Looking Back On Lucifer Seasons 1-3

Howdy ladies and gents, how’s it going? With Lucifer returning via the power of Netflix on May 8th last week, I decided to rewatch the whole show again from season 1 in anticipation for season 4. In addition to that, I have also thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about the show as a whole over the last few years, going through it season by season talking about the pros and cons, best episodes and how it has evolved to where we are now. Alas, I couldn’t get this post out on time because of a busy week, but hey, better late than never right? Also mild spoilers ahead!

Ah Lucifer, what a great TV show. If you had told me back in 2016 when I reviewed the pilot episode that this show would become one of my favourites, I would have said “Really? That’s unlikely.” However, the show has only improved from season to season with a great sense of momentum, interesting stories, great humour and drama and a cast of characters with really great dynamics and engaging scenarios. So now I will attempt to condense my thoughts on each season and try to tell you why this show is worth watching.

But firstly what is Lucifer about? Well Lucifer Morningstar is essentially the devil, he used to be in hell but besides to go to Earth to hang around with humans to have some fun which involves normally involves parties, women, sex and using his powers of persuasion/revealing people’s hidden desires to get his way. Along the way, he gets involved with detective Chloe Decker and after they solve their first crime together, Lucifer decides to tag along with Decker to experience new and exciting adventures. And what follows is a police procedural drama with some supernational elements on the side, and we have your standard “case of the week” in each episode, there are character-focused story elements that continue throughout each season.

Season 1

The great thing about Lucifer is that it starts out fairly strong and lays down the foundation for some really intriguing material to come down the line. The pilot establishes all of the core elements that the show would be loved by fans in the future. This first season is not only about Lucifer’s experiencing change not only his personality but also his mortality, but it is also about Decker trying to understand who/what Lucifer is and coming to terms with him becoming a part of her life. Each episode presents something new, fun and exciting to watch mainly thanks to Lucifer’s crazy antics and the scenarios he and Decker get into which helps elevate the standard police drama material.

Character-wise, Lucifer (Tom Ellis) is impulsive, tactical and manipulative, suave and hilarious, but he is also a bit of an idiot and sometimes he can cause trouble without being aware of it. Decker (Lauren German) is a by-the-book detective is cares a lot about her job and family, and while she can be a little too serious, she’s tenacious and good at her job. Dan (Kevin Alejandro) is Decker’s ex-husband and while he’s not always got his priorities in the right place, he’s a good guy, cares for his family and is also a source of humour on occasion. Amenadiel  (D. B. Woodside), Lucifer’s brother is confident, self-righteous and very serious about his commitment to god and following his father’s wishes especially when it comes to Lucifer’s behaviour on earth. Dr. Linda Martin (Rachael Harris) is Lucifer’s therapist who helps to understand his emotions and she has some great interactions with Lucifer over the season. Also, there’s Maze (Lesley-Ann Brandt), Lucifer’s long-term ally and follower from Hell who enjoys certain aspects of human life but longs to return to hell and has her concerns about Lucifer’s behaviour. And finally, there’s Trixie, Decker and Dan’s child who is super cute and has some fun moments in the show.

Favourite Episodes:

• Pilot
• Lucifer Stay. Good Devil
• Sweet Kicks
• Favourite Son
• Wingman
• A Priest Walks Into a Bar (favourite)
• Pops
• St. Lucifer

Season 2

Season 2 takes what worked in the last and magnifies it by 10. I enjoyed how this season was consistent with the last, but created new and interesting scenarios for our established characters. Relationships are tested, new dynamics are formed and struggle is real on an individual level especially for Lucifer, Chloe, Amenadiel, Maze and Linda. This season deals with the introduction of Lucifer’s mother, the ongoing issues related to Lucifer and his relationship with God and more complicated supernatural elements that present new levels of danger for everyone involved. A lot transpires during the season with short and long-term plot points, but for the most part, I found it incredibly fun, hilarious, engaging and helps enhance all of the characters.

I also really enjoyed the new storyline involving Lucifer’s mother, learning about her and the relationship she has with Lucifer and Amendadiel, and the extra background details we learn about Lucifer’s family history. Lucifer grows in this season and though he can still brash and thoughtless, he certainly learns a lot. I also loved seeing the Lucifer and Decker’s relationship develop beyond just being friends to being romantic, seeing Maze and Decker become roommates was a great new change and Linda had a lot of really great moments having great interactions with all of the main cast too. This season also introduced two new characters who would become series staples; Ella (Aimee Garcia) and Charlotte/Lucifer’s mother (Tricia Helfer). Ella is delightful, bubbly, cute, sometimes strange and surprising with her extra skills and history outside of forensic scientist. As for Charlotte/Lucifer’s mother, she’s an intriguing one. On the one hand, her lack of awareness when it comes to human rules leads to some hilarious situations, on the other, she is crafty, deceptive, manipulative and determined. And while she has a twisted sense of logic, she is a caring mother who will do whatever it takes for her children.

There are so much more character and story elements I could mention, but to summarize this is my favourite season just because almost all of the episodes I love because they’re fun, they all have a purpose (for the most part) and engage me on a new level.

Favourite Episodes:

• Lady Parts (favourite)
• Weaponizer
• Monster
• Homewrecker
• Quid Pro Ho
• Stewardess Interruptus
• Love Handles
• A Good Day to Die (favourite)
• Candy Morningstar
• God Johnson
• Sympathy for the Goddess
• The Good, the Bad, and the Crispy

Season 3

This new season introduces Lieutenant Marcus Pierce/Cain (Tom Welling) into the mix with his own demons to take care, but also introduced is the most controversial element of the show so far in the form of the awkward love triangle between Lucifer, Decker and Cain. As much as I and other fans want to see Lucifer and Decker be together, the show seems content with the tiresome trope, “will they or won’t they?’ It’s like the show teases their potential relationship far too frequently that it gets tedious. And that compounded by the Decker and Pierce situation. The two of them have no natural chemistry and besides Ella’s initial speculation, we’re given no reason to believe they’re going to hook up. But because of some arbitrary story purposes, Decker and Lucifer’s relationship deteriorates after so much progress and Pierce and Decker are forced upon us instead. And I wouldn’t mind if they were friends who built to something romantic, but it goes from nothing to something in a few episodes. And watching Lucifer strut and stumble through this season was equally entertaining and frustrating. I know Lucifer is Lucifer and he’s supposed to learn lessons in each episode, however, to see him continuously oblivious to his stupid and obvious mistakes, it was painful and showed how little he’d learnt.

Beyond that, this show still has a lot of great elements. It’s still super fun, hilarious and the dramatic material works well too. Like last season we see the exploration of our characters and some changes to the regular dynamics we’re used to seeing. The return of Charlotte Richards in her original form leads to some interesting material when it comes to her interactions with the cast and the past that she can’t remember. There’s also some good stuff for Dan to get into and this season sees a lot of great development and depth for Maze. Linda and Amenadiel had some interesting stuff to go through together and individually, and seeing more of Ella always makes me happy as well.

