dgw
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Baby Driver

[9.3/10] At first blush, Baby Driver writer-director Edgar Wright and fellow director Wes Anderson don’t seem like a natural pairing. Wright’s films, like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead tend to be overtly comedic, include a good quotient of action, and bring an adventure-focused quality to the proceedings. Anderson’s, by contrast, tend to be quieter, more droll pictures, that are certainly funny and have their share of exciting moments, but which find their form in the more reserved, music box sensibilities of Anderson’s oeuvre.

And yet, Wright and Anderson’s films have something very much in common. They both create films where it seems like the world was built to fit their characters, rather than more typical films where the main personalities find themselves struggling in a world that’s indifferent to them or even more commonly, which doesn’t fit them at all. Whether it’s Anderson’s elegant dioramas or Wright’s “everything’s foreshadowing” rube goldberg machines, the environments of these films bend to our heroes, not the other way around, resulting in some wonderfully well-choreographed cinema.

Baby Driver is the apotheosis of this tack, brought to bear in the form of car chases, gunfights, and the best jukebox soundtrack this side of the galaxy (and any attendant guardians). Indeed, Marvel Studios’ Guardians is a nice reference point, as both films not only feature countless rockin’ tunes, but also center on roguish but decent young men, holding onto to the last holy artifacts of their mother, finding solace in music and falling in with a rough crowd before deciding to stand for something more. It’s kismet that star Ansel Elgort, who plays the lead (appropriately named “Baby’), is signed on to be the past and future Han Solo in the latest standalone Star Wars flick, a character who’s very much in the DNA of Guardians’ Peter “Star-Lord” Quill.

Independent of any comic book counterparts, however, Baby Driver doesn’t offer much in terms of an original premise. Baby is a badass driver and a decent kid, mixed up with some bad folks, tentative about the prospect of blood and his hands, wanting to start a new life with his lady love. There are a lot of tropes in the film: the quiet but effective young naif, the loose cannon gangster, the slimy mastermind, the ingenue who represents a beacon of hope, the inevitable moral dilemma.

But what the film lacks in originality in its setup, it more than makes up for in performance, texture, and execution. Baby Driver has a murderer’s row of performers who chew up and spit out Wright’s script and make what could otherwise be stock character come alive and compensate for any dearth of depth with the sheer vividness of their presence.

Kevin Spacey looks alive for the first time in ages, bringing a blasé menace as the organizer of each heist. Jamie Foxx is at his extroverted best, rolling through pointed monologues and bringing a lived-in flavor of crazy. Lily James has enough homespun, wanderlust charm to balance out her underwritten part. Elgort is necessarily more reserved, but equally endearing and a fine fulcrum for the movie. And Jon Hamm brings his Mad Men practiced-gentility in a fashion that makes him seem like that much monstrous when the scales fall.
But while the performances carry the film in its quieter moments, what sets Baby Driver apart is sequence after superlative sequence of breathtaking kinetic cinema. Not content to simply toss in explosive but empty action to keep the heart-pumping, Wright, cinematographer Bill Pope, and editor Paul Machliss create these elegantly constructed set pieces of gorgeous synchronous stunts, twists, and turns, the hum right along with the music, just like the protagonist.

That works whether Baby is blowing the doors off the film’s opening with a series of death-defying terms perfectly sequenced to his backing track. It works when the young man finds himself embroiled in a firefight where surprise shots and returned fire blast back and forth in time with the beat. It works in chases on foot as the rhythmic thump of the tune of the moment matches the energy of pursuers and pursued alike. Even when Baby goes to get coffee, the world moves with him; from the graffiti on the walls to the buskers on the street everything goes where he goes.

In the same way, the film doesn’t so much present action scenes as it does ballets of chrome and octane. Baby Driver oozes with style and tempo, knowing how to hold the audience’s attention through great escapes that and close scrapes that keep topping one another, and quieter scenes where the tension comes from sweet interactions juxtaposed with combustive elements, leading the viewer to wonder which will win the day.

