So far, the best episode of the first series, this was a great watch.
Full of suspense, intrigue and mystery this is exactly what I expected from Supernatural. After the first episode, I was slightly disappointed (but only slightly), this episode, however, proved me wrong in many aspects.
Fell in love with Amy Acker's role here.
It's definitely picking up pace, that's for sure. Much better to watch than the first episode, with quite interesting story for the episode where boys are hunting a creature called Wendigo.
Great to see Callum Keith Rennie aka Lew Ashby, as this experienced hunter that's full of himself, very rooted in reality.
Enjoyable watch, nothing more, nothing less. Main arch slowly developing into something bigger.
The first episode of three is solely focused on Rwanda. For the most part, it's relatively unengaging - it threads the same path as many animal documentaries before it, showing off hyenas hunting zebras, a family of gorillas, and then a family of chimpanzees. You've seen it before.
It's all fine, but there is no substance in terms of interesting facts or stories, and each segment just doesn't last very long.
I would rather have less variety but more in-depth narration than huge variety and not more than 3 minutes dedicated to a segment.
It starts becoming interesting, literally 10 minutes before it ends, with good shots of a long-legged shoebill (it looks like something taken out of prehistoric world, beautiful bird). It then changes a segment again to show a kingfisher, with essentially the best shot of the episode.
It also offers some insight into Akagera National Park (not very informative but some decent shots captured) & Lake Kivu (a little more informative, just very short segment again).
Finally decided to catch up on this show, avoided it for many years due to the sheer amount of seasons and episodes to watch, but seems like I am in a perfect place in my life now to give it a shot.
First impression? It's okay - it has all of the 2000s show tropes for good or bad. Leads are likable, but their moms death scene laughable. Somewhat compelling backdrop story about "Woman in White", however the way the boys resolve it seemed slightly rushed (I assume due to this being a pilot and limited run time for an episode). Also, a lot of plot exposition is thrown at the viewer in a very short period of time, not that it ever gets confusing, but it just feels like word bombardment - especially when brother meet for the first time on screen. The sense of dread, mystery and tension are all present and are realised quite well so definitely kudos for that.
All in all not a bad start but nothing special so far - reminds me a bit of series called Grimm.
After 4-month hiatus between the first episode, second one aired on a cold February day in 1995.
And it does not disappoint. Completely different to the first one, it's fantastic to see so many interesting small story archs and developments crammed into 22 minutes runtime. It's awesome.
We have Spencer Smythie and his wheelchair bound son Alistair, working for Norman Osborn and trying to capture Spider-Man using their tech savviness and their robotic spiders creations.
Behind the scenes of this main story arch we learn that Norman Osborn works in fact for the Kingpin (nice to see him introduced so soon in this series).
Alistair, Spencer's son not so happy that dad is working for Osborn, neither is dad but his motivation is crystal clear here - new wheelchair for his son will be the ultimate reward for capturing Spider-Man.
The main fight takes place during a charity event hosted by J. Jonah Jameson, that's financially backed by Felicia Hardy (also great to see her introduced here). Spider-Man manages to take the fight out of the city however and to the factory/lab where both Spencer and Alistair are operating.
This is where the first death of the series occurs and it sets-up next episode fantastically, with a strong undertones of revenge driven hatred from Alistair towards Spidey.
If first season will manage to maintain this pace and storytelling then I am in for a treat.
Strong and solid first episode to what's shaping up as a very interesting series based on The 1619 Project book by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Nikole Hannah-Jones (also the creator of this show).
The first episode introduces a topic of democracy so deeply rooted in freedom, ironically for black people a virtue they always had to fight for (and still do to a certain extent). An eye opener on a current state of American democracy, especially for someone who lives in Europe, the amount of laws and rules introduced very recently to actually make it harder to vote is shocking, as much as De Sanctis' fraud vote shenanigans.
It's directed well, very competently paced - good amount of historical facts and footage on American democracy mixed with current opinions and just hard to believe situations (like the one where a group of black people (some disabled) have blatantly denied their right to cast ballots due to an alleged admin mistake.
Great conversation with a member and one of the leaders of SNCC, emotional and true to the core.
Also, fantastic conversation with two political scientists which really puts in perspective the current state of democracy in America. Sadly too short, I'd love to hear more from these two gentlemen.
It is a solid 7 - I feel like there are other crucial topics that have been omitted that could have contributed to this episode's theme, but Nikole chooses to focus and delve more on her family history - which is understandable and gives more of a human touch to the narrative - it's just not very beneficial to the topic of democracy in general.
I am feeling a little bit guilty about giving the first episode a 6 (fair score) because I absolutely loved this show as a kid but taking all into account 6 is, well... fair. It's not the best start to a series, I assume it was produced as a pilot of some sorts, given the four-month break between this and the second episode. It just tries to convey a lot of information in its twenty minute runtime slot and because of that it does feel like an infodump in places.
The antagonist here isn't the most exciting and being a Spidey fan you already know where this is going - Curt Connors, neogenics, becoming a lizard... Eddie Brock (voiced by Hank Azaria) and Felicia Whitmore get their introductions too.
It is serviceable. It's fine. Every show has to start somewhere, and this is how this marvel of a show started.
