’s because Keene wants to know who murdered Crawford.
So the Seventh Kalvary, and Will and Trieu have different monstrous goals that our main characters will have to stop.
Sadly, Wade looks to have impeded this because he turns Angela in to Laurie at the end of the episode, both to protect her from the Kavalry and because he learns the truth behind the squid attack.
Keene gives him a video of Ozymandias confessing to how he hoaxed the squid attack, killing millions of people to create world peace, destroying Wade’s entire perception of what is real.
He also somehow planned for Robert Redford to become President so it will be interesting to see how he managed to figure that out.
From here, the episode goes to Ozymandias’ story where he begins his escape attempt.
Shooting himself out of his prison using the catapult, Ozymandias is revealed to be on one of Jupiter’s moons and uses the dead bodies of his clone servants to create a message for a satellite, “SAVE ME D-”.
We don’t to get to see the entire message before Ozymandias is pulled back into his prison by the game warden but it is most likely either Dr Manhattan or Dan AKA Night Owl.

distress signal.jpg — I wonder who Ozymandias sent his message to and if they will even be willing to help.

Although, considering Dan is supposed to be in prison this seems unlikely.
As for Dr Manhattan it is highly implied that he is the clones’ creators after Ozymandias is arrested by the game warden and declares that their god has abandoned them.
Why Dr Manhattan would leave his creations, though, remains to be seen, if he is their creator that is.
Either way, the ethical questions about the concept of clones is something Watchmen is tackling very well, as displayed in this episode both through Ozymandias’ servant clones and the pet clones that Wade’s ex-wife is shown to be experimenting on.
This leads to the incredibly dark scene with her supposedly incinerating the clone of a dog.
Funny, how I have seen Ozymandias mercilessly dispose of hundreds of clones and yet it’s the dog that gets to me.
In any case, “Little Fear of Lightning” ends with the Seventh Kalvary converging on Looking Glass’ property, ready to kill him because he has served his purpose and knows too much.
I was horrified when I first saw this because the episode had made Looking Glass my favourite character and I do not want him to die but, after thinking about it, I am sure he is probably safe.
After all, if he was going to die this way the episode would not have ended before his death, as the death itself would be the cliffhanger.
That said, we will probably have to wait a few weeks to know Looking Glass’ fate because it seems we will primarily be getting Angela’s point of view next episode, as she experiences her grandfather’s memories through the Nostalgia drugs she took after Looking Glass turned her in.
I would have to say that “Little Fear of Lighting” is my favourite episode of Watchmen so far, exploring trauma brilliantly through Wade Tillman and his alter ego, Looking Glass.

My Hero Academia Season Four Episode Five, Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot Review: Rise of Kirishima.

I said in my Top 10 My Hero Academia Characters post that Kirishima became one of my favourite characters because of the Overhaul arc and the fifth episode of season four “Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot” is the start of that.
This really was Kirishima’s episode, building up his development for this arc nicely with a great starting point as we see him begin his work study with the hero Fat Gum and Tamaki.
Speaking of these two, they are also two characters who I am excited to see more of as they grow as characters and use their quirks.
Fat Gum’s quirk is absorption, which allows him to entrap enemies, and Tamaki’s quirk is manifest, which allows him to take on the qualities of whatever he eats.
It is Kirishima’s quirk that takes center stage this episode though, with him developing a new technique Unbreakable to fight a minor villain (which may be a reference to the M. Night Shyamalan film, or maybe I’m reaching).
This villain takes quirk enhancing drugs, forcing Kirishima to use his new move to protect civilians in an epic moment that was perfectly adapted from the manga.
The music and animation here are stellar and the only problem is that it is a bit distracting at how stupid the civilians are by not getting out of the way.
Although, this does not take away from Kirishima’s achievements, thankfully, with him beginning his development for the season upon remembering some advice from Bakugo.
This also goes to show just how much Bakugo has changed because he most likely would have yelled at Kirishima when they first met rather than give his friend the advise he needed.
Back to Kirishima, after Fat Gum manages to successfully capture the villain we get brief flashes to Kirishima’s backstory, which will play out in a future episode.
I also like how vague these flashes are because they will probably leave many anime only viewers wondering what they are seeing until it is officially revealed.
Along with Kirishima’s development, we also get our first look at the quirk removing bullets developed by Overhaul, which the minor villain uses to temporarily remove Tamaki’s quirk.
This bullet is revealed by Shigaraki in his meeting with Overhaul, which leads to Shigaraki agreeing to a form of partnership, though under very tense circumstances.
Less tense is the opening fight sequence where we see Ochako and Tsuyu on their work study with Nejire and the pro hero Ryukyo.
Their scene was mainly used to show what the two Class 1A students are doing and to highlight Nejire’s quirk but it has fantastic animation in the opening fight.
It is also here that a meeting between many pro heroes led by Sir Nighteye is first brought up.
This meeting to discuss the threat Overhaul poses will appear next episode and fully unveil the disturbing truth about his quirk removing bullets.
Overall, “Let’s Go, Gutsy Red Riot” is another solid episode of My Hero Academia with a great starting point for Kirishima’s character arc.