In the end, despite a lot of frustration and some stories that didn’t feel as essential as the previous season, when this season works, it works well and officially ended in a really intriguing. Plus the final two episodes had some fun and unique aspects that made them worth watching for sure.

Favourite Episodes:

• Mr. and Mrs. Mazikeen Smith (favourite)
• What Would Lucifer Do?
• Welcome Back, Charlotte Richards
• Vegas With Some Radish (favourite)
• Off The Record (favourite)
• The Sinnerman
• Let Pinhead Sing!
• Anything Pierce Can Do I Can Do Better
• All Hands on Decker
• Quintessential Deckerstar
• A Devil of My Word (favourite)
• Boo Normal

In conclusion, Lucifer has secretly come along and become one of my favourite shows to watch in the last few years thanks to its amazing cast of memorable and engaging characters, the interesting stories and world building and cool balance between humour and drama. While rewatching this show it has certainly become apparent to me how similar this show is to Castle with the story and character dynamic between Lucifer and Decker quite similar to Castle and Beckett, but I guess that’s why I like it, and despite the similarities, I still enjoy this show for its unique elements. And while the show has some issues when it comes to a bit of repetition and some story shortcomings in season 3, it is a show I love a lot and I can’t wait to see what’s going on with season 4! 😀

Thank you for reading and if you’ve seen Lucifer share your thoughts on it in the comments section below, and I’ll see you soon with my review for season 4, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #39

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. It is week 39, and I’m gonna keep it brief since I don’t have much time this week so I have seen a lot of TV over the last few months that haven’t reviewed from The Punisher to Bojack Horseman season 4, so today I’ll be giving you my thoughts on Lucifer and Crisis on Earth X. Be careful of spoilers! With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀

Lucifer (Season 3) “The Sinnerman”

This week’s episode of Lucifer was great, it explored a lot of great stuff when it comes to the relationship of many of the main characters, but also with this Sinnerman character that was spoken of towards the start of the season. Firstly I like how the Sinnerman’s affected both Lucifer and Pierce, with the victims of this week’s episode tied to Lucifer and the favours he did for said people and Pierce because of the death of his brother. It made the episode feel personal and had a sense of urgency. As fun as it is to see Lucifer running around being the fun, witty and charismatic man who I like, it is more interesting when he’s put in a situation he doesn’t have a way out and in this episode he’s not only trapped by the Sinnerman, but then towards the end of the episode he tried to interrogate him with his powers but can’t because Sinnerman’s gone and cut his eyes out! Like fucking hell, what a crazy yet smart thing to do. This Sinnerman ain’t no joke. Also, let’s talk about Decker and Pierce, I know this show’s really trying to push for this new relationship but it doesn’t feel natural, their relationship feels very hot and cold, sometimes you can see some normal hints toward something, other times it feels like it’s coming out of nowhere. I like that these two have opened up about the family loss that they’ve suffered and had a sense of teamwork developing. And speaking of couples,  Linda and Amenadiel have finally hooked up, I mean they’ve been getting too cosy recently for things not to end up this way. Too bad Maze is back and she doesn’t like that relationship because of her friendship and previous relationship with these two, I liked how Lucifer forced her to confront her feelings about them and how she ultimately told Linda to stop seeing Amenadiel… The only problem is that Linda looked pretty worried, I mean she took a little too long her office door and while we don’t see anyone else in that room I don’t think she was alone. I sense complicated times ahead for Maze, Linda and Amenadiel. And finally there’s Charlotte, I’ve liked where her character’s gone, from being possessed by Lucifer’s mother to a woman trying to right the wrongs of her past by assisting the police. I appreciate how she’s finding the transition hard and that she’s not quite good at doing the right thing, but she’s got her heart in the right place and seeing her and Dan have that heart-to-heart in the men’s room was sweet, if a little strange and awkward haha.

Crisis on Earth-X

This Now I’ve not been keeping up with all of the CW superhero shows, I dropped off of Legends of Tomorrow a while ago and I got aways into season 2 of Supergirl I forgot to keep watching haha. The Flash and Arrow I’ve kept up with and I’m enjoying them so far, especially Arrow that’s really good at the moment. So when I heard about this Crisis on Earth-X I was always going to watch it, I just wasn’t super compelled to see it. But after I heard a lot of hype around to first two episodes I decided to watch it and damn it was a lot of fun. The people behind these shows understand what their fans want but also throws some curveballs too. I also appreciated how the show quickly caught you up on what’s happening in the world of each TV show, so in case you weren’t up to date or just weren’t watching any of them, you never felt lost as the story was its own adventure, though if you were up to date it did give you a greater level of appreciation for the characters. What I really liked about this four-part event was the story and characters. I liked the idea of a secret Earth where Nazis won the war and you had these dangerous versions of the heroes plotting to rule over Earth in different realities. There was a lot of drama and surprises especially in regards to the death of Martin Stein, he was one of my favourite characters on Legends and to see him get shot, have that heart to heart with Jefferson before he died, I got way more emotional than I expected and Steins’s funeral, that was frigging beautiful. On top of that it was fun to see all of the different characters interacting and there’s too many to highlight, let me just say that seeing Wentworth Miller again as Captain Cold was delightful, the evil versions of Oliver and Kara were really cool, seeing Reverse Flash was fun and the action scenes were pretty well done.

Well, that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of this show? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #38

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. It is week 38, and today I’ll be giving you my thoughts on Big Mouth, Inhumans, Lucifer, and Star Wars Rebels. Be careful for spoilers! With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀

Big Mouth (Season 1)

So at the request of a mate from work, I decided to give this show a chance and its been an interesting watch. Big Mouth’s very bizarre, crass and overtly sexual, and sometimes you’ll be surprised by what the creators of this show were able to put into this cartoon. The style of humour which focuses on sex-related material has never been my cup of tea as it can sometimes feel juvenile, crude and over-the-top just for the sake of shock value, and while not every joke this show threw at me worked, there was something oddly captivating about this world, cast of characters, storylines and humour that kept me coming back, Big Mouth is surprisingly fun, creative and relatable in a strange and stupid kind of way. What I really liked about this show is the core concept of these main children hitting puberty and transitioning into teenagehood and having these physical manifestations of their hormones contribute to their real-life decisions. While episodes could be treated as singular episodic adventures, the plot points started in certain episodes continue throughout the season with some interesting and hilarious outcomes. It is a simple, smart and creative way of providing a fictional yet realistic way to why teenagers at that age would act in such an erratic, impulsive and bizarre manner. While some of these scenarios could only exist in the realm of fiction, the show presents os many real-life issues when it comes to relationships, friendship, being affected by physical body changes or problematic parent relationships. I could see some of the same anxiety and issues I experienced back in school in some of these situations. Visually the show’s solid, the animation is good, but it is the art that starts out the most. Like the show’s humour and the concept it is a bit odd, most characters have exaggerated body features especially when it comes the big heads and lips. The character designs are a tad simple not that appealing to the eye, however, they certainly are distinctive and if you don’t like it at first you’ll eventually adjust to it after a few episodes. Oh and the cast and characters are all good, but my favourites would be Nick Kroll as the creepy yet entertaining Maurice the Hormone Monster, Jordan Peele as The Ghost of Duke Ellington (he’s so weird and funny) and Maya Rudolph who kills it as the sassy and crazy Connie the Hormone Monstress.