It’s also a near perfectly-paced movie. Like a perfect mixtape, Wright knows when to kick things into gear and when to slow things down to let the audience catch its breath before putting his foot on the gas once more. While the film starts to feel a bit overextended at the very end, with the villain creeping into unkillable slasher territory, for the vast majority of its runtime it holds your attention from moment to moment and scene to scene expertly. In that, Wright matches the talents of his protagonist, directing and maneuvering this complex machine like it were a rough-and-tumble ballerina, full of slick thrills and inimitable grace.

He achieves this with a movie, a setting, and a lead character, that each move like clockwork in sync with one another. While Baby Driver is neither as quiet or twee as Wes Anderson’s work, it brings with it the film’s own sense of longing and melancholy beneath an intricately constructed world. Every scene is a dance, every moment a confluence of sound and imagery and movement, whether in the pulse-pounding races against cops or robbers, or gauzy imaginings of another life that might be. In Baby Driver, Wright has built his most elegant, intricate toy, and it’s a treat and a pleasure to see him play on the screen once again.

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@andrewbloom This should have more likes. Why doesn't it have more likes?!

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Mr. Robot: 2x08 eps2.6_succ3ss0r.p12

haha there's a little Android and iOS fanboy/fangirl battle here; yet none of these guys ever heard of Maemo, MeeGo or Symbian.
I'm still waiting to see whether we even get to see a Nokia device appear in the show. All you ever see are your typical Apple products and Android s%*t, some Amazon... We needa see some retro 90s-00s hacking! (looking @ young Elliot)

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Hmm, WebOS, Firefox OS… the failed Ubuntu Edge would be a killer device type for this show, I think. Too bad it fell so far short of its funding goal, I wanted one.

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Leave No Trace
10

Reply by dgw
VIP
10

Good, good movie. Ben Foster is great...almost as great as Thomasin. Great actors the both of them. This was a small story told with so much emotion. It might look boring and is only rated PG, but it's solid. Check it out.

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@kurtmoney That's how I read the tone. Maybe that's not how you meant it, but it came across that way. Personally, I don't think a film's rating has anything to do with the quality and would never even think to mention it in a review. MPAA ratings are just a tool some people choose to use when deciding what movies their kids should be allowed to see, after all. They're meaningless otherwise.

If what you meant was, "It might look boring, but it's solid and is only rated PG," then that completely changes things and invalidates my original interpretation. As written, there's an association between "look[s] boring" and "only rated PG" that jumped out at me when reading your initial comment, that's all.

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Leave No Trace
10

Reply by dgw
VIP
10

Good, good movie. Ben Foster is great...almost as great as Thomasin. Great actors the both of them. This was a small story told with so much emotion. It might look boring and is only rated PG, but it's solid. Check it out.

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It might look boring and is only rated PG, but it's solid.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out when a PG rating became synonymous with "uninteresting"…

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Baby Driver
10

Reply by dgw
VIP
10

Some of the drifts, stunts, gunfights, etc. are a little too much (-1 ) and the soundtrack is mostly shitty (- a second *) IMHO. Man, think about how great this flick would be with solid rock&roll tracks instead of those mainly annoying bepedy-bop rap and pop sh*!

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@drnkmnky If you want a literal * you have to use \* so it won't be turned into italics. :)

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Your Name.
10

Reply by dgw
VIP
10

8

Review by Deleted
BlockedParentSpoilers2017-12-05T07:28:07Z— updated 2018-02-13T04:06:21Z

Kimi no Na wa.

Kimi no Na wa es excelente en lo que quiere conseguir aunque se pone algunos obstáculos voluntariamente en el camino.