Dr Sleep Review: Well, That Was Unexpected.

2019 is the year of Stephen King adaptations.
Pet Semetary, IT Chapter Two, and now Dr Sleep; all are books that have been adapted to films in 2019.
However, Pet Semetary and It Chapter Two are decent films rather than the exciting and intense novels King delivered.
This is not the case for the Dr Sleep adaptation, though, because I was genuinely surprised not only by how good of an adaptation it is but also by how it successfully deviates from the source material.
Directed by Mike Flanagan, the film takes places decades after the events of The Shining, with Danny Torrance (Ewan McGregor) having become an alcoholic.
After becoming pen pals with a young girl named Abra Stone (Kyliegh Curran), who has the strongest shining he had ever seen, Dan learns from her of a cult of vampire-like creatures called the True Knot that feed off children with the Shining.
Both McGregor and Curran do great jobs as their characters, especially Curran who gives the best performance of the film in a scene where she is in a car.

Dan and Abra.jpg — The bond between Dan and Abra is key to *Dr Sleep* and, thankfully, both actors do a great job as their characters.

Another highlight is Rebecca Ferguson as the sinister Rose the Hat, the leader of the True Knot who manages to make the simple sentence, “well, hi there” terrifying.
Adding to this terror is the film’s score, one of which is the True Knot’s theme of a heartbeat which is very fitting because it got my heart going a mile a minute in fear every time I heard it.
Likewise, the cinematography is great with Flanagan mixing his own style with that of The Shining‘s perfectly.
What really surprised me about Dr Sleep, though, is the twists it brings to the story.
Having read the novel, I thought I knew what was going to happen but I was dead wrong.
For example, I fully expected one horrific scene from the novel to be cut or left vague but no, they go all out on it, creating the most terrifying scene I have seen all year.

horror of rose.jpg — I was incredibly surprised the most disturbing scene from the novel was kept, and in graphic detail. It was genuinely horrifying.

I would go as far to say that the film adaptation is way more darker than the novel, especially when it comes to the fate of the characters.
I honestly have no idea why people are saying this film is not scary.
It makes no sense to me how people can watch the Bradley Trevor (Jacob Tremblay) scene and not be horrified by it.
Another twist to the story that really surprised me is not only that the film manages to be a great Dr Sleep adaptation while being a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, which King infamously hates, but also that it manages to adapt The Shining novel as well.
This creates an ending very different from the Dr Sleep novel that left me with an entirely different experience that I did not expect but really enjoyed.
However, this is where my one issues comes in, and that is how this ending feels a bit like a different plot to the main one with the True Knot.
It kind of felt like it switched storylines pretty abruptly and that was a bit jarring.

The final 15 minutes of the film felt different to what came before.