Inhumans (Season 1) “… And Finally: Black Bolt”

And so after 8 weeks, Inhumans has ended its first season with episode 8, and all I can say is wow, what a waste. To talk about the recent episode briefly it ranged from okay to terrible, there were some decent parts here an there, but as a final episode, it left me wanting more. The fact that Gorgon was able to be “cured” of his madness from his resurrection via terrigenesis from having Karnak and Black Bolt talk to him was horrible, I wish it had been an issue that had taken longer to cure. I did enjoy seeing Triton fight some dudes and the final scenes with Black Bolt and Maximus was good, thanks mainly to Anson Mount’s body language and facial expressions, and while Black Bolt sealing his brother away on the moon alone instead of killing him is a plot element I have seen done before, it was one of the better moments in the series. Clearly, those markings on the chair in the throne room means something, but I doubt we’ll see a follow-up to that anytime soon. As for the Inhumans little triumphant moment on Earth where Medusa makes her speak about changing the status quo and making a new life, it felt so unearned and cheap.

As for the show on a whole. Everyone knew it’d be bad especially from the trailers, but it is sad that there weren’t any hidden redeeming qualities for the show beyond what the marketing shared. I thought that the first 3-4 episodes were underwhelming, but had some decent elements and showed promise for something decent. But annoyingly the issues that the show had from the beginning when it comes to bad dialogue, okay to weak action scenes, dull cinematography, basic visual effects and set design, unlikable characters and a painfully basic and unsatisfying story continued right into the end of the season. From the beginning, things are spelt out pretty clearly, the royal family are unlikable protagonists and Maximus is the antagonist who will rise up and overthrow them, and because of the bad writing, you’re on the side of the bad guy. Until later you see he’s a selfish asshole with an inferiority complex who will dispose of anyone who isn’t on his good side, so you want to see the heroes take him down even though seeing them in power wouldn’t rectify the issues that existed when the show started. However, because of their experiences on Earth, they’re changed people which means they’ll be better rulers. And by the end of the show it feels like they’ve learnt some life lessons, however, I don’t feel like these characters should have been like this in the first place. Most of the characters are boring, generic, selfish and cliché, lots of supporting cast members come and go whether they are human sidekicks or Maximus henchmen, none of them stand out in a significant or memorable way, at least not in a good way. The only good characters were Black Bolt and Karnak, the latter I liked because of his ability and character arc, but it was mainly Black Bolt I enjoyed. While his character doesn’t change much from episode 1-8, he has the best scenes, interactions and screen presence, and that’s thanks to Anson Mount who basically carries this show on his shoulders, without him the show would have been so much worse. And Iwan Rheon as Maximus, there was an inkling of a good villain, a tragic one that would have worked, but he was given such terrible material to work with that he became more of a nuisance than an engaging character. So after this, I doubt Inhumans will be back for another season unless it was extremely overhauled or rebooted, and as it stands while Iron Fist pissed me off with how boring it was, this show stands right next to it as an example of how to waste such good source material and turn it into a disappointing and meandering mess.

Lucifer (Season 3) “Off the Record“

This week’s episode of Lucifer was not only the best episode of the season but also one of, if not the strongest episodes of the show so far. I thought it was interesting to see Reese, a man who apparently escaped death on this path of revenge after finding out his wife had been cheating on him with Lucifer. That alone was an interesting story for an episode, but considering that all of the revelations that showed up as the episode went on was nothing short of brilliant. Firstly having Patrick Fabian from Better Call Saul in this show was awesome, he’s an incredibly talented actor and he plays crafty characters so well. Seeing him pretend to be friendly to Lucifer and Decker, but then plotting and scheming in the background was very engaging. At first, he’s just on this simple path of vengeance, but after he seeing Lucifer’s face he goes to great lengths to take him down and by the latter half of the episode he’s made so many mistakes and missteps that it’s no surprise that he met his end by his own doing. I also loved learning the reveal that Reese and Linda were married and he’s still trying to rekindle the marriage, this was the best material Linda’s had since season 2 as it gave Rachael Harris ample screen time to do some really lovely work opposite Fabian. I also liked the case with the mysterious serial killer and his eventual reveal as the guy Reese seeks out to get Lucifer, his turn while talking to a dying Reese in his office was so sinister and cool. Tom Welling as always has the right level of charm, wit and humour that makes Lucifer such a captivating character, Decker didn’t get as much screen time as usual but I enjoyed her as well as the appearances of Maze and Dan. Also having the ending play out the same as the beginning was a smart/intriguing ending. Now it makes me think if that’s happened in the real world already and if so when? Oh one more thing, Lucifer’s devil face, if the events of this episode happened recently does that mean he has the face back? Or did this happen prior to the events of season 3? I’m so curious! 😛

 

Star Wars Rebels (Season 4) “Rebel Assault”

So far season 4 of Rebels has been pretty cool, the first two episodes “Heroes of Mandalore Part 1 & 2” and “In the Name of the Rebellion Part 1 & 2” have been great, and I enjoyed most of “Kindred” too. And “Rebel Assualt” is the first taste of the tone, atmosphere and seriousness that I’ve been hearing about and looking forward to before this season started. We’ve heard for a while now, that season 4 of Rebels was when the Empire was going to step up and become a real threat and the rebels would start feeling the pressure and be less successful than before and that was certainly felt here. Hera and her assault team were able to break through an Imperial blockade but were mostly taken out by the second legion of ships, and while Hera, Chopper and one other guy did well to fend off that assassin Rukh, but in the end, Hera was captured by the Empire. It’s been a while since the heroes faced a real danger, where the odds we staked against them and the bad guys have felt competent at stopping the rebels. While Rebels hasn’t been the best debut for Grand Admiral Thrawn, he has shown moments of strategic talent, and this episode was good because it showed that he had planned ahead, so even if the rebels got through the space battle, on the planet he had another wave of ships to take out the enemy with ease. Good stuff. Also, I loved how serious and urgent this episode felt, from the beginning, you’re thrown straight into the action and get all these cool moments of hand-to-hand combat, dogfights between X-wings and TIE fighters and some small moments of dialogue, heroism and sacrifice. I really liked the way this episode looked, some of the cinematogrphy during the action sceens were great, and the colour scheme on Lothal epsiecally when the rebel ships were falling out of the sky, beautiful. I am curious what the Loth-Wolf told Kanan to do, guess we’ll have to wait until later to find that out.

