They actually did it. They captured the original magic and self-awareness of the original show. If you are a fan from the 1990s, you will lament the loss of all the minor characters (except for Pinky and the Brain), but you will never-the-less enjoy this revival.
Good satire will always be evergreen.
On any other series, that would have been the season finale. Ten years ago, it would have been considered a TV movie.
Not just on terms of length, because it wasn't even the longest episode of the season thus far, but on terms of stakes and delivery. They pulled out all the stops, showed us all the things, culminated everything that the season has been building up to... save for one small child.
Where all the other episodes (except for one unfortunate bummer) pulled at the heart strings and brought progressive thought and understanding in the way Trek fans had enjoyed for years, this episode was one bombastic, cinematic moment after another. And I can appreciate that, when employed correctly. So many TV shows (and movies) don't, and all the explosions and dying and interstellar war fail to mean anything. Despite this, there was a single thought-provoking plot thread that came to a close...
Ensign Charly Burke.
I understand, and sympathize, with a lot of the hate surrounding the character. Though, I'm glad that the vast majority of that hate was aimed at the character and not the actor. Orville fans setting the bar for more established fandoms. And I personally wish they could have fleshed her out more than they did. But in the end... they did a good job with her arc. She was ripped out of her happy little life, forced to work alongside the person who inadvertently caused the person she loved to die for no reason, forced to tow the line on a ship that wouldn't tolerate racism towards the enemy the way the rest of the Union might have (wrongly) put up with. And she grew. Against her desire to grow, she grew. She grew more than she was aware of. When she had no time to think, she reactively defended Issac and ultimately the Kaylon as a people. So, I don't hate Charly as a character - especially not now. I think it was a competent execution of a trope that is used far too often and falls flat almost all of the time. Hell, even the funeral felt earned.
The rest of the episode is so dense, and doesn't ever slow down. But it's also a very visual. surface-level affair compared to the rest, so I'll just say that it was general sci-fi excellence. A great dessert after an even greater meal. I was genuinely shocked by Admiral Perry, especially his awareness of his decisions (Somewhere between Lawful Neutral and True Neutral). It's a shame he's gone now, but I'm more surprised we got Ted Danson in a recurring role for two seasons. I knew that a major shift in power was coming because of the last episode, but I was not expecting the team-ups we are left with. After all the griping about the shorten ed episode list, the length of those episodes and how tight the narrative has been leaves me stunned there's still a whole other episode to go after all of this. See you on the other side.
This show is far from over, but it is already the best Digimon since the original series. Turning Digimon into a mystery thriller probably saved the franchise. It's enough of an original story that you don't have to be fans of the original to enjoy it. You may need to avert your child's eyes from time to time as it can get surprisingly graphic for a show meant for older kids.
EDIT: Unfortunately, while still technically being better than most previous Digimon entries, it got stuck in it's own gimmick and couldn't figure out how to be anything more than a Scooby Doo monster-of-the-week kiddie show... with a lot of material that is not appropriate for kids. The finale throwing a curve ball and saying that it was aliens without any setup what-so-ever ended this experiment on a whimper and tremendous disappointment because of what this show could have been for the franchise.
"That's a lot of fish!"
You don't watch this movie to watch a good Godzilla movie. You watch this movie to have a fun night out with Matthew Broderick and Jean Reno.
I was wondering why this had to be its own "movie", then I watched it.
No, they went the extra mile with this full-length feature episode. I hope they never stop making these.
10 minutes into the episode
"Oh, I guess this is just going to be a standard, easy-to-digest bottle episode that shows Topa becoming more interested in joining the Planetary Union with a B-plot about her awkwardly crushing on Gordon."
45 minutes into the episode
"Fuuuuuck meeeee..."
More blatant retreading of past episodes and, again, despite that, a brilliant continuation of those plot threads. For an episode that was willing to depict child torture, it sure did end on a high note. And it threw quite a few curve balls in the process.
I ignored the throwaway line during the Haveena dinner, and the unusual meetup in the Lounge, because I absolutely did not expect to see a real spark between Bortus and Kelly. I equally did not expect to see Klyden come back and make a complete about-face from his previous position. There are going to be a lot of viewers that won't take Klyden back, but I am genuinely relieved that the family is whole again. So... (pregnant pause) ...what does that mean for Kelly? The dinner they all had on the ship felt straight-forward, but still gave me a twinge of impending trouble.
I don't quite get Gordon's involvement with Topa yet. I mean, I understand the general sentiment, but not how he suddenly took a frontline position about it. Did I tune out at the wrong time, or was the Engineering scene really meant to be all the backstory? Are they going to continue this in another episode? We don't even know the repercussions of his outburst in front of the Admirals.