The change was still really good but the difference in storylines was noticeable.
So, overall, I have good and bad feelings about the changes to Dr Sleep‘s ending.
Still, I found the film to be the best Stephen King adaptation of the year as Flanagan did a fantastic job adapting and changing the novel for the screen.
It is just a shame that it is currently failing at the box office because it is a really good film.
If you have not seen Dr Sleep yet I advise you to check it out.

His Dark Materials, Episode Two, The Idea of North, Review. Don’t be Molded Lyra.

“You must let me mold you” Ruth Wilson’s Mrs Coulter tells Dafne Keen’s Lyra over lunch, serving as the the first of many warnings signs of the possessive and almost psychopathic behavior she displays.
Again, directed by Tom Hooper and written by Jack Thorne, the second episode of His Dark Materials “The Idea of North” focuses on the growing cat and mouse game between Lyra and Mrs Coulter as Lyra slowly comes to realise her true intentions.
Having seen the first adaptation, I knew Coulter would not turn out to be a good person and Wilson does a great job portraying her complex personality and the abusive bond she forms with Lyra.

coulter and lyra 2.jpg — Coulter’s friendship with Lyra quickly turns volatile and Lyra refuses to be molded.

Although, Coulter is shown to care for Lyra somewhat as seen by her crying outside of Lyra’s door, however, she is not above hurting Lyra to get her to act the way she want, as seen by her having her daemon attack Pan to hurt Lyra.
Through this it is made clear that if Coulter cannot convince Lyra to be molded then she will do it by force.
This manipulative trait is also made clear through how she acts kind to the abducted children like Roger and Billy (Tyler Howitt), making them believe the letters they write will get to their loved ones, only for her to burn them when she leaves with a satisfied look on her face.
Such a look is also apparent when she tortures Lyra through Pan before accidentally revealing that Lord Asriel is her father, and this reveal does seem to bring a temporary moment of humanity to her, the only moment in the episode that her affection for Lyra seems genuine.
Basically, what I am saying is that Wilson steals the episode with her great performance as the manipulative Coulter.

evil coulter — Wilson pulls off Coulter’s abusive character perfectly, portraying both viciousness and weakness.

That is not to sell Dafne Keen short, though, because she is also amazing as Lyra slowly coming to the realization of how cruel Coulter is and refusing to be molded.
This results in great scenes like when Lyra throws her knowledge of Dust in Coulter’s face.
However, her big revelation about Coulter being connected to the Gobblers does not come through her own investigation but through a random journalist named Adele (Georgina Campbell) informing her, leading to her escape.
Said journalist is then immediately captured and killed by Carlo Boreal (Ariyon Bakare) when he crushes her daemon in his hand.
Seriously, though, how unlucky is Adele to have a butterfly for a daemon?
All it would take is for someone to accidentally step on it and she’d die.
Talk about bad luck.

Adèle_Starminster — Adele is killed very quickly upon being discovered showing the brutality of the Magisterium.

As well as killing the journalist, Boreal plays another interesting role in the episode by traveling to another dimension which appears to be our own.
He is looking for the man Asriel claimed had been murdered in the first episode by presenting his head, which Boreal now believes was not him.
Boreal hires someone to track the man down, showing his snake daemon to appease him.
Now that I think about that, though, it is kind of funny how the villains of this series are all telegraphed by their stereotypically evil daemons.
A snake, a bug, a lizard, what’s next a rat?
Anyway, other characters that the episode focuses on are the Gyptians whose hunt for the missing children remains unsuccessful, although they are getting closer.
Sadly, Lyra now looks to be one of the children they have to save because she is kidnapped by the Gobblers at the end of the episode after escaping from Coulter.
All in all, I found “The Idea of North” to be just as good of an episode as the premiere episode, making His Dark Materials look to be another hit show this year, quality wise.

Watchmen, Episode Four, If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own, Review: Lady Trieu Enters Stage Right.