Well, that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of this show? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #37

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. It is week 37, and I’ll be going back to the old format of having mini-reviews for several shows in the week and today I’ll be giving you my thoughts on Inhumans, Lucifer and Star Wars Rebels. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀

Inhumans (Season 1) “Make Way for… Medusa”

So Inhumans episode 4, what can I say? This has to be the least engaging episode so far. While the plot of all the characters certainly advanced, most of it was very dull. I liked how things started off with Medusa and Louise on the hunt for Black Bolt in the helicopter, but their back and forth started to become tiresome, Louise was the character holding those scenes together because Medusa’s stubbornness and lack of knowledge for human-based rules became frustrating. Seeing Black Bolt and the other guy head to Declan’s facility only to find out it was dangerous after all was no big surprise, but what really bugged me was the fact that Declan was in contact with Maximus. I mean how many people does Maximus have in his pocket? It feels a little ridiculous that he knows so many people he’s in contact in Hawaii. The most interesting story was with Karnak and his new lady friend, I knew they’d end up together at this point, sure they had a relationship starting grow, but damn she got on him quickly and by the end of the episode she wants to shag the guy? That escalated quickly, maybe it’s Karnak’s tattoos? Haha. Crystal, the most boring of the main characters needed help with Lockjaw after he was hit by a vehicle at the end of the last episode, I’m glad he’s gotten medical attention, but unfortunately, it looks there may be a romance there for her character as well. Oh yeah and Gorgon, absolutely forgettable. The use of music in this show is really starting to feel like a CW show, they need to cut it out, it’s not cool it’s distracting.

Lucifer (Season 3) “Mr. & Mrs. Mazikeen Smith”

This week’s episode of Lucifer was really fun, as usual, there were some laughs, mystery, interesting revelations and good character development. This episode featured Maze wanting more out of life so she goes on the ultimate hunt for a fugitive, however, as the story progresses it seems like there is more to this case than she realised. It was great to see the return of Maze, after last season she really did become one of my favourite characters, and I loved how this episode focused on not only her bounty hunting adventures (which is always fun), but also how on her wanting more out of life to keep things fresh and exciting. I like how the creators behind the show have given Maze more layers, shown that for a demon with no soul, she does care about her friends, knows to do the right thing when the time comes, and doesn’t have to be isolated. I also liked how Decker and Lucifer were integrated into Maze’s story through their own sleuthing, I also loved the interaction between Maze, Trixie and Decker, Maze and her bounty Ben, and Daniel, Linda and Lucifer have some fun moments too. Also, the action in the episode was quite good, the hand-to-hand combat was done well, and because of the Canadian setting, it made for a nice change of scenery not only in the cabin/hotel room but also out in the snowy mountains too. The ending also was sweet and further illustrated the core connection that the main characters have with each other.

Star Wars Rebels (Season 4) “Heroes of Mandalore Part 1 & 2”

Man, it feels like the wait for season 4 of Rebels has been incredibly painful, especially after the awesome trailers came out showing off all that delicious footage. But somehow October arrived a lot sooner than I expected and the show’s back on the air. So the first two episodes, “Heroes of Mandalore Part 1 & 2” debuted this week and it was pretty good two-parter. Since last season I really started to get into the politics and drama surrounding Sabine and the Mandalorians, and this episode leans heavily on those plot elements from last season with Sabine and her crew attempting to save her father from the Empire while the Saxon worked from the shadows releasing the superweapon on the Mandalorians. It was interesting to see Sabine in such a tough situation, with her still trying to rise to the occasion as leader of her people, but how her past actions cost the lives of some of her people and lead several other Mandalorians to mistrust her or want her dead. Poor girl. Luckily she kept her head and had the right support to help make the right decisions, though, seeing Sabine get a little dark and want to make the Empire suffer was an intriguing and engaging turn for her. On top of that, there were some great interactions between Sabine and her father about art, Ezra had some fun moments here and there, and the appearance of Bo-Katan was cool too, I’ve still not got around to watching The Clone Wars, but even in this episode she came across as a capable fighter, a confident individual and someone who should be respected. But the main interaction that I liked was seeing the moment between Kanan and Hera, while it has never been made overly obvious, I always knew there was something between them and their exchange was swift, playful and yet totally realistic. After three seasons my suspicions/hopes about them being an item are finally coming to light haha. As usual, Rebels continues to be a beautiful-looking show, the lighting, colour scheme and overall cinematography is great. I also appreciated the sense of scale between the human-like characters and the ships and walkers was nice and the use of shadows during certain conversations was very effective as well. The only stuff I didn’t like related to some of the moments of humour which again is mainly for kids, but I don’t think it landed that well especially with Ezra’s silly jetpack shenanigans, the writers really should just make him mature a little more. Also, some of the situations where the heroes were surrounded by Stormtroopers didn’t look that dire and could have been fought through in my opinion. And finally, I was pretty disappointed that Sabine’s mother and brother weren’t among the casualties of the superweapon, while death isn’t a requirement for a show to be good, I wish the show had gone for it. For a few minutes, I really felt for Sabine and thought Rebels had gone to a dark place, and considering Sabine’s recent reconciliation with her family it would have made for some sad yet engaging story and character development.

Well, that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of this show? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #36

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. It is week 36, and I’ll be going back to the old format of having mini-reviews for several shows in the week and today I” be giving you my thoughts on Inhumans and Lucifer. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀

Inhumans (Season 1) “Divide and Conquer“

Inhumans continues to be an interesting yet frustrating experience, there are small moments of intrigue and decent material with certain characters, but this is hidden behind a story with varying levels of foolishness, uninteresting characters, bad dialogue and just a basic feeling overall. In this episode, we continue to see the Inhuman royal family separated on their own Earth-based scenarios, all of which are pretty lacklustre save for two people. Firstly there’s Black Bolt, I found it interesting how calm and compliant he’s been given his incarceration, but it was nice how he was paired with the other Inhuman dude in jail, they had some good scenes together and Anson Mount continues to be the most engaging of the cast because he’s charming, has a nice physicality to his actions and does well to act through body language and facial expressions.  Oh and his action scenes during the prison riot wasn’t half bad, I liked it. Seeing Karnak in a vulnerable state while being held hostage lead to the first scene where he didn’t come across as an asshole, but rather someone who has lost their focus and feels useless. Gorgon and his battle with Maximus’ henchmen proved to be less than stellar with a horribly choreographed fight scene, and Medusa’s story was really boring, besides when he somehow got into someone’s house as stole clothes and money, WITHOUT BEING CAUGHT AT ALL, it was when she got to the prison and just missed Black Bolt’s escape in the helicopter and then forced the science lady to follow along, that was decent. Beyond that, we got more scenes with Crystal and Maximus which was could have been so much better had the dialogue been less predictable, the same can be said for the flashbacks which felt like the emulated Thor so badly (in regard to the beef between young Black Bolt and Maximus) that it wasn’t funny. Oh and finally I don’t want to hate too much on Isabelle Cornish as Crystal but good gravy she is my least favourite character, her delivery of her lines lacks conviction and I can’t take her seriously at all. So will I quit the show? Probably not because I’m a bit of a completionist when it comes to TV shows, hopefully, things will improve.

