Tag: review

Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap

~ Metacrone

Roswell,NM Liz&Max at sunset

Roswell, New Mexico is The CW’s latest entry into the reboot and revival craze that’s brought back so many old TV shows, whether they should have been resurrected or not. As a fan of the original Roswell series, I had mixed feelings going into this version. After watching the pilot, I think that if viewers can focus on this version and leave behind expectations based on the original series, it’s an enjoyable show. Roswell, New Mexico has the potential to live up to some of the early promise that the original showed, before it turned into a charming mess.

We (Metamaiden and Metacrone) loved the original Roswell fiercely. We own the DVDs and have watched the entire 60 plus episode series ‘I don’t know how many’ times. Actually, we should probably write a Quick Review of the series and recommend essential episodes. Keep an eye out for that review. It’s HERE.

We also own the original Roswell High Series of 10 books by Melinda Metz. The original TV series was commissioned based on the first book, so the two series don’t have much in common beyond the basic premise.

What we’re trying to say here is twofold: This is a major fandom for us, and Roswell has always been a story with multiple versions. The novels and the original series were written at the same time. So which is the real cannon? Neither. The story works best if you’re open-minded about many things, from “mixed relationships” to different versions of stories about aliens to reinterpretations of beloved characters.

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The CW’s Containment: Review of Entire Series

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

 

Containment- Sabine, Jake, Lex, Katie, Jana

Containment, the story of a viral plague which erupts in Atlanta and the quarantine zone that’s set up to control its spread, was a limited series which ran for 13 episodes on The CW in the spring and summer of 2016. Like all CW shows, it now lives on Netflix. Because it aired during that odd time of the year that isn’t a traditional TV “season”, Containment didn’t get much attention at the time, and had mixed critical reviews. (Metawitches wasn’t around yet.) Metamaiden and I both thought it was a fun show, for the subject matter, and brought some things to the table that we rarely see when a plague is the main subject.

Containment, based on the Belgian series Cordon, was developed for The CW by prolific showrunner Julie Plec, of The Vampire Diaries fame. She and David Nutter both served as executive producers. It starred David Gyasi as Major Alex “Lex” Carnahan, Christina Moses as Jana Mayfield, Chris Wood as Officer Jake Riley, Kristen Gutoskie as Katie Frank, Claudia Black as Dr. Sabine Lommers, George Young as Dr. Victor Cannerts,
Hanna Mangan-Lawrence as Teresa Keaton, and Trevor St. John as Leonard “Leo” Greene.

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The Passage Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap

~ Metacrone

Brad and Amy- Can One Girl Save Humanity?

Review

Fox’s new science fiction series, The Passage, which is based on Justin Cronin’s trilogy of novels, got off to a great start this week. The pilot served as an appetizer to whet our taste buds for what’s to come in this series, giving us small bites of different aspects of the universe established in Justin Cronin’s books and the changes made in order to transfer it to the screen. So far, all of the important book elements are present (or on their way), and the changes make sense, given the different logistics required for books vs TV.

I enjoyed everyone in the cast, though I can’t say they’re all exactly how I pictured the characters in the book. That’s mostly because the show has done a great job of diversifying what was a very white, male cast of characters in the book version of Project Noah. This is a welcome change. The gender swaps have already made for some intriguing changes in character interactions.

The early part of the story depends on the chemistry and believability of the pseudo father-daughter relationship between Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s federal agent, Brad Wolgast, and Saniyya Sidney’s orphaned 10 year old girl, Amy Bellafonte. The two actors nail it. Individually, they are each talented, charismatic and charming. Together, they share an immediate warmth and light that makes it understandable why they’d bond so quickly. Both characters come into the relationship feeling like they are alone in the world and each is mourning a deep loss. Their chemistry allows them to slot each other into the holes in their hearts.

The virals (vampires) are suitably menacing as they lie in wait for their prey and use hypnotic psychological tricks to draw in their victims. The series has added the threat of a global avian flu pandemic, which kills its victims in 12 hours, to help explain the reasoning for the accelerated pace of the research on the virals, who were meant to cure all diseases.

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Deadly Class Season 1 Episode 1: Reagan Youth Recap

~ Metacrone

Deadly Class - Pilot

My spoiler-free review of Deadly Class episode 1 is HERE.

Deadly Class is a fast-paced, dark romp through a high school for future assassins, set in the late 80s, when Ronald Reagan was president, the AIDS crisis was in full swing, the Cold War seemed like it would go on forever, and greed was good. Despite the nihilistic pop culture response of loud music and bright colors, which is, let’s face it, the pop culture response to everything, it was a dark time.