Esta película hace muchas cosas bien. Una de ellas es el poder comprimir en 30 minutos toda la trama sobre Cambio de Cuerpos y de esos 30 minutos en los primeros 15 concretamente hay algo muy interesante al momento de pasar de la zona rural a la cuidad. Antes de pasar a la cuidad la protagonista dice "Quiero ser un chico guapo de Tokio en mi siguiente vida", de primeras no puede significar nada y hasta pude llegar a sonar extraño e incoherente si se analiza un poco, pero bueno el objetivo en este caso es lo que se consigue cuando la protagonista dice eso. Esa frase consigue que el espectador espere que la protagonista amanezca en el cuerpo de un hombre o que ocurra algo alrededor de el cuerpo del hombre, y así cuando pasamos a la siguiente escena el espectador puede asimilar de una manera mucho mas rápida lo que esta ocurriendo en pantalla. En este caso que la "mente" de la protagonista esta en el cuerpo de un hombre y así no esperar a que se planteé como tal esto. Esta forma tan sutil de presentarlo lo vuelve mas natural y por ende mas sorprendente.

Los "Viajes en el tiempo" en esta película están bien expuestos, aunque si se les analiza se pueden llegar encontrar fallos, el objetivo primordial que es hacer un guion en el que la primera vez que el espectador vea la película no se encuentre con ningún fallo y con ello no se vea perjudicada la inmersión se consigue de muy buena manera.

A lo que me refiero conque la película se pone obstáculos al intentar hacer un buen guion fuera de los "Viajes en el Tiempo", es en que varias situaciones son incoherentes porque se les da muy poco o nulo desarrollo. Una de estas situaciones puede ser cuando le cortan la falda a la compañera del protagonista, esa situación es tan incoherente porque no hay una razón por la cual el cliente quisiera cortarle la falda mas allá de hacerlo por deseo propio, lo cual no tiene sentido en un guion. Los guionistas hacen esto varias veces a lo largo de la película, este tipo de situaciones realmente no tienen ningún tipo de justificación y por lo tanto son errores graves por lo sencillos que son de arreglar sin afectar a la trama.

Independientemente de todos los errores, es una película tremendamente hermosa que logra contar una trama de cierta manera compleja de una muy buena forma.

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@diego-b FYI, Trakt comment rules state "English only". If you can append an English translation of your review, that would be amazing :)

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The Last of Us: 1x08 When We Are in Need

Filler episode that added nothing to the story long-term. Meh.

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@drive95 World-building for Part II and giving Ellie a chance to show her own mettle is filler?

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The Expanse: 2x10 Cascade

Hmmm, they're starting to drag their feet. We used to have action, this episode was a total bore

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@ramadri I second @jamatiknakmuay… if you're expecting constant action, you're watching the wrong genre.

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The Expanse: 2x04 Godspeed

This show is pretty F good, except the fact they are constantly forgetting that there is no gravity in space

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@dumbsloth87 I think @fenkins was likely talking about the process Miller used to get the bombs off the cart on Eros. He very clearly lifted each unit up, then rested it on the cart as if it was very heavy while changing grips to lift it over the railing. Right before setting each unit down, the base lit up as if to indicate a magnetic fastener activating, but all of Miller's movements up until putting each unit down indicated that he was under gravity—which he wasn't, in-universe.

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Schitt's Creek: 2x13 Happy Anniversary

[8.4/10] I have to be real -- about halfway through this episode I was hating it. It seemed like we were headed for the hackiest, wackiest, sitcom-y finale imaginable. Johnny fumbles the ball on his anniversary with Moira only to run into the Schitt’s after brushing them off! Alexis’s ex-fiancee tells her about a party being held by her other ex that she wasn’t invited to, which she crashes, only to run into Mutt’s new girlfriend! David and Stevie compete for the affections of the same guy after needling one another about high school dating prowess! It’s all so broad and dumb that I figured this season, for all the good work it’s done, was headed for a crash landing.

Instead, it soared from that point on. I don’t know if this was some kind of intentional feint, to lure the audience into thinking that the show was up to its old tricks and going for the cheap seats, but instead it pivoted toward something real and even touching in pretty much every storyline as it closes out its second season.