Lucifer (Season 3)

“They’re Back, Aren’t They?” and “The One with the Baby Carrot”

So Lucifer is currently back on the air with its third season and it feels so good to have the show back. I liked season 1 a fair amount but good gravy season 2 took things to another level with cool stories, engaging characters and interesting mythology and by the end of the last season I was dying for more. So with the first episode of season 3, “They’re Back, Aren’t They?”, it did well to address the major cliffhanger involving Lucifer from the season 2 finale. This episode did well to continue the story beats from last season while introducing new scenarios which will play out over the course of future episodes. I liked seeing Lucifer come to terms with some of the changes to his body and abilities and how they not only affected him but also the people around him. It was also interesting how the police case was tied to Lucifer’s previous situation and I thought they were tied together rather well. Also, the main takeaway from the episode was the introduction of Tom Welling as the new lieutenant, Marcus Pierce, he left quite the impression as the sharp-tongued, no bullshit and quite frankly rude head of the department who clearly isn’t someone people should mess with. The next episode “The One with the Baby Carrot” was another solid episode as it had some interesting character development for not only Lucifer but also Marcus Pierce we learn he a bit of what his deal in relation to one of the people Lucifer is looking into and how it affected Pierce in the past. I liked the exchange between these two, it was heated, yet humorous and it is clear that this two will have more interactions as the season goes on which is great. I liked how the murder case was focused on comedy, stand up comedians and nature of how people become famous and what lengths they’ll go to keep themselves on top. The episode provided some great comedic moments not only for Lucifer but also Ella as she had some really silly and great moment. I also enjoyed the screen time given to Amenadiel and Linda together as they bonded but also tried to make sense of Amenadiel and his brother’s personal struggles. Anyway, so far so good for Lucifer season 3.

Well, that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of this show? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #31

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. This is the 31st week, and today I’ll be talking about Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lucifer, Grimm and Star Wars Rebels. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀 Oh and careful for spoilers especially for Star Wars Rebels…

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4) “The Patriot”

Now this was a good episode and probably my favourite since the origin of Ghost Rider in “The Good Samaritan” last year. Sometimes AoS fluctuates with the amount of engaging material in the overall story arcs with some episodes being really good, average or dull, but this episode was on the better end of the spectrum and had a lot of the key aspects that make this show worth watching. Straight from the beginning with Mace holding the press conference for Daisy I loved it, the way it was set up and framed with Coulson and Mac undercover, you knew something would go down, you just weren’t shure as to how it’d happen. It felt like a spy thriller set up from a film and more in line with the kind of material I wish this show would do more. Anyway, I enjoyed pretty much everything about this episode, it had action, suspense, mystery, cool reveals and moved at swift pace. There was a lot of really good material in this episode, but the main plot point with Mace and Colonel Talbot was great. Learning about the origin of Mace’s abilities and how Talbot not only had a hand in it, but also that the serum was a modified version of what Daisy’s dad used back in season 2? That was a crazy callback! I liked Talbot’s reasoning for why he did what he did even if his actions resulted in deception, being discovered and heated exchanges with FitzSimmons and Coulson. Plus it was great to get some insight into who Mace is, how he is good guy and has a moral code, but stumbled into a situation which he couldn’t escape from, this episode made me more relatable and human for sure. It was also great to learn more about Dr. Radcliffe and his plans for LMD May, Aida and normal May, oh and seeing Fitz still wanting to fix the other Aida was intriguing but bad as his secret will surely spell the end of the relationship with Simmons, I’m calling it right now (though I hate to). Also the humour was great, AoS has sometimes been hit and miss with its humour, though season 4 has been solid and this episode had some great one-liners from Coulson, Mace, Fitz and Simmons, and of course Colonel Talbot who had some great lines especially with the coffee.

Lucifer (Season 2) “Stewardess Interruptus”

So Lucifer returned this week and it was another really good episode, I’m continuously surprised by how much love this show and its ability to create depth and development for all of the key characters while still offering fun and interesting episodic cases. This episode dealt with some really interesting things like: 1) The people that Lucifer’s slept with: It was funny and interesting to learn of the people that Lucifer bedded and their varying experiences of pleasure but also see that it was just sex for them and witness Lucifer’s happiness turn to sadness because their lack of emotional attachment to him. 2) The killer may return: I found it interesting that the victims were used for drug smuggling and when we were finally introduced to the bad guy, we never see their face and they were able to get away. I’m sure this can’t be over. 3) Seeing Lucifer’s mum and Amenadiel actively try help Lucifer and Chloe’s relationship was fun especially the conversation between Chloe and Lucifer’s mum. And 4) Lucifer and Chloe’s relationship: We almost had a kiss at the end of last episode/this episode yet it was offset by an unexpected guest, and from there Lucifer and Chloe had hilarious/troubled conversations about their “moment” and the state of their relationship. Towards the end of the episode it looked like the people behind this show was gonna put a reset on the Chloe and Lucifer’s relationship, even though these two cared for each other but just weren’t emotionally sure about committing to it. But after Lucifer’s heartfelt speech on the beach Chloe went for the kill, and man it felt nice! I’m curious to see where their relationship goes from next week onwards. Oh and the humour, so much of it was great including stuff with Maze, Dan and of course Lucifer, that “Booties call me” line was frigging awesome! XD

Grimm (Season 6) “Oh Captain, My Captain”

So this is my first Grimm review for a while it feels and it feels good to finally be talking about the show again even though this is the final season 😦 But anyway let’s talk about episode 3 and man it was a doozy. Grimm always finds ways to create interesting storylines, and some of the creative and impossible tasks the creators find for our heroes to try and overcome is fascinating and fun to watch. So this episode dealt with the manhunt for Nick and any of his associates while our heroes tried to come up with a way to stop him and good gravy they came up with a dangerous plan; to turn Nick into Renard with magic and make a public announcement to renounce his candidacy as Mayor and clear Nick as a uncover agent. That was a crazy plan with a lot of humourous and dangerous moments not only with the media attention, but also with the real Renard once he found out as well. Doppelganger episodes are always tricky to pull off because of the stakes and story involved, but I think this was done well and Sasha Roiz did a great job playing himself and Nick. Also I knew that once Nick got stuck in Renard’s body, it would somehow fall to Diana to be the one to turn him back to normal, the moment she saw Nick (as Renard) I knew she’d probably see through it, so yeah Nick’s back to normal again, yay! But that look on Diana’s face was worrisome, she’s had no reason to mistrust Nick before but she does now, oh dear. But that was not the only surprise of this episode, as soon as Renard got home we saw Meisner again, now clearly this must be one of Renard’s visions, however, if that’s not the case then how is he still alive?

Star Wars Rebels (Season 3) “Trials of the Darksaber”

Well I’m calling it now, this might be the best episode of Rebels to date, talk about drama! This kind of emotional depth has been missing from this show for a while now, and when I go on about how great this show is I am talking about episodes like this, where the stories transcend just kid-friendly material, and dive deep into mythology but also present you with character-driven material that older audiences can appreciate as well. Straight from the beginning of the episode this episode felt different with a more somber and serious atmosphere, and that carried on through to the end of the episode. It was fascinating learning about the history of the Darksaber and how it tied into Mandalorian history and the significance/weight it put on Sabine. Since season 2 Sabine became one of my top 3 characters, but this episode really gave us our best look at her when it comes to inner conflict, combat abilities and backstory with the Empire and the Mandalorians. Seeing her train and get frustrated with not only her technique, but also with Kanan’s training methods and dealing with Ezra as a training partner/teacher was interesting and showed her at her most vulnerable. I loved seeing Kanan as the stern master and Sabine as his capable yet unbalanced student, it was handled wonderfully with the dialogue and sword fighting, and it felt like the kind of material you’d see in a classic film (like a martial arts film).