Directed by Andrij Parekh, episode four of Watchmen, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own,” certainly seems to be the episode that begins to connect the plot lines together.
And this all starts with the appearance of the mysterious Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) in the opening scene.
“If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own” begins with the Clark family receiving a visit from Trieu who knows of their struggles to have a child.
So, she decides to gift them with one, essentially cloning a baby with their DNA.
This gift does not come without a price, though, because Trieu wants to buy their land, apparently because of some kind of object that crash lands there after the Clarks give the rights to her for the baby.
With this baby being delivered to them, the object that appears to be from space crashing in their back yard, and the fact that the couple’s last name is Clark, it is obvious that this first scene is allegorical to Superman.

Some kind of meteorite crashes on the land of the Clarks who then receive the miracle baby they always wanted. Is this *Watchmen* or *Superman*?

Given that Dr Manhattan is essentially Watchmen‘s Superman, this speaks to the possible connection between him and Trieu.
The signs are everywhere both through this scene and Ozymandias’, who we see again testing the limits of his prison by launching his murdered servant clones out of it with a catapult.
However, before this, we get a disturbing explanation of these servant clones who Ozymandias fishes out of the water as babies, using traps, and then transforms them into adults through some kind of machine.
The sounds of his transformation are particularly gruesome but the implications of these clones are very clear.
Ozymandias says that he did not create the clones, highly implying that Dr Manhattan or Lady Trieu, or possibly both of them, have something to do with it.
Dr Manhattan did say he was going to create some life when he left earth in the Watchmen graphic novel, and Trieu has been shown capable of creating life in the opening scene.
Along with this, Tieu’s daughter Bian (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) also seems to be some kind of clone, having nightmares about the war in Vietnam when she is way too young to have been alive then.
Then there is the statue of Ozymandias Trieu has, which looks exactly like the man himself does in his captivity.
All these signs speak to the links between Trieu, Dr Manhattan and Ozymandias, and these should hopefully become clearer in future episodes.

Ozymandias statue.jpg — Ozymandias, Trieu and Dr Manhattan all appear to be linked in this episode, although, to what extent we will have to find out later.

Either way, Trieu somehow manages to top Ozymandias as the most interesting character this episode with various hints to her connections with other characters.
She is also confirmed to be working with Will Reeves for some, as yet, unknown goal.
Them working together is first revealed by Trieu subtly telling Sister Night in Vietnamese that her grandfather wondered if she had the pills.
Then there is the final scene, which shows the two are planning something big in three days that Sister Night will hate Will for.
If I had to guess, I would say that Will and Trieu’s plan was probably generated by the racism they have suffered.
Will’s parents were killed in the Tulsa Massacre and it is highly implied that Trieu and her family were severely impacted by the Vietnam War so it makes sense that the trauma caused by these events would lead them down the path they are now on.
Will also appears to be in perfect health now, walking normally, despite being 105-years-old, which does make it possible for him to have been the one to kill Judd Crawford.
He also repeats the catch phrase of the Seventh Kalvary, “tick, tock”, showing the importance of Trieu’s Millennium Clock, which is clearly representative of the Doomsday Clock in the graphic novel.
With so much emphasis on Trieu, Ozymandias and Will, it was a little hard for Sister Night to stand out, although there is one scene of her that has stuck in my mind.
However, this is not because of her but because of the weird vigilante figure watching her who has been dubbed Lube Man.

lube man — Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, Lube Man!

This weirdo, who in all likelihood is probably Petey (Dustin Ingram), sees Sister Night dispose of Will’s wheelchair before running off and using his lube to escape into a sewer.
Sister Night’s following exclamation of “the f$#*!” basically voices what the viewers were thinking at this moment.
Speaking of Sister Night, though, there is something off about her husband Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).
He tells their adopted children that there is no heaven and when you die you don’t exist anymore.
Now, Cal could just simply be an atheist, but this seems a little too much of an apathetic thing to say to children who have just lost their uncle and also lost their biological parents.
There are some theories out there that Cal is a form of Dr Manhattan and there is some evidence that seems to support this.
However, I have no idea why Dr Manhattan would return to earth to live out life as a family man when he did not seem to care about such things so the theory is probably wrong.
Either way, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own” is another solid episode of Watchmen that seems to be connecting the plot lines together, building towards whatever the finale will be.
The next episode looks to be centered around Looking Glass who appears to be going undercover to investigate the Seventh Kalvary.
He knows about Crawford’s possible Kalvary connections from Sister Night and he has Will’s pills so this could lead to him discovering the conspiracy.
Let’s just hope he doesn’t die as soon as he discovers it.

