Author: Metacrone

Lifelong film, television and theater enthusiast. Choose love.

Travelers: New Sci Fi Series from Netflix: Pilot Recap/Review

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Fair  warning: Stargate SG-1 was a big deal in our house while my kids were growing up. We watched every single one of its 214 episodes, both made-for-TV movies, and the spin-off series Stargate Atlantis. I am predisposed to like anything Brad Wright does. Travelers was created by Brad Wright.

And I really do like the pilot of Travelers, even without knowing Brad Wright was involved. Pilots are tricky things. They often feel forced, since they have to cram character introductions, world building, and a plot line that hooks viewers enough to make them want more, into their 42 minute time frame. Travelers manages to avoid making the viewer feel like piles of exposition are being thrown at us all at once. The action and the characters keep moving, and we find out enough about each character and their lives by being shown their environment and the people around them, not just told. I feel like I understand the basic premise of the story, but there’s still so much I don’t know, which is where you want to be after a pilot.

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Rest in Peace, George Michael

~ Metacrone

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Singer-songwriter George Michael “passed away peacefully at home” on Sunday at the age of 53, according to his publicist. His manager told the Associated Press that the suspected cause of death was heart failure.

Michael rose to fame as half of the pop duo Wham! in the 1980s, with the giant hits Wake Me Up Before You Go Go, Careless Whisper, and Last Christmas. He had many more hits as a solo artist, such as Faith, Freedom 90, and I Want Your Sex. Billboard ranks him as the 40th most successful artist to ever live, and the Radio Academy named him the most played artist on British radio during the period from 1984–2004. He sold more than 100 million records worldwide over the course of his career, won 2 Grammys, 3 American Music Awards, and numerous other awards and honors.

Video after the cut.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 2 Episode 8 Loose Lips: Recap

~ Metacrone

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There were indeed a lot of loose lips this episode, affecting every plot line the show has going. Most importantly, Joe’s father’s agenda was finally revealed, Hitler died, and the Reichsminister was named Acting Chancellor. I knew Sebastian Roché hadn’t given up his evil ways just because he was being nice to Joe.

Joe has finally decided to stay in Germany and work with his father. The Reichsminister was picked by Hitler to be Acting Fürher if Hitler became incapacitated, even though he is “just an engineer” (ha!), and, in a classic play, he now wants Joe to leave for his own safety. This, of course, makes Joe want to stay even more. He’ll be in place as our point of view character to see what happens in the government’s inner circles now that Hitler is dead, and to lead the fight against his father once he realizes how evil his father is.

Juliana continues to grow closer to Helen and Lucy. From them she learns that Dr Adler was cremated against his wife’s wishes (3 guesses which high-ranking Nazi probably made that secret call). Lucy tells her that Hitler is in serious condition, but Helen stops the gossiping immediately. Helen runs a tight ship. Thomas is packed and ready to go on his trip when Juliana arrives at the house, but Helen quickly shoos him upstairs. She doesn’t want Juliana having enough contact with Thomas for her to figure anything out. Later, Smith tells Helen that events are moving too quickly and the trip is in jeopardy.

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NBC ReAiring Hairspray Live! Tonight 12/26/16 at 8 PM ET

~ Metacrone

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NBC will reshow Hairspray Live! TONIGHT, Monday, December 26th at 8:00 PM ET. If you missed the original live airing on December 7th, this is your second chance to watch it on the big screen or record it on your DVR. The official Youtube and NBC streams have been taken down, probably because they’ve released the DVD, so don’t miss this opportunity!

 

A Brief History of Romantic StuckyNat Part 3: The Ultron Era

~ Metacrone ~ 4 Comments
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Part 1   Part 2   Part 4   Part 5

This is the third part of a five part series on romantic StuckyNat. It is my headcanon of the potential feelings of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, and Natasha Romanoff in the MCU, if the three were in love with each other. This part of the series covers the time from the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, through Avengers: The Age of Ultron, to just before the beginning of Captain America: Civil War. It is canon-compliant.
Once Bucky had found and destroyed all of the active Hydra bases he remembered, he went into hiding for real. He knew Steve was looking for him, and that Natasha was keeping tabs on him, because he was keeping tabs on both of them, too. While he’d recovered many of his memories, they were still patchy. The holes in Bucky’s memory further complicated the work of figuring out what they meant and what he wanted to do about them. On top of that, he was still the Winter Soldier. As long as he could be activated, it wasn’t safe for Bucky to be around the people he loved. He became a ghost again, disappearing in plain sight, moving to a new, out of the way city every few months. He kept his head down, and himself away from anything that would attract attention.