The visual material was superb with great sword stances, fight choreography, rich colours and wonderfully framed shots. I also loved the music as it had such a great sense of presence, drama and had an oriental feel during the training moments. I also liked seeing how everyone reacted to Sabine’s situation with Kanan being frustrated with her because of her Mandalorian tendencies and inner conflict, how Hera could relate to Sabine because of the family issues, and how Ezra, even though he was quite annoying, had a moment to remind Sabine that she at least had family to go back to. And of course I can’t talk about this episode without mentioning Sabine’s heartfelt speech while fighting Kanan, I love how Kana pushed her to the point of an emotional outburst which was raw and intense, and I got flashbacks to Return of the Jedi (Luke vs. Vader). Just hearing Sabine’s lament about how she was responsible for what happened to her people and tried to speak out, but was abandoned by the people she wanted to protect, its gut-punching stuff. And finally to see Fen Rau, Ezra and Kanan kneeling and saying they’d follow Sabine as a leader was beautiful, I really want know where this storyline goes.

Well that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of these shows? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching  too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #26

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. This is the 26th week and I’m a little late with some of these reviews due to my bnge session with Luke Cage over the weeked (review available here), but with that out of the way I can finally get back to some of these TV episodes from last week. Today I’ll be talking about Blindspot, Regular Show, Lucifer, Star Wars Rebels and South Park. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀 Oh and careful for minor spoilers…

Blindspot (Season 2) Episodes 2 & 3

I’ve been a little behind with Blindspot, but I’ve been catching up on my days off. There’s been a lot going on with this show over the last few episodes. In “Heave Fiery Knot” there was trust issues going on being Weller’s team, Jane and the NSA, more revelations leant about Jane’s history and crazy action scenes with firefights and a missile that almost hit a plane! That was some intense shit! I’m enjoying the ties to last season when it came to Reade following up his case from last season and Weller dealing with the memory of his father, but there were a lot of new and interesting elements Sandstorm and the tension between Shepard and Roman. As for “Hero Fears Imminent Rot“, bloody hell, that episode had one heck of an opening, I’m never gonna trust a random bag in cab ever again. It looks like Jane’s had the worst of luck with Sandstorm clearly aware about Jane’s lies in relation to her captivity, then they sent her on a mission to an innocent man just to see if she was still loyal to the cause, which she couldn’t do and then after going out on field operation almost got herself killed and lost the guy she was originally following. As for the main case of the week with the bomb guys that stuff was crazy, I hate it when there’s insane people wanting to kill innocent people because of a personal loss because it’s emotionally fueled, and it makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable because one wrong move during a diffusion or saying the wrong thing to a bomber while he’s got a trigger in his hand can spell game over, luckily our protagonists got out of it okay. Some other things I wanted to cover briefly were: 1) Looks like Patterson and Dr. Borden are a thing now, after being initially hesitant, Patterson went in for that kiss and I’m curious to see where that relationship goes. 2) Reade telling Zapata about him potentially being molested by his former coach was pretty significant and I’m curious if we’ll see him unlock those memories. And 3) I was surprised Roman covered for Jane which shows that he really cares for her, but knowing that he can’t cover for her again means Jane will have to get with the program or risk further danger in the future.

Lucifer (Season 2) “Liar, Liar, Slutty Dress on Fire”

After a week off Lucifer came back with its second episode and this one was more entertaining than the last with better jokes, more character development and new character/story elements which will probably arc across the season. I liked the introduction of Lucifer’s mother, how she hoped from dead body to dead body to find her son and finally settled on woman who just happened to be part of the key investigation for this episode. Tricia Helfer is awesome as Lucifer’s mother, she’s complicated, sassy, fun and not fully aware of human customs, plus her and Tom Welling have great banter. It was interesting to see Lucifer angry at his mother for abandoning him and trying to figure out what his mother was up to, when in fact there was a lot more to the story with his mum explaining the situation and history surrounding his and her events. And while they made up at the end of the episode, that smile she gave to the sky indicates that she’s up to something for sure.

South Park (Season 20) “The Damned”

So here we are with se. I once again adored this show’s approach to social media, and how obsessed the world can be with technology and the use of Twitter. I love how everyone treated Twitter like the be all and end all of life, whether it was the police officers talking about Twitter suicide or homicide or all of the boys freaking out about the police looking into Cartman’s disappearance because of what they did, that material fabulous. I haven’t found too much of Mr. Garrison’s material too entertaining so far, but this episode was solid because it highlighted the real life madness going on with Donald Trump’s campaign where the man spouts nonsense and everyone’s down with it because he speaks his mind and doesn’t say the same usual political material. But that ending was what got me. Having Cartman and Heidi hanging out as two lost souls left to hang out in the real world was strange/cute enough, but that part when Heidi asks Cartman if he’d like to see her vagina took me by surprise, but it was Cartman’s “Holy shit” line that killed me. BEST. REACTION. EVER!

Regular Show (Show Season 8) Episodes 1-4

When I found out about Regular Show‘s return last week I freaked out, I knew it’d be back for another season but I just didn’t know when. So firstly there’s “One Space Day at a Time” this episode basically dealt with the Park crew and Eileen adjusting to their new situation in space, while “Cool Bro Bots” introduced our heroes to a new set of helpful robots that came across as friendly individuals that Mordecai and Rigby were skeptical of. With the crazy/unexpected ending of season 7, RS had a lot of places it could go with the new setting and larger-than-life possibilities of space, and these two episode did some interesting things with the Park crew trying to get a phone signal, checking food supplies and almost getting sucked into space, and then having to deal with robots that secretly harvested plants for money and  getting into a laser gun battle alongside hardcore human resistant fighters. “Welcome to Space” expanded the mythology behind the park being in a dome and gave reasoning for the dome coming into play in the past, it was a bizarre yet interesting/funny way to propel this show into new situations and I loved the concept of the Spark Initiative and the fact that all of the Park crew were on board besides Benson, and speaking of Benson, while I understood his pessimistic attitude at the same time he was be being a right party pooper and he started to annoy me. Bt it was awesome that he had a hilariously horrible life on earth, decided he’d made a mistake and came back around on the idea of living in space, even if it was due to being a hologram room haha. And finally “Space Creds” felt like a normal episode of the show with Mordecai and Rigby wanting something dangerous/cool and needing to do something ridiculous to get it, in this case it was hover boots. I loved the random nature of the relationship between the doctor and her husband, their backstory and their interaction with Mordecai and Rigby. There was so much over-the-top foolishness, humour and random material, but it came together well.