Finally, DOLLY PARTON! Her appearance embiggened my heart. And her music was perfect. The celebrity cameos never dissapoint, even if it's just for a few moments. Though it is interesting that she referred to herself as a program, she knew she wasn't the real person. That would be a serious problem in a different altruistic universe.
This is it! These last two episodes are not a two-parter, but they are no doubt going to segue from one to the other as the finale of the season. If an underdog deserves to get renewed, it's The Orville. Seth is no stranger to having his shows canceled (sometimes over and over again). So even if it isn't renewed right away, I trust him of all people to find a way to make it come back somehow.
This is made by Williams Street Productions for fans of Williams Street Productions (Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law...). A hellish take on The Office set in the dark upside-down version of the Hanna-Barbara universe created by the demented minds at Cartoon Network. I highly recommend it.
This movie is good, but not as good as it should have been. Not because of the casting, not because of all the political checkboxes, and certainly not because a bunch adult babies got scarred over a plot-relevant and completely believable relationship.
This movie is not as good because it's the first time Pixar has spent the time and resources making a complete cash grab instead of bringing an original idea to life. Even against the endless Toy Story sequels, which are at least continuing to tell a story that means something to the original movie, Lightyear feels uninspired.
The visuals are outstanding, the humor reminded me of the slapstick from WALL-E, Chris Evens did a very believable job as Buzz Lightyear and I might not have known it wasn't Tim Allen if I hadn't already found out. But there's so much everymovie genericness to Lightyear that it makes The Good Dinosaur feel more original and Pixar-like. As disregarded as THAT movie is, at least it has the honor of being one of the original ideas invented when Pixar was founded.
Instead, with Lightyear, we're watching a movie about a movie within the universe of another movie (that is the official claim made at the start of the film). Maybe if they had made something that resembled what would have actually been released when Andy was a child (a mid 1990s American action movie set in space), it would have passed on account of its period charm.
The animated Buzz Lightyear of Star Command movie and TV series that Disney made ages ago are much better stories about a real Buzz Lightyear. Those works are already classics as far as many people are concerned. This movie will probably just be in every completionist's library for completion's sake.
shamelessly puts Lightyear in his complete library of everything Pixar has ever released
This is some of the best alt-history you will ever watch.
(I really gotta stop watching For All Mankind & The Orville back-to-back. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing, it can be mentally exhausting with the right pair of stories.)
A part of me wants everyone on Mars to go rogue, join forces, and declare themselves an independent planet. That would be very silly from a writing perspective, but I still want to see it.
Again, the brief moments of humor are very on point and appreciated. Because the overarching story this time is heavy, Doc. I want to know why the General got visibly pensive when Vice President Foghorn Leghorn started preaching fire & brimstone in the President's office. I want them to stop suggesting that people are going to kill themselves only for them to just... not.
The weakest thing about this season continues to be poor, old Danny boy. Please wrap it up next episode and get back to the inevitable three-way peace treaty between NASA, the Soviets, and Helios so we can see growth on Mars the way we never got to see it on the Moon.
(And if there's a Cthulhu in the water.)
This is episode 4033 "Cookie Hood", it was given a completely different main story and re-released as "The Mysterious Cookie Thief".
This is episode 4046, "Elmo and Rosita's play date". It was later altered and retitled "Elmo and Rosita's Musical Play Date".
"Attorney at Law"
You had my curiosity, now you have my attention.
This re-release was a mistake of the highest order. All they did was redo some of the scenes in CG, re-foley stuff throughout the movie (different sound effects), and re-sequence the score. And almost all of it was for the worse!
The 1995 movie uses fledgling CG technology in the most modest ways to compliment the cel animation and make certain elements pop out and be more than they could have been with ink and paper. This is just a thought exercise for super fans who are morbidly curious about how some of the traditional cel animation would look if fully done in CG - Spoiler: It looks pretty bad, and loses all of the heart & soul found in the original animated frames.
Just watch the remastered version of the original film. Almost 30 years later, the look and sound of everything, including the English dub, is still superior to most modern movies of any category.
Basically, this is Japanese Garfield.
This is episode 3952, "The Sesame Street cast gathers on the steps for a sing-along".
Danielle Poole, highly skilled and revered Astronaut, getting into fisticuffs with a Cosmonaut before doing anything else at all on Mars is the most hilariously human thing this show has done so far. I adore the writers' ability to make things nail-bitingly tense and still able to suddenly veer into such humorous moments. Narrowly beats out Ed skidding the Apollo lander into an embankment and calling it close enough.