The Stevie/David bit is probably the least of them. David mainly got his major growth moment in the last episode, so it’s fine that his bit here is more of a lark. Frankly, their competing for the same guy, with it not being clear whether/if he was interested in both of them or just David felt more like a setup for season 3 than anything super relevant to the present moment. But it still positions them as friendly but combative after all they’ve been through, so I dug it, even if it wasn’t my favorite part of the episode.

But I did really like where they went with Alexis. I assumed that her meeting Tennessee, Mutt’s new girlfriend, was going to revert her back to (1.) offering her passive-aggressive compli-sults and (2.) compensate by hooking up with Ted again despite the fact that the poor guy’s been through enough. The episode started to head that direction, only to pull back and do something much better.

Instead of this experience being cause for backsliding in Alexis, it becomes another chance for her to grow and, most importantly, to develop her empathy. Instead of just feeling sorry for herself given the impact that seeing Mutt with someone else has on her, she realizes how shitty it must have been for Ted to go through that and asks him how he deals with it. He answers that he wasn’t okay, that he cried a lot and that it took him a long time, but that he eventually just got through it. Aleixs understands and even apologizes, and it’s a really sweet and human moment from someone who could be the show’s most cartoonish character (give or take Roland).

And yet, Roland factors into the episode’s crowning moment. I love the impromptu dinner party scene, where the Roses run into their wealthy former friends who just so happen to be passing through Elmdale. The Roses initially try to puff up their current living situation and laugh along with their old friends trashing Schitt’s Creek. They’re embarrassed at their current station and want to seem like they can still fit in with their former moneyed cohort, something especially tricky once Roland and Jocelyn show up.

The Schitt family are incredibly good sports about the whole thing, even as the rich visitors trash their town and even the restaurant they’re so excited to get to dine at. Eventually though, Johnny has had enough. He excoriates his former pals, declaring that for however much these interlopers think themselves above Schitt’s Creek, they’re shitty friends who left the Roses high and dry. Meanwhile the Schitts may not be terribly refined, but have been beyond generous with our refugees from the world of wealth.

I’m not sure there’s been a more heartening moment in this show than Johnny declaring that Schitt’s Creek is their home. It’s a vindication of the fact that however much the Roses may yearn for their more financially secure and, let’s face it, spoiled life, they’re increasingly realizing how equally hollow and shallow that life, and the people in it, were. While life in Schitt’s Creek is unquestionably harder, it’s also full of more genuine people, who are rough around the edges and have their eccentricities and blind spots as well, but who have done a great deal to welcome the Roses into their homes and lives despite the fact that the Roses themselves haven’t been the most gracious guests in the world.

And yet, they are trying and they have gotten better and they have fully and finally accepted themselves as a part of this place. (At least until the next finale-needed conflict arises.) There’s something incredibly sweet about the closing scene at Mutt’s party, where the Roses and the Schitt’s and their various friends and acquaintances all come and dance together. They affirm their love for one another. They join in the bonds of friendship and celebration and, subtly, the fact that they’ve become better people through all of this. That’s a hell of a way to end given where this one started.

You could say the same for season 2 as a whole. This year of the show started out pretty weak, with a string of rough episodes that made me wonder if the show had missed its mark. But while there were still bumps in the road, the show committed to depicting growth in each of the Roses over the course of these thirteen episodes, and earned this great finish in the process.

(As an aside, I loved the cold open with Johnny trying to cajole the kids into wishing their mom a happy anniversary, citing the neighboring Bloomfield family as a model, only for Alexis and David to suggest that the Bloomfields were a little too cozy. Their faux-sincere congrats for Moira, and her response that the kids were starting to sound like those weird “incestuous Bloomfields” was a hilarious punchline. One place where the show definitely stepped up its game in season 2 was the great cold opens!)