Star Wars Rebels (Season 3) “The Holocrons of Fate”

So how do you follow-up a great season premiere? You bring in Darth Maul that’s how! 😀 Now I know there are previews of upcoming episodes, but I never watch them so I didn’t know the guy would be showing up so soon in season 3 and man this episode was awesome because of it. I love how Maul was able to capture the Ghost team and force Kanan and Ezra to give both the Sith and Jedi Holocrons. And even after getting what he wanted he was willing to kill Kanan and try to influence Ezra. It was interesting to see Kanan and Ezra not only interact with the Bendu, but also how to work together inside that cave to obtain the Holocron, that was good character development for those two. But what was my favourite aspects of the episode was when the Holocrons combined, I assumed the locations that Ezra saw must be tied to various places in the Star Wars films, but the “two moons” comment must have been in relation to Tatooine because when Maul left in his ship and was frazzled/angry saying “he” was still alive he must have been talking about Obi-Wan Kenobi which just makes me all the more excited to see those two have rematch.

Well that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of these shows? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching  too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

What I’m Currently Watching #24

Howdy ladies and gents, and welcome to What I’m Currently Watching where I give you a tiny update on what TV-based stuff I’m watching and give mini reviews/impressions on them. This is the 24th week and with the summer over and TV season back in full swing again, its time for the weekly TV reviews to come back, and this week I’ll be talking about Blindspot, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Lucifer and South Park. With that out of the way let’s talk about some TV! 😀 Oh and careful for minor spoilers…

Blindspot (Season 2) “In Night So Ransomed Rogue”

Ah Blindspot, its good to see you again. What was nice was that the tone, plot and characters felt in line with what’s come before, but the new plot involving the NSA working with the FBI to get Sandstorm (the same enemy that messed with Jane) creates a new dynamic that’ll be fun to explore over the course of the season. It’s interesting to see how things had initially changed for not only Jane but Weller and his team too with Jane being incarcerated and physically tortured, while Weller and his crew miss working on Jane’s tattoos. But what captured my attention more was how the events surrounding Jane from last season finally came to light and how it affected Weller, Reade, Zapata and Patterson’s relationship with Jane. Emotions were clearly running high not only with the FBI’s crew’s feelings towards Jane, but also the relationship between Jane and Weller, but then there’s all the stuff with Jane especially towards the end of the episode, with all those revelations about her past and the tie-ins to the beginning of the show, it just adds so much layers to the overall story, and the new characters Jane’s interacted with. I also liked seeing all of the actors back in their roles especially with Jaimie Alexander and Sullivan Stapleton, but it was also great to see newcomers Archie Panjabi, Michelle Hurd and Luke Mitchell (my man from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) establish themselves well in this show.

Agents of SHIELD (Season 4) “The Ghost”

So S.H.I.E.L.D. is back on TV again and its nice to see how things have progressed since last season and all the new elements introduced. I like how the episode didn’t waste time and started with an action sequence which not only gave us a look at Daisy/Quake in action but also showed us glimpses of Ghost Rider as he drove his flaming car and took dudes out in a gruesome manner off-screen. I also like how Mac and Coulson are a new pairing, while several of the old members of the SHIELD team are off in different departments. Crazy to see how divide of all the characters has created not only a shift in power/authority but also trust issues as well, some of my favourites being with Simmons and May or Yo-Yo and Daisy. It was also great to see the return of Dr. Radcliffe and his Life Model Decoy (AIDA played wonderfully by Mallory Jansen) in action and the conversation he had with Fitz about the codes and ethics of what he can and can’t do in SHIELD and Radcliffe’s reasoning behind wanting to create the LMD was really fascinating. Gabriel Luna is doing a great job as Robbie Reyes/Ghost Rider so far, he’s mysterious, intimidating and cool, and I love his reasoning for doing what he does not only as Robbie, but as Ghost Rider too. Plus how sweet was that reveal of the Rider in action? So cool, the VFX were on-point! The episode was pretty good with the addition of supernatural elements not only with the unexplained origins of Ghost Rider, but also of that strange ghost lady that made those guys kill each other and infected May’s mind. Finally I also liked the theme of attachment and how it applied to several of the main characters including Daisy, Robbie, Fitz and Yo-Yo. Can’t wait to see how this season progresses.

Lucifer (Season 2) “Everything Comes Up Lucifer”

Lucifer has returned and it feels like nothing has changed and that is both a good and bad thing for me. On the one hand the show’s still the same with the humour, style, characters and cop drama cases, and that’s good stuff. But at the same time there wasn’t too much change between the end of season 1 and the start of season 2, I guess that’s due to the short amount of time passed between episodes. All in all it was a funny episode with Lucifer being his funny, charismatic and egocentric self, but it was also interesting learn details about Lucifer’s mother, his history with her and how Maze and Amenadiel felt about it too. But what was even more intriguing was Decker’s feelings about Lucifer’s abilities and how Amenadiel explained it to her to keep her away from the truth. I’m definitely curious to see where the show goes from here, but the first episode for season 2 wasn’t as impressive as I wanted.

South Park (Season 20) “Member Berries”

So here we are with season 20 of South Park and it was fine, had some fun moments, but nothing super funny. The episode was topical, covered a lot of stuff that’s happened in the world recently, but also covered certain things that’s happened in South Park history too. I did like how the episode started with the Volleyball match, that was pretty funny especially after everyone left after the national anthem. The Cartman thing with him talking about girls being funny and talking about their virginas was kind of funny, but the best line was when one of the girls called Cartman and a “fat fuck” and Butters laughed, that was perfect. The whole Member Berries thing was just a little weird and dull, but the thing with J.J. Abrams rebooting the natural anthem was fun, if a little anti-climatic, and while I loved Mr. Mackey’s rise to power for the position of President, in this episode I found him a lot less compelling and funny than before, I hope he gets better. The end reveal that Kyle’s dad was skankhunt42 was great and I can see that this being one of the key elements that will continue of the course of the season.

Well that’s what I’ve been watching. So have you seen or plan to watch any of these shows? If you have any thoughts be sure to drop a comment below and let me know what TV shows you’re currently watching  too. Until next time, laters! 😀

 

Fall/Autumn TV I’m Gonna Be Watching!

Howdy people of the internet and fellow subscribers, its September and TV season is starting up again soon and I just wanted to update y’all on the stuff I’ll be checking out. Now for those who have been following me since last year you’ll know I started up a series called “What I’ve Been Watching” where I reviewed the TV I’d watched during that week, and while I wasn’t always consistent from week to week, it was a lot of fun to talk about TV and get some responses. Now there are some shows I’ve dropped or don’t care for as much as I used like The Walking Dead, Gotham and possibly some others, so yeah just thought I’d put that out there.

Anyway with all that out of the way here’s me preview:

Luke Cage (Season 1)

This show is just shy of two weeks away and I swear this wait has been almost as difficult as Daredevil season 2. Luke Cage went from being a show I was intrigued about to being something I was super hyped for, I think its been thanks to the great trailers and interviews about the way the showrunner and actors approached this show that got me so giddy. I’ve never been a big Luke Cage fan, but Marvel’s Netflix shows have made care for characters in an in-depth manner and I assume that’ll be the case for this show too. I want this show to be badass, I need to be, if it isn’t then I’ll be gutted. But I hope the show will work out.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 4)

I know a lot of people have given up on this show, but there’s a still a good few people that have a lot of love for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and that’s one of the key reasons it’s survived despite the low viewership and less than stellar perception from an outsiders perspective. AoS has been improving with each season and while not all of the stories and characters are great, it can definitely make for some entertaining TV. So now we have season 4 with a totally different landscape for all of our main characters and the introduction of frigging GHOST RIDER! Something I thought would never happen, and while it’s not the OG Johnny Blaze incarnation, I’m still hyped to see what they do with the character, and where things will go with the use of Inhumans, Coulson and company and Quake on her own solo adventures.

