Altered Carbon Season 1 Episode 10: The Killers Recap

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It’s time for Tak and Rei to work out their sibling rivalry issues. In episode 9, Tak got Rei to confess to driving Laurens to temporary suicide, which solved the bulk of the season’s mysteries. But there are still a few new revelations in this episode, along with the big, season-ending battle between the good guys and the bad guys, which everyone takes part in.

Kristin climbs the stairs to her brother’s apartment. She finds him lying dead on the floor, just as Leung left him. She reaches for her gun, but doesn’t have it, so she picks up a candlestick and follows the sounds of gunshots to the boys’ room. There she finds the boys both dead, laid out on the floor in a growing pool of their own blood, partially hidden behind a couch.

She drops the candlestick in shock and starts to panic, but then she hears her mother’s voice. She searches the house until she finds Alazne, who falls into her arms, bloody and dying. As Alazne is dropping to the floor, she warns Kristin, “He’s behind you!”

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Agents of Shield Season 5 Episode 11: All the Comforts of Home Recap

 

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We’re back! Everyone made it home, to no one’s surprise, and an extra, tree-hugging passenger tagged along. Dove Cameron, who is generally cute and adorable, joins the cast this week as General Hale’s bratty teenage daughter. Since this is the MCU, she’s not just a typical teenager. She has special talents. And a few demands. And she’s not sure if she’s a good guy or a bad guy, which might be because her loving mother has kept her sheltered. So sheltered, in fact, that her bedroom looks like a bank vault that’s guarded by some of Ivanov’s lower rent LMDs.

A bank vault decorated like a teenager’s bedroom from the 1970s, plus a Quake is My Hero poster. Okey dokey then. Ruby is a fan. Mom’s assignment is to capture Daisy. Hale doesn’t answer directly when Ruby asks if Hale’s supposed to kill Daisy or not. Hale is tasked with finding SHIELD and ending the entire fiasco that is the SHIELD era. Hale is just following orders and building a better world for the downtrodden citizens Ruby.

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Legion Season 2 Full Length Trailer and More

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My name is Legion, for we are many.

Legion season 2 returns to FX on Tuesday, April 3 at 10 PM ET/PT. Luckily for us (but not so much for him), his world continues to unravel.

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FX put out a full length trailer today, and has released several shorter promos recently. I’ve gathered them together, along with photos and the season 2 synopsis released by FX, after the jump.

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New Trailer for Netflix’s Lost in Space [Video & Photos]

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DANGER, WILL ROBINSON

I’m old, guys. So old, that as a tiny, tiny child I watched the original Lost in Space during its original run from 1965-68. The phrase “Danger, Will Robinson” is part of my DNA, and part of why I’m a scifi fan to this day, along with original Star Trek, which ran at about the same time, and Twilight Zone reruns.

I have mixed feelings about the upcoming Lost in Space reboot. Few filmmakers and TV showrunners have been able to match the spirit of combined optimism and camp that ran through television in the mid 1960s, which peaked in the 1966-68 Batman series. The Star Trek franchise has shown that, as long as the basic spirit of the original is remembered, a universe can grow in many different directions and have great success. But few fictional universes have the strongly articulated world building that Gene Rodenberry gave to Star Trek.

Lost in Space has a lot going for it in its basic story. It’s an archetypal tale of a pioneering family setting out for parts unknown and running into unforeseen danger and adventure. They bring an intelligent duo of leaders, a couple of allies and a potential betrayer with them. Plus, there’s a cute kid who functions as a reverse ET, discovering the universe with wonder and reckless abandon. They have a spaceship that can be repaired and used to explore the galaxy, providing endless fodder for new storylines.

Watch the trailer after the jump.

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Gobsmacked! A Cappella Touring Show Review: Albuquerque, NM 3/3/18

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Ed Scott, Joanne Evans, BallZee and Nick Hayes. Photo from GobsmackedtheShow.com.

Gobsmacked! is a delightful, energetic mix of current and classic hit sings sung a cappella by six singers (3 male, 3 female) with a strong beat box backup. I had the opportunity to see it at Popejoy Hall in Albuquerque a few days ago with Mr Metawitches, who is a huge a cappella fan. I wasn’t sure if it was just a concert or had a story, going in. I think it was supposed to have a very loose story, but that went right past me.

It didn’t matter a bit, though. The entire cast is mega talented and enthusiastic, giving their all for the entire performance. The show was a little less than two hours long, with a twenty minute intermission. The audience doesn’t need the intermission, but the singers do. They all use their voices continuously on every song, filling in harmonies, instrumentals, and sound effects, if they aren’t singing lead. Every sound made during the show is made by the human body, and they provide a lush wall of sound.