My Hero Academia Season Four, Episode Four, Fighting Fate Review: Can Fate be Averted?

After the anticipated arrival of the adorable Eri last episode, the fourth episode of My Hero Academia‘s fourth season “Fighting Fate” picks up with the rest of her first encounter with Deku and Mirio.
Unfortunately, this is also Deku and Mirio’s first encounter with the villain Overhaul as well.
What follows is an intense scene where Deku tries to protect Eri while maintaining the facade that he does not know who Overhaul is.
Ultimately, though, Deku’s instincts as a hero overrule this second priority when Eri begins to beg Deku not to leave her.

protect her.png — With Eri’s introduction, the emotional core of the season arrives.

It is in this scene where we get to see both Deku and Mirio’s skills as future heroes because while Deku is protective, Mirio is quick thinking, dodging Overhaul’s prying questions expertly.
However, both their combined efforts are not enough to save Eri as the two are incredibly out of their depth, which Eri clearly notices because she goes back to Overhaul when he makes a subtle threat to kill Deku and Mirio.
Her doing so gives us a really good sense of her character as, despite the pain she has endured at Overhaul’s hands, she is willing to go back with him so he won’t hurt anyone.
The consequences for her are clearly laid out as Overhaul brings her into an experimental room announcing her to be the “crux” of his plan.
This is where one of my very few problems with the episode comes in because, compared to the manga, shots like that of the room Overhaul brings Eri into are not as detailed, lessening their impact.

This detailed room that makes the horror Eri is experiencing very clear in the manga is sadly reduced in the anime.

Another thing from the manga that I was disappointed to see left out of the anime was Sir Nighteye’s reaction to hearing Deku wish he could have protected Eri.
In the manga we get a panel of him looking remorseful with his back to Deku, showing he does care, despite wishing Deku had not been chosen to receive One For All.
Sadly, this effective shot is nowhere to be seen in the episode.
Thankfully, what is not removed is Overhaul’s cruelty because he murders the subordinate who was supposed to be watching Eri when she escaped.
Overhaul then makes a comment about people being sick with “hero syndrome,” foreshadowing the future reveal of his motives.
Following these dark scenes, we get the emotional highlight of “Fighting Fate,” which is Deku’s confrontation with All Might.
Deku wants to know why All Might never told him about Mirio being the original candidate for One For All but instead learns a darker truth.
This truth is that when All Might and Sir Nighteye separated because All Might refused to retire after his injury, Nighteye used his foresight to predict that All Might will die a gruesome death in the near future.
The music and voice acting during this scene are top notch with Night Eye’s voice actor Shin-ichiro Miki doing a great job.

Nighteye’s prediction is the most emotional moment of the episode with a dark fate for All Might being set up.

The following moment with All Might and Deku after this moment are also fantastic with the best animation of the season so far giving the emotion of the scene a bigger punch.
In the end, Deku begs All Might to live long enough to see him tell the world that he is here and All Might swears to fight the fate he has been given.
And then, of course, the episode ends with a comedic moment, as All Might is once again too scared to reconcile with Night Eye.
“Fighting Fate” is another great episode of My Hero Academia that is probably tied with “Overhaul” as my favourite episode of the fourth season so far.
And now, with Eri, the emotional centerpiece of the season, introduced, the story will begin to pick up even more.

Jojo Rabbit Review: Hilarious, Heartwarming, and Dark.