South Park (Season 20)

It is crazy to think that South Park is in its 20th season, man, just thinking about it makes me feel a lot older that I am. Anyway, even though the show’s already started, I haven’t checked out the first episode yet. I am curious to see what Matt Stone and Try Parker bring to the show this time around as season 19 had so many intriguing and refreshing changes to the basic formula to the show while still being as funny and as relevant as ever. So here’s hoping season 20 is a good one.

Star Wars Rebels (Season 3)

I love how Star Wars Rebels went from being a show I liked watched to being quintessential TV. Season 1 introduced some great new characters, story and mythology, while season 2 built upon that foundation and expanded it to a whole new level with more episodes, more character-driven stories, darker elements and ties to previous Star Wars film and TV material. And after the conclusion of season 2, I am more hyped than ever to see how this season unfolds with the introduction of Grand Admiral Thrawn into the world SW canon, getting more Maul, seeing more of Sabine and the Mandalorians and discovering what will become of Ezra as his Force abilities grow stronger.

The Flash (Season 3)

The Flash has been on of the most consistent TV shows in the superhero genre in recent memory and it went from strength to strength from season 1 to 2 to give audiences compelling and intriguing stories, characters, action and drama that was easily accessible and yet true to its source material. Season 2 was certainly more ambitious with the time travel material, doppelgänger characters and supernatural elements with the Speed Force and Zoom. And while The Flash some weak episodes around 2/3’s of the way into the show overall it was a stronger season and because of the way it ended, The Flash can now go anywhere and I’m curious to se if this show’s season 3 will be good or will be the start of a decline in quality like with what happened to Arrow‘s third season.

Lucifer (Season 2)

Ah Lucifer, what a crazy journey we went on last year. It is crazy how this show went from something I had no interest in, to being around 3 to 5 episodes in and really getting into. The show had an interesting balance of supernatural material mixed in with the standard police procedural genre, and while seeing certain common elements of the police drama side of things got a little tiresome, there was enough unique material to keep me watching. Plus it was the characters that was the main selling point of this show and the cast all did very well with a fabulous central performance from Tom Ellis as the charismatic and ever so charming title character. I’m really hyped to see where this next season goes especially with the introduction of Lucifer’s mother played by Tricia Helfer.

Blindspot (Season 2)

Blindspot ended up being one of my favourite new shows of last year and while each weekly episode was not always as captivating as it could be, it had an interesting story with characters I liked and a level of mystery, intrigue and surprise that made the show worth watching. I’ve just seen the first episode of season 2 and I’m liking what I’m seeing so far.

Arrow (Season 5)

With Arrow I’m almost ready to say taht I’m done with it considering how questionable the show’s gotten over the last two seasons with all the inconsistent, dull and uninteresting storylines, flashbacks and new characters I’ve had to endure. But it hasn’t been all bad and since I started thisshow back when it was good, I feel compelled to see it through to the end. I just hope that the showrunners can some new life into this show, but also get back to the core elements which made the show entertaining the first two seasons, because I do want to see this show bounce back.

Supergirl (Season 2)

At this point in time I haven’t finished Supergirl‘s first season because it was constantly a mixed bag of stuff I liked and things that irritated me. I found the show too similar to The Flash in tone, use of the soundtrack and overall format (probably the Greg Berlanti touch) but in addition to that the CGI was choppy, the fight scenes had no oomph or good choreography and the stories weren’t always too engaging. That being said I loved Melissa Benoist as Supergirl, most of the main cast are good, thee’s good world building and some cool reveals and the world the show inhabits has potential to grow and become even better. Season 2 seems to be delivering a lot of new material, most notably including Superman, so I’ll be curious to see how this show moves forward but also ties into the other CW DC shows.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (Season 2)

I’m not gonna lie, I don’t love this show, but there’s enough redeeming qualities about it that makes me want to keep watching. While some of the repetition in the story and character relationships and personalities got a little annoying, I did really get attached to the characters (mainly the already established ones) and it was the actors/actresses that kept me coming back more than the stories. I hope that season 2 will have a more compelling central story, less annoying character and better fight scenes too.

So that’s my list, expect the reviews to start coming in as of next week I think possibly on Wednesdays or Fridays. I’d love to know what TV you’ll be watching from now until Christmas and if you have shows you’d like to recommend me then be sure comment below and let me know okay? Until next time, laters! 😀

 

QUICK REVIEW: Lucifer “Pilot”

Howdy people, yesterday I had the chance to watch the first episode of Lucifer on Amazon Instant Video and I wanted to pass my thoughts on it. Now I’d heard about this show months before it came out as another comic book adaptation, but since I wasn’t familiar with the source material I left it alone. However, with my uncle being a comic book fan posting his thoughts online I had to give it a watch.

This show reminds me a lot of NBC’s Constantine in that both shows have good first introductions, set up the format for the weekly episodes and deal with supernatural elements concealed within the real world. What I liked about Lucifer was the mythology, the concept of the main character being a devil-like being who has left hell and has the ability to get the truth out of people, it was very fascinating, and while not all of the details were revealed about Lucifer’s life before being on Earth and how long he’s been there, or about the complications involving his father and Amenadiel, there’s plenty to like and get invested in for this pilot episode. I will admit that the show for all of its unique elements, it also felt a bit predictable with some of the story and character beats, some of it felt like your standard cop show drama and at times there wasn’t too many significant aspects that would make this show above average. Luckily the story was interesting enough and set a solid foundation for better things to come.

The cast is good with some people starting out more than others. Tom Ellis is the best as Lucifer Morningstar, the man is charismatic, charming, confident and very interesting to watch when using his powers and finding out what motivated him to do what he does. Lauren German as Chloe Decker does come across as another generic confident and badass cop that doesn’t take shit from anyone with a potential soft side and future relationship with Lucifer, German’s performance was good, but the character, besides being immune to Lucifer’s abilities, doesn’t seem as interesting so far. Kevin Alejandro is another standard douche as Dan, the detective who’s also Chloe’s ex-husband. Seeing D. B. Woodside after all these years as Amenadiel was fun and hope his character will have a bigger part to play later on, Lesley-Ann Brandt was good as Maze and Scarlett Estevez as Beatrice (aka Trixie) was very cute and likeable as Chloe’s daughter. Oh and finally Rachael Harris is delightful as Dr. Linda Martin.

In conclusion the first episode of Lucifer was alright, the show definitely showed signs of promise with some of the mythology and the budding partnership of Lucifer and Decker, however it wasn’t great and has room to improve.