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@andrewbloom No need for rudeness especially when the so-called "War and Peace comment" is spot-on. Plus, Trakt does have a "Read more" button now on long reviews.

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The Last of Us: 1x08 When We Are in Need

Man that was tense! I totally see why Bella said there would be some divided opinions on this one because David was one sick guy. Like... not even the game went there haha. IMO though it worked pretty well, as it made me sympathize a little less with David here than in the game. Great episode and tense all the way through! Sad we're coming up on the finale but man... The hype is real haha. (Nice work here by Troy, did a great job!)

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@shmuckle The game went close enough to there that it was obvious if you paid attention. Just requires a little reading between the lines, same as Bill/Frank.

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Stargate Atlantis: 1x07 Poisoning the Well

A cool concept and the episode allows us to understand more about the Wraith without reducing how intimidating they are. That can often be a difficult thing to achieve. I like the twists and turns this one goes through on its journey, and I like that this gives Dr. Beckett more to do for the first time. The guest character played by Allison Hossack felt a bit too similar to the one she played previously over on SG-1, but she does a good job here.

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The guest character played by Allison Hossack felt a bit too similar to the one she played previously over on SG-1

@lefthandedguitarist It did feel like I'd seen Perna before. I had, under a different name: Zenna. :grin:

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Stargate SG-1: 5x21 Meridian

A strong and effective send off for Daniel that does hit the right emotional spots. It's handled with care. Of course, even back in 2002 it was widely reported that Michael Shanks was going to be leaving the show, so there wasn't a surprise factor here. But that didn't diminish how sad it was to watch.

While the episode does remove his character, it has the foresight to not "kill" him off as such, leaving the possibility open for appearances in the future. But even so, this manages to feel final. The farewell between him and Jack is played very nicely, and it was the right choice that Daniel selects him to say goodbye to. Their friendship has been rough along the way (even as recently as a couple of episodes ago with the ending of 'Meridian'), but it's really grown into one of the most solid relationships here. The tears in Michael Shanks eyes feel genuine which is a testament to his acting abilities.

Whether you agree with Daniel's reasons for leaving is another matter. He seems to almost be giving up, despite his protestations that he's not. He claims to feel useless and that he's done all he can; I'm not sure I quite feel the same. The episode attempts to justify his state of mind, but the fact that it's not been built up kind of makes it not ring entirely true for me. He and SG-1 have accomplished a LOT over the past few years.

Other than that, this introduces us to the naquadria element and also Jonas Quinn. I like Jonas and I think this episode helps to establish his morals quite well.

I remember a lot of online discussion back in the day about Carter's goodbye scene with Daniel where she's talking about "why do we always wait to tell people how we really feel?". This was misinterpreted by a lot of people, myself included, as her declaring some romantic feelings towards him. I think it's an easy mistake to make given the words she chooses, but it's definitely not meant that way.

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(even as recently as a couple of episodes ago with the ending of 'Meridian')

I believe you meant "Menace"? This episode is "Meridian" :grin:

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Counterpart: 1x05 Shaking the Tree
8

Shout by kinky
VIP
EP
6
BlockedParentSpoilers2018-02-18T22:59:17Z

So, comatose Emily had been cheating on Howard for weeks? Can't our Howard get a break? Meantime, still showing that he's the world's greatest person, he naively tries to make up for all the emotional damage Howard Prime did on the other side... Those last few seconds before the episode ended, with Anna, were heartbreaking.
One thing's for sure: both Howards will not be pleased when they return to their respective sides, if they get to know what each one of them was up to while the other one was gone.

Oh, also, that guy who lives with his wife from both sides, meaning he has two wives who are both the same, but from different realities, the three of them living together... This show can get quite messed up, if it puts itself to it.

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Oh, also, that guy who lives with his wife from both sides, meaning he has two wives who are both the same, but from different realities, the three of them living together... This show can get quite messed up, if it puts itself to it.