Taika Waititi playing Hitler… well, I think it’s safe to say that I have seen everything now.
In all seriousness, when Jojo Rabbit was first announced there was a bit of controversy over the satirical plot being about a young boy in World War Two Germany whose imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler.
Thankfully, such controversy was unwarranted as Waititi has crafted a film that manages to be hilarious, heartwarming and dark, resulting in a film that is probably my favourites of his.
The story follows the young Jojo (played by Roman Griffin Davis in his first role) a member of the Hitler Youth who is so misguidedly infatuated with the country’s genocidal leader that he imagines him as his imaginary friend.
After learning that his mother, Rosie (Scarlett Johansson), is hiding a Jewish girl named Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) from the Nazis, Jojo desperately tries to figure out a way to get rid of her without getting his mother into trouble.

It’s interesting how Elsa is framed to suit Jojo’s negative perception of her only for this to slowly evolve over the film as he comes to realise she is just as human as he is.

What follows is many endearing scenes between the three characters as Jojo comes to learn that Elsa is far from the monster Nazi propaganda would have him believe.
All three actors give great performances, delivering both emotional weight and humor perfectly.
The same can be said for the other characters like the disillusioned Captain Klenzendorf (Sam Rockwell) and Jojo’s friend Yorki (Archie Yates) who is just too pure for this world.
I especially loved Waititi’s portrayal of the imaginary friend Hitler, taking him from the childish and friendly character of Jojo’s imagination to the cruel and detestable dictator we know from history.

Hitler eats a unicorn.jpg — The visual of Hitler eating a unicorn is both darkly hilarious and great symbolism for Jojo slowly coming to realise the dictator’s true nature.

This slow decrease in Jojo’s perception of Hitler, results from many surprisingly tragic moments in the film, including one moment that left me gaping for at least a full minute.
I probably would have cried if I had not been so shocked by it.
Ultimately, this is what proves JoJo Rabbit to be one of Waititi’s best films.
It balances its often dark tone with humor brilliantly, often combining to create dark humor, resulting in a satire that comments on the impact of war, hate, and by the end, love.
I highly recommend Jojo Rabbit.

His Dark Materials, Episode One, Lyra’s Jordan Review: Enter the World of Daemons.

HBO has put out many amazing shows in 2019 from Chernobyl, to Watchmen, to the final season of Game of Thro-oh wait, no, that last one sucked.
Anyways, while HBO did not make its latest show, merely distributed it, that show, His Dark Materials, looks to be another great one nevertheless.
Based off Philip Pullman’s successful trilogy, the story is set in a world where people’s souls manifest as talking animal companions known as daemons.
If this sounds familiar to you but you have not read Pullman’s novel then you probably recognize it from the earlier movie adaptation, The Golden Compass, which got a less than stellar reception to say the least.

The Golden Compass.jpg — Will the new *His Dark Materials* series go on to be as badly received as *The Golden Compass* or will it be better?

I have only seen this film once when I was a kid and I thought it was pretty good, although, to be fair, I was only nine and I could not tell the difference between a good and bad move to save my life back then.
In any case, even if The Golden Compass really is as bad as I don’t remember it being, His Dark Materials already looks to be miles better than that film adaption, if the first episode “Lyra’s Jordan” is anything to go by.
Directed by Tom Hooper, and written by Jack Thorne just like every other episode will be, the episode mostly follows the titular Lyra at the beginning of her adventure.
Lyra is played by Dafne Keen who I am glad to see is getting more work.
I loved her performance in Logan and I cannot wait to see what she does with the role of Lyra.