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Metawitches 2018 Oscar Picks [Updated with Winners and Commentary]

 

And Maybe a Few Predictions…

Okay, after watching as many movies as I can cram into my brain in a relatively short period of time (actually, The Florida Project is still playing), I’m ready to make some choices here. I don’t want to name any names, but I was slowed down in my viewing by a certain usual movie-going companion who informed me at the last minute that he was abandoning me for the Winter Olympics, and would not only be watching every Men’s Hockey game this year, but the Women’s Hockey as well. How could I, as a feminist, complain about that? Yay, for women’s sports equality! Boo for it interfering with Oscar movie viewing season, and viewing partners who don’t schedule their time wisely!

Anyway, I eventually gave up on waiting for him and mostly went on alone, while the US Women took Gold in Hockey. 🎉 They were able to do so because people have made equality in  girl’s and women’s sports a big deal and fought hard for decades, plus the federal government has required public schools to provide girls with equal opportunities in sports since the seventies. Sports are viewed as important to male development in many ways, so it’s obvious to argue that access is an important aspect of female equality.

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Oscars 2018 Official Ballot- Keep Score at Home– Updating Live with the Winners

 

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5:57 PM MST Here we go! I’ll highlight the winner in each category after they’re announced!

Oscar night is here! In the US the awards are being broadcast at 8:00 EST, 5:00 PST, on ABC, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. HULU is also showing the awards live.

Indiewire and iTunes have teamed up to provide a 2018 Oscars ballot that you can use for your Oscars pool, to keep score during the ceremony, or to make your predictions before things get started.

Download a copy of the ballot, or just look over a copy, after the jump.

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Movie Review: I, Tonya

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I, Tonya * 2017 * Rated R * 2 hours

😸😸😸😸½ Rated 4.5 Happy lap cats

I, Tonya is the tragicomic, mostly, sorta true story of the rise and fall of an American woman and Olympic figure skater who has it all, then loses it, due to circumstances both within and beyond her control. It tells a timeless story of love, loss, ambition, rivalry, greed, classism, misogyny and sheer stupidity. Though the stupidity is mostly on the part of the skater’s male associates, most of the negative consequences for that stupidity fall onto her. That’s the timeless part of the story, as blaming the woman for everyone else’s mistakes is a cultural tradition that goes all the way back to the bible.

Tonya Harding (Margot Robbie) was four years old when her mother, LaVona (Alison Janney) hired her first skating coach, Diane Rawlinson (Julianne Nicholson), and began pressuring her to excel at the sport. Her mother verbally and physically abused her throughout her childhood and forced her to focus on figure skating as the most important aspect of her life, more important, even, than her education. Tonya spent most of her time training, despite how difficult the family’s poverty made it for them to continue to afford her skating career.

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Movie Review: The Shape of Water

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The Shape of Water * 2017 * Rated R * 2 Hours 3 Minutes

😸😸😸😸😸 Rated 5/5 Happy lap cats

The Shape of Water is a dreamy fairy tale directed by Guillermo del Toro, who also wrote the screen play, along with Vanessa Taylor. It’s more Grimms’ Brothers than Disney, but has additional layers of Cold War era tropes that are deconstructed over the course of the film, so that by the end of the story many truths are revealed

The Shape of Water takes place in Baltimore, in the year 1962, the height of Cold War paranoia and espionage. Eliza Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is a mute maid who uses sign language to speak and works as a custodian in a government research facility. Despite her disability (she’s been mute since birth and has a series of scars on her neck), lack of family (she was found abandoned by a river as an infant), and lack of wealth, she has a rich imagination and a few good friends. Her best friends are her chatty coworker Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and her starving artist neighbor, Giles (Richard Jenkins).

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Movie Review: The Post

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The Post * 2017 * Rated PG-13 * 1 Hour 56 Minutes

😸😸😸😸😸 Rated 5/5 Happy lap cats

I was a kid when the Vietnam War and the Pentagon Papers were big news, and in junior high school when the Watergate scandal seemed to go on forever. As an adult, I understand the importance of these events, but, as they were happening, they bored me to tears. At a time when our entertainment options were limited, the struggles of the Nixon administration took over the airwaves for years.

So I don’t seek out movies like The Post. However, silly me, I married a political junkie, and Mr Metawitches loves a political thriller or a political history film. This review will be heavy on his insight, since this is his genre. Given all of that, it’s impressive that The Post kept me engrossed for the entire movie, with its perfectly timed pacing, snappy dialogue, and enough intrigue to turn the story into a political thriller.

The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, follows the story of the publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 by The NY Times and The Washington Post. The Pentagon Papers, top secret documents which exposed the futile nature of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, and the lies that were told over the course of various presidential administrations to cover this up, had been leaked to both newspapers by Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the study and had access to the finished product.

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