Month: January 2017

Nashville Season 5 Episode 3: Let’s Put It Back Together Again Recap

~ Metacrone

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Juliette is sitting at the kitchen table and listening to demos because Glenn wants her to consider recording again. She can’t perform in the way that would do her usual style of songs justice, so she’s not feeling motivated. This is a great time for artistic growth, Juliette!

Avery is multitasking, managing to both hover over Juliette and get ready to go to the studio. He’s working on producing the young Youtube sensation we heard about last week. Juliette has had enough of his mother-henning, and practically shoves him out of the house. As soon as he’s gone, she switches to researching Hallie Jordan, the woman who saved her from the plane crash.

Maddie is starting an internship working the front desk at the studio. She has entitled attitude to spare. Ashley Willerman, the Youtube artist, shows up and announces that she’s hungover and needs coffee. She’s pleasant, polite, and grateful when Maddie agrees to go. Maddie has already declared that Ashley’s Youtube videos are stupid, though not to Ashley’s face.

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Watch the New Twin Peaks Revival Teaser Trailer (VIDEO)

~ Metacrone

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Showtime dropped a new teaser trailer today (Friday, January 13) for the long-awaited Twin Peaks limited run revival series. It’s a short 32 seconds long, but it does give us a glimpse of Kyle MacLachlan as Agent Dale Cooper and the iconic Welcome to Twin Peaks sign. In the background is an even more ominous sounding version of the opening theme.

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Crazyhead Season 1 Episode 3: Shave the Cat Recap

~ Metacrone

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We pick up right where we left off, with Amy brushing her teeth, and Suzanne sharing the bathroom with Amy, while also busy being back from the dead. Then the blame game starts, but Suzanne is a good friend and gets over it quickly. She takes a quick look in the mirror to lament the effect being buried and digging herself out of her own grave had on her hairstyle, then it’s off to the kitchen for a snack. Nothing in the kitchen tastes quite right to the Goldilocks of the Undead, and she’s not even neat about it. Amy is a good sport about the insults to her cooking, though she did kill Suzanne with an exorcism and bury her in the woods outside of town, so she probably owes her.

Suzanne explains that she remembers dying and leaving her body, then being pulled back in. She figured she might as well just come home, but it was a long walk in filthy bunny slippers, ok? She doesn’t want to be alone, so she sleeps in with Amy. Even the Undead need snuggles.

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Agents of Shield Season 4 Episode 9: Broken Promises Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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We start the episode with AIDA lovingly caring for human May, making sure she’s getting what she needs, even though AIDA needs to keep her held hostage for now. Cut to LMD May at a mission briefing about disposing of the Darkhold, and wiping AIDA’s hard drive. Radcliffe and Fitz give in to the order to wipe AIDA after a perfunctory bit of protest. Mack brings up the first of his many references to movies that feature evil robots.

Vijay, Senator Nadeer’s now inhuman brother, has a nightmare about the day of the Chitauri attack from the first Avengers movie, when their mother died in one of the explosions. When he wakes up, his sister tells him he’s missed the last 7 months in his terrigenesis cocoon.

Daisy and Jemma chat about boys and their toys while they identify the inhuman that Mace and Senator Nadeer forced Jemma to examine. It turns out to be Vijay, of course. Ellen Nadeer kept his disappearance a secret by having his social media posts continue uninterrupted. They agree that it’s nice to have each other to talk to again. I agree. It’s nice to see the cast milling around the SHIELD home base, having casual conversations with each other. This is part of what’s been missing.

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No Tomorrow Season 1 Episode 12: No Time Like the Present Recap

~ Metacrone

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This episode answers the question at the heart of the show: Is Xavier right about the impending asteroid impact, or is he crazy? It turns out, he’s been right all along, and I’m so glad they went in this direction. It legitimizes the character and his views. They’ve already shown us that his father is a well-regarded mathematician, making Xavier’s scientific and mathematical abilities plausible, no matter how much or how little college or experience he’s had. Many a maverick genius is self-educated. That would be what allowed Xavier to think outside the box and see the crucial variables that no one else was taking into account.

But, the big reveal doesn’t come until the very end of the episode. Let’s start at the beginning. Jesse and Evie are playing Jumbo tumble tower, a life-sized version of Jenga made of colorful blocks. Xavier with an X is inside his trailer (which is in the park with them, instead of under the bridge, to reflect his optimistic new view of life) trying to find a solution to the asteroid problem. Evie interrupts him to suggest they solidify their plans for their trip to Iceland, which is in three days. Xavier asks to put off the planning until the next day. Evie reluctantly agrees. She still doesn’t take Xavier’s theory seriously, and is annoyed that it’s interfering with their lives. Xavier’s frustrated because every solution he models ends with a devastating impact.

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No Tomorrow Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap

~ Metacrone

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I’ve also written a general introduction/review of No Tomorrow.

“Listen up everybody! The clock is ticking! There’s no time to waste! Every moment counts!”