Dafne Keen does a solid job in the first episode of *His Dark Materials.*

Speaking of the X-Men, James McAvoy is also in the series, playing Lyra’s guardian Lord Asriel.
McAvoy delivers a fantastic performance, especially in an impassioned speech he delivers to his colleagues about Dust to get more funding for his research, which is considered heresy by many.
It is with this and many other moments in the episode that the anti-religious themes of Pullman’s story can be seen.
Along with Keen and McAvoy, another actor to watch out for in this show is Ruth Wilson who plays the sinister Marisa Coulter.
Another thing I enjoyed about “Lyra’s Jordan” is how the daemons are shown to be incorporated into the world.
We get a Gyptian ceremony in the episode, which shows how they celebrate when a daemon settles as a single animal.
Many of the daemons are established from Lyra’s Pan (Kit Connor) and Asriel’s Stelmaria (Helen McCroy).
Then there is the fact that all of these daemons have great CGI.
The downside of this is that they did not have the budget to animate many side characters’ daemons, which are just never acknowledged, but this is better than having a bunch of completely fake looking daemons running around.

Lyra and Pan.jpg — The Daemons are very well animated, blending seamlessly with the actors as can be seen by this shot of Lyra and Pan.

And, as stated, the daemons that are in the episode are incorporated so well that it makes the world feel lived in by them.
However, this has a negative effect on the characters as a Gyptian child is kidnapped after the celebration of his brother’s daemon.
Many Gyptian children are revealed to have been kidnapped by the end of the episode
by the so called Gobblers.
Even children who aren’t Gyptians like Lyra’s friend Roger (Lewin Lloyd) are taken and this is one of the reasons why Lyra departs with Coulter at the end of the episode, with her alethiometer in hand.
Overall, the first episode of His Dark Materials, “Lyra’s Jordan” is a solid start that has me interested to see where the series will go.
Hopefully, this will be liked by fans of Pullman’s novel and not go on to be regarded as another The Golden Compass.

Watchmen Episode Three, She Was Killed by Space Junk Review: Everybody Goes to Hell!

Watchmen‘s third episode, “She Was Killed By Space Junk” is the best episode of the series so far with the role of main character temporarily switching from Angela Abar to Jean Smart’s Laurie Blake.
Directed by Stephen Williams, the story of the episode centers on Laurie being brought into the Seventh Calvary Case while flashing forward to her sending a message to Dr Manhattan through a phone to mars.
This message is a joke about three heroes, Dr Manhattan, Ozymandius and Night Owl, who appear before god to receive judgement.
All three go to hell until god sees a woman standing behind them who identifies herself as the girl who a threw a brick from the joke Laurie appeared to screw up earlier.
The brick falls from the sky and kills god, sending him straight to hell.
The flash forwards to Laurie’s joke are the best part of the episode because I was very intrigued by what the joke ended up being.
Personally, I think it has great thematic purpose with the girl who threw the brick clearly being representative of Laurie, and the joke itself being similar to Rorschach’s Pagliacci joke from the original graphic novel.
Dr Manhattan also seems to appreciate the gag because Angela’s car, which Will escaped in last episode, descends from the heavens, nearly crushing Laurie like god’s head got crushed by the brick.
In all likelihood, though, the car was most likely dropped by the people who rescued Will who want Laurie to become a part of the case for as an unknown reason.
But, for the moment at least, Laurie seems to believe it is Dr Manhattan, bursting out into laughter, being very reminiscent of her father The Comedian.

Laurie’s phone booth scenes are the best of the episode with Jean Smart delivering a great performance.

With this, and the fact that she has taken on his last name, it is apparent that Laurie has started to feel some kinship with her destructive father over the years.
As for the rest of the episode, it is also great with Laurie being revealed as part of a vigilante capture task force of the FBI.
Night Owl is also revealed to be in prison.
Laurie actually drives quite a few comedic interactions as well, like with Looking Glass, Red Scare (Andrew Howard), and Pirate Jenny (Jessica Camacho).
Then there is her Dr Manhattan dildo, which is a real “wait, what!?” moment.
Laurie also has a few action moments as well, shooting the Seventh Calvary member with the suicide vest who tries to kidnap Senator Joe Keene JR (James Wolk).
Speaking of him, I think it is pretty apparent that he will most likely be involved somehow in the conspiracy Will mentioned.
The fact that he was at Judd’s house where Angela found the Ku Klux Klan robe last episode also supports this.
Aside from these individual moments, however, one of my favourite things about the episode is its soundtrack with Laurie having a killer theme.
This soundtrack accompanies her pretty much through the entire episode, apart from the Ozymandias scenes and, unfortunately, it is these ones that keep the episode from being perfect.
While the scenes are great I do have a few flaws with them, like the CGI Buffalo, which look completely fake.
Then there is the official reveal that Ozymandias is… well, Ozymandias.
This was presented as some kind of shocking twist but I am pretty sure we all knew it was him going in so they did not need to act like it was some big moment.