I find this extra funny because it comes from a user whose display name, at the time I read it, is "kinky" :rofl:

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Spice and Wolf
9

Reply by dgw
VIP
10

When I See Review About The Whole Series, I See So Many Negative Reviews & Some Pos. I Think I Must Giving It A Shut. But.... Hmmm. I Can't Get Anything From It. Romance? Not Really! Adventure? Not Really! Love? Not Really! Good Plot? Not Really!
This Series Have So Many Think But Not In a whole package. In Season 1 U Get 4 Good Episode And The Other Just Waste Of Time. In Season 2 U Get The Same 4 Good Episode! In General, I Feel choosing this, just another bad idea!

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Reading This Shout Hurts My Brain.

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The Last of Us: 1x08 When We Are in Need

3 things needed to be achieved in this episode to ensure the success of the season finale and the build up to an epic season 2.
1) Ellie is the strong element on the equation, she is truly special and not a clever little girl. She is a natural leader and powerful women (super clear during the talk in the cell and when she grabs that cleaver, cleverly );
2)that Bella Ramsey can be adult, raw, fearless and agressive . Her face covered in blood, the knife cuts and the fire behind makes it very visual
3) and finally that the the relationship with Joel is of love and dependence. They would do anything to save the other. When they meet at the end we can see it in their eyes.

Thats why this simple episode needed an amazing performance and we got it. Truly incredible and remarkable with so many small references to the game and one HUGE one: Troy Baker :)
7 days counting to that episode on the hospital and the inevitable moment where we will see Abby for the 1st time.

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@movielijst Came here to say the same thing :joy_cat:

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Stargate SG-1: 5x02 Threshold (3)
9

Shout by dgw
VIP
10
BlockedParent2021-05-24T06:18:31Z— updated 2021-06-10T17:27:14Z

I swear an episode in season 4 implied that Bra'tac had been killed. Somewhere along the way I must have misheard a line of dialogue.

Update: It was "The Serpent's Venom", in a conversation between Teal'c, Rak'nor, and Terok. It's from when Terok says, "Not even Bra'tac lasted this long," and later, "He did die, Teal'c." So it wasn't misheard dialogue; it was misleading dialogue. I didn't quite pick up on the "interrogation intimidation" vibe.


Any episode that continues expanding on Teal'c and his deep backstory is a great one in my book.

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@wpafbo79 Found it, in the transcript for "The Serpent's Venom". Updated OP.

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Stargate SG-1: 5x07 Beast of Burden

A great episode that comes close to ranking among the best for the show. A simple concept is given a lot of depth thanks to various factors that the show has built up by this point. The Unas have been given just enough development to make this genuinely compelling, and while we only get to see glimpses of what they are all about it still feels like there's a functioning society there. Top marks are due for the actors under all those prosthetics (both of whom have a long history of Stargate appearances by this point).

This is a really strong outing for the characters, too. Daniel gets to be himself and show his frustrations at the situation, O'Neill is allowed to give in to doing what feels right even though it may be against his better judgement. And Larry Drake is on fire as he portrays a bad guy with such skill that we as an audience genuinely hate him. Extremely well done.

It also has the courage to end on a dark note.

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@lefthandedguitarist Larry Drake played another pretty great "bad guy" the previous year, as Administrator Chellick in "Critical Care" (Star Trek: Voyager 7x05).

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Stargate SG-1: 3x18 Shades of Grey

Absolutely superb, and a fantastic follow up the equally great 'Touchstone' from season 2. This episode takes you on a ride and manages to make you question whether your really knew O'Neill at all. I loved it when Stargate went full intrigue because the characters were set up well enough to take it to all sorts of unexpected places.

And again, this uses the shows history to build a new story from existing parts, which is so cool. We go right back to Tollana from a few episodes back and use their "no technology" stance to take us down a completely different path. Maybourne and his secrets that were laid in 'Touchstone' begin to be revealed and Jack is even able to use the events of '100 Days' as a reason to help him with his plans.