Those are the first words we hear in the pilot of No Tomorrow, while the visuals are external shots of Seattle, the setting for the show. They’re spoken by Evie, the plucky female lead who’s lacking in self-confidence. They tell us what the series is about, but they’re also a fake out. She’s speaking, in a wavery voice, to her coworkers at an Amazon-like warehouse, trying to motivate them to get orders ready for shipment. Her speech fades out at the end as she gives up on trying to bring out any enthusiasm in the other employees. Everyone is just walking through their lives like zombies, hating their jobs, bored, but accepting the status quo.

Next we meet Evie’s coworkers. I’ll let Kareema and Deirdre speak for themselves.

Kareema: Honestly, I don’t know what’s sadder. The utter meaninglessness of this job, or your attempts to imbue it with meaning. But then I remember there is no sadness and we’re all just bags of dust in an infinite universe.

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Crazyhead Season 1 Episode 2: A Pine Fresh Scent Recap

~ Metacrone

 

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Raquel and Amy are shopping for shovels so they can bury Amy’s dead roommate, Suzanne. They can’t find any, so Raquel suggests serving spoons. That’s a firm no from Amy. The cashier helps them out and calls for someone to bring shovels to the check out, while they try, unsuccessfully, not to look guilty as hell. Ironically, the inside of the store looks just like the one where Lisa Lancaster, Riann Steele’s character from In the Flesh, was killed and eaten by unmedicated zombies.

Callum assigns Mercy, a single mom, with the task of stopping Sawyer from interfering with his plans. Mercy rounds up Dylan and the stalking begins.

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Travelers Season 1 Analysis and Speculation

~ Metacrone ~ 5 Comments

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Whew! What a wild ride this season turned out to be! I love it when you get to the end of a season of television, then have to go back and question everything you thought you knew about the previous episodes. They gave us a lot to think about over the hiatus. When Travelers returns, it’ll seem like a different show, now that the Faction’s role has been revealed. All of these changes open up so many new plot lines to contemplate, so many directions the show could take its mythology and characters.

The goals of everyone, as far as we’ve seen, continue to be saving the world, environmentalism, and respect for the sanctity of life. (In a global way, at least. It’s accepted that individuals of a certain class are disposable in order to further the greater good.) They all want a future living somewhere that’s green. It’s the method of achieving that future that’s at stake. At the very least, there will be a power struggle in the future to see whose Grand Plan will be implemented from here on out. There had to be competing philosophies before the director’s decision-making parameters were programmed. The faction or factions are revisiting those alternate philosophies, to see if changing the program’s if>then protocols will achieve better results. We could be in for experimentation and a rapidly changing future, a reign of terror as the faction tries to secure its hold on the director, or civil war as future society fights it out to decide who will be in charge of the director’s decision-making process, or if the director will be making the decisions at all. Another option is for a faction to steer the changes by human reasoning alone.

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Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Season 2 Episode 9: When Do I Get to Spend Time with Josh? Recap

~ Metacrone

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is renewed for a third season! The CW renewed almost all of its fall shows on Sunday (1/8), giving the showrunners ample time to plan for next season. (And avoid mistakes like letting Santino Fontana slip away.)

It’s a week later, and Paula and Rebecca have settled into coparenting. Paula understands the value of a wife now. She appreciates it so much, in fact, that she’d like several. (Duh, we all need a permanent 50s housewife and mom of our own.) Rebecca’s avoiding Josh, even though he’s made good on his promise to woo her. There’s a little shrine in the corner, filled with his offerings- stuffed animals, balloons, candy, and other romantic little gifts. Josh has been standing outside Paula’s house, waiting for Rebecca to change her mind, for 3 days.

Rebecca admits that she’s scared that Josh is still not committed to her. He’s had three girlfriends in three months. She can’t trust him any more. Josh promises things will be different this time. With a brief shovel talk from Paula, then her blessing, Paula and Josh head out into West Covina to start their romance for real. There’s a reprise of West Covina playing in the background, but this time we see the town closer to how it really is. The kids are spraying graffiti, the porn theater is hanging a new sign, and the ambulance-chasing lawyer is looking for new business. Everyone is happy, and happy for Rebecca and Josh. Rebecca thinks she’s going into the relationship with her eyes wide open this time.

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Meryl Streep Makes Impassioned Speech Calling for Empathy and Vigilance at Golden Globes Ceremony (VIDEO)

~ Metacrone

Tonight (Sunday, 1/8/17), Meryl Streep was presented with the Cecille B. DeMille Award at the Golden Globe Awards Ceremony for her decades of achievements as an actress. She chose to use the time set aside for her thank you speech to speak as a citizen of the United States and the world, imploring the artists in the room and the people watching to use the arts to fight repression of free speech and the press, and the humiliation and oppression of all types of people targeted by the alt right. She specifically brought up the 2015 incident when Donald Trump mocked chronically ill, physically disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski. Streep asked that we support the Committee to Protect Journalists,” an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal. Every year, hundreds of journalists are attacked, imprisoned, or killed. For more than 30 years, CPJ has been there to defend them and fight for press freedom.” With far right conservative governments being elected in countries around the world, the repression of free speech and the free press are going to get worse before they get better.

A partial transcript of Meryl’s speech under the cut.

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