Ozymandias outift.jpg — While I did like Ozymandias’ scenes, there are things about them that hold the episode back, like his obvious identity reveal.

Other than this, though, Ozymandias’ scenes are still intriguing, with us learning he is the captive of “the game warden.”
There are multiple theories about who this game warden could be but the most likely seems to be Dr Manhattan.
We will just have to wait and see as Ozymandias’ escape plan slowly comes to fruition.
Overall, “She Was Killed by Space Junk” is the best episode of Watchmen so far with just a few scenes holding it back from being a truly fantastic episode.

BoJack Horseman Season Six, Part One Review: A Surpisingly Happy First Half… Until The End.

At the end of BoJack Horseman‘s fifth season many of the characters looked like they were in happier places.
BoJack (Will Arnett) was finally going to rehab to get the help he needed, Mr Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins) proposed to his girlfriend Pickles (Julia Chan), and Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris) had adopted a child.
However, based on what I knew about these characters, I highly doubted these instances would make the characters happy in season six.
This was because after all BoJack had been through and done I was unsure if he ever could change, and both Mr Peanutbutter and Princess Carolyn appeared to be ignoring their own problems by taking on their new responsibilities.
So, imagine my surprise when all three characters did end up happy in this season.

Despite characters like Mr Peanutbutter looking like they were heading in an unhappy direction at the end of season five, they are happy in season six.

Granted, this was probably because Netflix had decided that this sixth season would be the final one but creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg and the other writers really wrote these characters emerging happiness right for the most part.
The one exception to this is definitely Mr Peanutbutter because the story they seemed to be building up for him in season five is pretty much ignored in favor of improving his relationship with Pickles, which I am not sure was the right decision.
However, this is only the first half of the final season so I cannot judge Mr Peanutbutter’s storyline too harshly because it has yet to be completed.
And, other than him, I loved the direction the sixth season took, especially with BoJack as by the end of the season it is clear that he is a changed horse.
This resulted in many heartwarming scenes like the final interaction between BoJack and Mr Peanutbutter.

crossover!.jpg — BoJack’s scene with Mr Peanutbutter pays off a scene that I never thought would be and I love it.

Then there is Diane’s (Alison Brie) sweet, growing relationship with the buffalo Guy (Lakeith Standfield) and Todd’s (Aaron Paul) relationship with his stepfather and mother, which looks set to be expanded upon in the final half.
All of this builds to put all the characters in happy positions at the end of the fist half, most of all BoJack… only for the final episode just tears that all down.
“A Quick One, While He’s Away” has to be one of the most gut wrenching episodes of the entire series.
Just as BoJack is redeeming himself and becoming a better person his past truly comes back to haunt him, with many of his darkest secrets looking to be exposed in the second half.
And, as someone who considers the final scene of season four to be the most heartwarming moment of BoJack Horseman, the last scene of the final episode made me feel like I had been sucker punched.

season 4 ending.jpg — I loved the season four finale so much that it made me cried so to see that happy ending threatened by the the last episode of the first half really worries me.

I am now genuinely scared about what is going to happen to BoJack in the final season.
One thing is for sure, though, and that is that the first half of season six has built up to whatever this finale will be nicely.
It started by building up a feeling of hope before pulling the rug out from under us with a crushing final episode that has me eagerly anticipating the final half.
I know it will crush me emotionally but I have to see it through.