It manages to keep O'Neill's intentions pretty well hidden, even going as far as to potentially hurt his friendship with Daniel in quite a harsh scene. One thing that always stuck out to me was that in his conversation with Carter about "now I'm acting like myself", his performance really brought me back to the original Kurt Russell version from the movie. Nice.

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@lefthandedguitarist Was it just me who thought the ruse was supremely obvious? Not the exact target, per se, but the fact that Jack was playing a role?

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Community: 3x05 Horror Fiction in Seven Spooky Steps

[8.4/10] This is a great spoof of traditional horror tropes, while also showing how well Dan Harmon and company know their characters. The premise of somebody in the group being a psychopath is a nice spine for this one, and the coining of “Britta” as a verb is a Community classic.

My favorite of the stories here are Abed’s and Annie’s. Abed’s story of a hyper-prepared and overexplained couple at a cabin in the woods is both a nice take on his sort of hyperliteralism and nitpicky story sense, but also a nice broader spoof of the boring movies that cinemasins-style critiquers would create. At the same time, Annie’s “teach a vampire how to read” tale is an amusing parody of Twilight and a hundred other monster romance books, which also speaks to Annie’s need to help fix people (“You should be so proud of how I changed you!”), and has an amusingly disturbing twist with the werewolf dismemberment material that leaves her classmates in shock.

The next two runner-ups in the story department are Shirley’s and Britta’s. Shirley’s is a great visual take on a sort of Chick tract come to life. The misguided drug slang and low key disdain for her friends’ lifestyles, mixed with the self-righteous “I forgive yoooouuu!” and a great turn from Dean Pelton as the Him-esque devil is outstanding. And while Britta’s story is pretty standard stuff, the way her perfunctory storytelling is reflected in the skit and the dialogue is hilarious.

Jeff’s story is true to form as a way to get the group on the same page. Pierce’s turn as “Magnum” is pretty unpleasant, even if that’s supposed to be a reflection of Pierce’s prejudices and self-inflated ego. And Troy’s low grade take on a Human Centipede-type story isn’t full of as many laughs as you might expect, but at least reflects Troy’s teenage boy sense of “awesomeness!”

The group’s mutual paranoia and eventual realization that they’re all psychopaths is an amusing place to take the frame story (not to mention Britta imagining herself reading “Warren Peace”), and goes out on a fractured but sweet note which characterizes this show.

Overall, this is a great Halloween outing, with very funny takes on classic horror movie beats and knowing takes on each of the characters.

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@andrewbloom Even better: Britta imagined herself reading "Warren Piece". :rofl:

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The X-Files: 1x17 E.B.E.

One of my favourite episodes of the series.

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@cptarius I can see why!

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Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: 1x15 Hilda and Zelda: the Teenage Years

Salem's been looking really strange in the last few episodes, and I think I know why. They changed puppets for the second half of season one, and again for season two.

The puppets used in the second half of the first season were the result of the network's art direction. It would seem that people high up in Animal Makers disliked the look of these puppets but they had to serve the specific comments of ABC.

Two new puppets were created for season two.

http://salem.damowmow.com/puppets/home.html

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@cptarius And now you have the crown for fastest reply to one of my comments on Trakt. It usually takes at least 12 hours for someone to notice my posts ;)

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Star Trek: Voyager: 2x21 Deadlock
9

Reply by dgw
VIP
10

Creative and enjoyable, with a pleasantly weird alternate-universe/time-shift aspect that never becomes too complicated to follow. It leaves you with the odd feeling of having seen the Voyager crew die, but never really being sure if they were our original crew, or whether that even matters. The exact same thing happens to Harry that happens to O'Brien in DS9's 'Visionary', in that we are left with a version of the character who isn't exactly our own one.

It was also good to see the Vidiians back to being pretty decent bad guys again. There was something chilling about the way they just assessed unconscious people by which organs they could harvest from them. Janeway was a bit of a badass in regards to the solution to getting rid of them.