This movie literally saved the Pirates franchise.
I guess I can forgive the showrunners for going back to the well of seasons 1 & 2 for... almost every episode so far. We still aren't sure if this is all we get out of The Orville. In any other situation, I would be worried about the apparent pattern of there being only one completely original episode, and how it was very weak compared to everything else this season. Some people are going to dismiss it as lazy writing, but as long connections are this meaningful and the writing this powerful I don't want to mess with a good thing.
We already knew that The Orville branches away from our timeline much further into the future than, say, Star Trek. But now we know that the timelines are pretty much identical through the early 2020s. I wonder if we'll ever get to see the defining moment that alters the course of human history from one of certain doom (that's us) to one of harmony and forward-thinking (that's not us).
Overall, this was another rock-solid mini-movie. Another well-accepted apology for being off the air for so long. Not Hollywood good, but the Best of Lifetime Television good. The kind of movie you know you're going to hate when you read about it and then you watch it and actually really enjoyed it. I especially loved the forced cooperation between Issac and Burke. Watching Sheldon roll that biker was obvious and rote, but still gave me some good chuckles. Even if she didn't sway from her opinion of Issac in the end, he put a few well-placed cracks in her wall. You know there's going to be a Burke Finally Grows Up episode in the future.
This is episode 4113, "Herb, the plant eating dinosaur, visits Sesame Street".
This is episode 4149 "Big Bird, Elmo and Abby sing", later retitled "All for a Song".
This is episode 3990, originally titled "Elmo illustrates a book about a spaceship". It was later slightly modified and retitled "Elmo Writes a Story".
This is episode 4058 "Best Pet in the World".
The storyline with Lee Pace and the other Brothers is excellent - High Science Fiction. The rest of the story involving The Foundation isn't bad, it just isn't as interesting. Almost everything that happened I could see coming a mile away. Though the revelation at the end seems to promise that things will become far more engaging in the future. ...We hope.
This episode was recently discovered after being lost for decades. It is a very special episode because it features an ultra-rare guest star; Margret Hamilton reprising her role as the Wicked Witch of the West.
Detailed information of the episode's content can be found here: https://muppet.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_0847
How did the Wicked Witch come across Sesame Street of all places? Who knows. But she spends the entire time complaining about it and how she will never return to such a retched place. The hitch is she needs to recover her broom... from residents who first want to teach her a lesson in politeness and respect. It's a pretty well-written story, because the solution is a compromise between everyone involved. The bumpers and shorts are not that special, they are mostly repeats (and a couple of them repeat within the same episode). But ever since I was a little kid, I always loved watching the Alphabet Soup skit featuring Grover. One of the best the series ever produced, IMO. There's also good moments with Bert & Ernie as well as Cookie Monster being the classic cookie thief he was created to be.
At the time of airing, this episode was met with a surprisingly negative response from parents claiming their children were too scared to watch it, despite the Wizard of Oz being a household name and premiering almost 40 years prior. Therefore, CTW erred on the side of caution and it was never aired again. It was thought to be lost to time until an archive copy was found in the Library of Congress just over a month before my writing this review, stored away in the film vaults with no fanfare or realization to how it had not been preserved otherwise. Once it was re-discovered, it was quickly copied and uploaded online. If you can't find it on YouTube, someone there will probably point you in the right direction. I hope that whomever currently owns the rights to the classic episodes makes a professional remaster and puts it somewhere for all Sesame Street fans to enjoy. It is a very important part of television history.
50-year-old opinions be damned, I watched the whole thing today with my 5-month-old son. He was transfixed. He did get wide-eyed with surprise in a couple of scenes where Margret did her trademark cackling laughter, but he was not scared in the slightest. I highly recommend this episode if you get the chance to see it. Especially if your family is Wizard of Oz fans.
This is the best season of Stranger Things since the beginning. The show started to feel like it had lost its way and become generic horror/gore, but that neon synth lightning has returned! I am eager to see what's in store for the fifth season.
Make sure you watch the one specifically titled "The Thief and the Cobbler", and not "The Princess and the Cobbler" or "Arabian Nights" or any of the other censored and localized abortions created from the original masterpiece.
The story of the making of this movie is almost more interesting than the movie itself. I recommend watching the Channel Awesome/Nostalgia Critic review of it on YouTube.
That last scene felt like the Duffer Brothers got up and left and Quentin Tarantino took over!
I want to give Lo-Fi Meredith a big hug.
If nothing else, I'm only here for Ramin Djawadi's music and Ed Harris' scene chewing. I left this episode very satisfied.