Sense8: A Christmas Special Recap: The Cluster Celebrates Together in Their Own Special Way

~ Metacrone

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We start off this return with the cluster in the water, together in spirit, communing (not quite sexually) and enjoying each others’ presence. There’s an awesome version of Feeling Good playing that I need to find immediately. Everything is momentarily perfect, if you don’t look too closely.

 

If you do look closely, you might notice that Riley is preparing a dose of heroin for Will, who doesn’t look so great. Wolfgang is drinking alone, without Felix by his side. Sun is also alone, in an isolation cell in prison. The ghost of Angelica haunts the group, even during good times. Life is still complicated within the cluster, but they still offer each other safety and comfort within the midst of it all.

The show teases us with a coy reveal of the new Capheus, now played by Toby Onwumere, who is replacing Aml Ameen. They kept him backlit while talking about how much everything has changed and how different he looks for a few minutes before the reveal. Toby is cute but HUGE compared to Aml. Capheus must have had the Captain America supersoldier serum over the hiatus since he’s grown about a foot taller and in shoulder width. But, are they trying to hide his height? He walks hunched, with his knees bent, like he’s pretending to be the height of the original actor. Just own the change! He’s Van Damme! He can do anything!

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Current Broadway Revival of Falsettos Will Air on PBS’ Live from Lincoln Center in 2017

~ Metacrone

The production stars Tony winner Christian Borle, Stephanie J. Block, Andrew Rannells, Brandon Uranowitz, Anthony Rosenthal, Tracie Thoms and Betsy Wolfe.

The Lincoln Center revival began previews on September 29th and runs through January 8th. The performances for the PBS special will be filmed on the evenings of January 3rd and 4th. The broadcast date hasn’t been announced yet. It’s usually several months after filming, at a minimum.

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Merry Christmas from MetaWitches

~ Metacrone

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May Your Days Be Merry And Bright

 

Click through for more Christmas fun.

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The Man in the High Castle Recap Season 2 Episodes 6 & 7: Land O’ Smiles and Kintsugi

~ Metacrone

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After the slow-building tension of the past two episodes, the pace starts to pick up again with episodes 6 and 7. The characters are starting to put their plans into motion.

Joe talks with his father’s housekeeper, Frau Silva, and discovers that his father had a wife and two sons that he lost in the war. She refuses to answer any further questions after that, but otherwise continues to be ridiculously worshipful and kind of a stalker. Joe escapes her the first chance he gets and goes with Nicole to a Lebensborn overnight drug orgy in the country. While he’s stoned, he sees himself dead, and says goodbye to Juliana and his old life. When he wakes up in the morning, he tells Nicole he’s ready to go back to his father. That seems to mean he’s also ready to embrace being a Nazi, since he puts on the suit Frau Silva had left out for him the morning before, complete with Swastika armband. The Lebensborn appear to have organized themselves into some kind of Aryan superbaby cult. All it took was an orgy and a few hallucinations to convert Joe. Seems like the guy who went through that whole season 1 cross country ordeal and stood up to the great Obergruppenführer Smith multiple times might be able to hold out longer than one debauched night, but I guess he discovered it’s good to be wanted.

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A Pentatonix A Capella Christmas 2016 (VIDEO)

~ Metacrone

The a capella group Pentatonix had a Christmas special on NBC last week, but so far I haven’t been able to find the full show posted anywhere. They also released their third Christmas album this year, which they’ve been heavily promoting. So, there are a lot of videos of them making promotional appearances singing Christmas carols, along with the official music videos from the album. That all adds up to too many to post here, but, in lieu of the special, I’m posting some of my favorites. Merry Christmas, Happy Solstice, Happy New Year, Happy Everything!

More under the cut, including a Pentatonix yule log video. (They have a collection, if yule logs are your thing.)

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