Having the duplicate Janeways standing so close to each other during their scenes made it look like they were about to kiss, and really made me aware of how shows had to work within the 4:3 aspect ratio back then. I felt a bit more let down that the two versions of Kes didn't really interact with each other at all.

I got quite wrapped up in the ordeal of Ensign Wildman finally having her baby, which certainly ran through a gamut of emotions! Chakotay was as useless as ever, and I noticed that Voyager didn't require his authorisation to concur with setting the self-destruct - I guess Janeway changed that because she knows he'd just mess it up.

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and I noticed that Voyager didn't require his authorisation to concur with setting the self-destruct

They already threw the self-destruct confirmation out the window in "Dreadnought". Since I spent so many words on it just a few episodes ago there was no point bringing that up again in my own review of this one. :D

Speaking of "Dreadnought", what happened to, "The moment a captain decides to initiate a self-destruct, any episode will become extremely predictable"? Looks like this one proved an exception to your generalized insult directed at plots that use self-destruct.

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Lizzie McGuire: 2x07 The Longest Yard
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Reply by dgw
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Shout by dgw
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@LuckyNumber78, I'm pretty sure the dishes in the first scene of this are the same as yours. Kind of like how I grew up using the same plastic picnicware cups as were used in Quark's on DS9…

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@luckynumber78 Of which dish set? Lol

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Homeland: 3x11 Big Man in Tehran
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Reply by dgw
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Please. Continuity is important in a show like this, and someone dropped the ball: Brody drops the cyanide needle from his right sleeve into his right hand when walking toward Akbari, but he was shown rolling it into his left sleeve cuff when getting dressed earlier. Why would he move it? Especially while sitting in a car under IRGC guard.

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@noahjk_ On what? If someone pointing out a continuity mistake annoys you enough that you curse at them almost four YEARS later, it is you whose grip needs tightening.

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Scum's Wish: 1x01 Episode 1
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Reply by dgw
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I thought at multiple points, "This looks like it's actually going to be better than the anime" (which, full disclosure, I haven't finished yet)—but ironically, I rated the first episode of the anime higher than this.

But actually, I'm cautiously hopeful that my enjoyment of this version won't taper off the same way it did with the anime adaptation. Maybe when I reach the same point in the drama, I'll start alternating the live-action and animated versions. Could be fun to compare them more directly like that, since they have identical episode counts and (from what I remember of the anime) covered the same material in their respective first episodes.

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@jarvis-9230101 I don't remember where I watched it 2 years ago. Presumably it's available on some specialized drama streaming service, which Trakt tends not to index.

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Lizzie McGuire: 2x29 Grand Ole Grandma
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Reply by dgw
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Doris Roberts is always a joy, and this episode was fun and cute, as usual.

Content Concerns:
Sex: None. 5/5
Nudity: Lizzie wears an outfit that shows some slight midriff. 4/5
Language: None. 5/5
Violence: Comedic pratfalls. 4/5
Drugs: None. 5/5
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Slight emotional intensity. 4/5
Other: A reference to feng shui. 4/5

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Why is a reference to feng shui even worth mentioning, let alone enough to pull down the "Other" rating?

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Lizzie McGuire: 1x26 Scarlett Larry
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Reply by dgw
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More old-school fun featuring my old flame, Lizzie McGuire. The one thing I object to is Kate's wardrobe during gym class.

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She's wearing the same gym uniform as all the other girls…?

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Arrow: 2x18 Deathstroke
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Reply by dgw
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Arrow maybe a superhero but he is not that smart. At least not in this episode... And Yes, Roy was right.

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Laurel's not too bright either, opening that door without even looking through the peephole first.

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Lion
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Reply by dgw
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Extraordinary story told in a very extraordinary way. Dave Patel and Nicole Kidman outstanding. The music beautiful. I love it

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@thekinkykid Dave Patel? Is that Dev's identical twin? :P

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