But it was a dark time filled with an amazing sense of irony and style, which led to a run of fantastic comedy-horror films that I encourage you all to check out. Personal favorites include Little Shop of Horrors, Teen Wolf with a very young Michael J Fox, and the Witches of Eastwick.

The film that’s most pertinent to our discussion today is the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys, which starred Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric and Jami Gertz. It also starred a killer soundtrack and sense of fashion.

Deadly Class is channeling The Lost Boys, but the angsty teen vampires are now angsty teenage human (so far) assassins, and they’ve been collected by Peter Pan Headmaster Lin, played by a kindly and wise, but menacing, Benedict Wong, to perfect their arts. The point of view character and lostest of the lost kids is Marcus Lopez, played by Benjamin Wadsworth.

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SYFY’s Deadly Class Premiere Episode: Spoiler-Free Review

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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Deadly Class Episode 1 Is Currently Available On Demand.

SYFY Will Air the Premiere on Wednesday, January 16, 2019.

Hello, fellow wizards assassins! Winter break is over, and it’s time to join Harry Potter Marcus Lopez and the gang for a new semester of learning and hijinks at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry King’s Dominion Atelier of the Deadly Arts, a top-secret high school in San Francisco. Our story will follow a sincere, loveable orphan whose life has been filled with tragedy and who is fated to be involved with even more death. He’s an outsider in the world of his new school, but he quickly makes both friends and enemies. His new nemesis, Draco Chico, is from an old family which has some similarities to Marcus’ family, but Marcus doesn’t like their style, so he rejects Chico’s hereditary group, insulting Chico along the way.

Okay, I’ll stop. The similarities between Harry Potter and Deadly Class are fun to watch for, though, and there are many more. But even with so many standard coming of age tropes and Harry Potter references, Deadly Class is still fresh and original. It takes place in the late 80s, when punk, punk-pop and new wave ruled both the airwaves and fashion, and the show takes full advantage of those styles.

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Manifest Season 1 Episode 10: Crosswinds Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

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Manifest returns from its midseason break this week with episode 10, Crosswinds. Much of the episode is spent reminding the audience of what happened in the first half of the season, and picking up the pieces from the dangerous rescue of the missing 11 passengers from the Red Hook warehouse, where UDS was illegally holding them hostage. There is some forward momentum for the love triangles between Ben, Grace and Danny and Michaela, Jared and Lourdes. And there are new clues as to the identity of “The Major.”

The episode opens on Michaela, who is standing at her mother, Karen’s, grave, telling her mother about everything that’s happened since the plane landed. Michaela tells Karen that the passengers wanted to just walk back into their loved ones’ lives as if no time had passed, because for them it hadn’t. But everyone else had moved on, so they have to start over.

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Travelers Season 3 Episode 10: Protocol Omega Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 6 Comments
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Another woman, Jo Yates, pulls a gun on MacLaren, echoing Carly in the season 1 finale. At the end of season 2, Kat had to settle for slapping him. 😉

We’ve made it to the final episode of the bloodbath that is season 3 of Travelers. This has been the most exciting season yet, and the finale is no different. It’s full of surprises and fresh overwrites, plus a twist ending that no one saw coming.

The finale begins with a family meal at the big table in ops. Philip sees an alternate timeline version in which David survived the radiation exposure and is regaling everyone with a funny story. Everyone is doubled over in uproarious laughter at his story. Jeff is there, too. Boyd is not.

Probably because in that version, Boyd wasn’t needed to help with his care. Maybe the Director had the clean up crew from the archive send some military grade nanites over for David at the same time as they arrived at the archive. If he’d gotten the nanites within an hour or two of exposure, maybe he would have improved before much permanent damage was done.

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Travelers Season 3 Episode 9: David Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 3 Comments

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Episode 9, David, is the penultimate episode of season 3, but it actually feels like episodes 8, 9 and 10 are meant to be watched together as a trilogy, since they breathlessly flow from one to the next.

This season goes out with several bangs, beginning with this episode. It’s crazy and intense and will have you on the edge of your seat.

The episode begins in Shanghai, with a Traveler team infiltrating a dark building. Inside the building, they climb on top of a self-contained vault, similar to the archive in Seattle. Next, they wave a Geiger counter over the roof, then mark a spot with chalk. They drill through the metal of the vault, then lower a wire cable, hooked to a small tool, down to a device below. It’s a nuclear bomb, and they’re attempting to disarm it. The design for the bomb can be seen on a pad held by one of the Travelers.

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Travelers Season 3 Episode 8: Archive Recap

~ Metacrone

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Welcome to the beginning of the end, fellow Travelers! Episode 8 marks the start of the story cycle that will take us through the season finale. These are three exciting, well-written episodes, and I’m looking forward to writing about them. They’re also very emotional and filled with plot and science.

So, rather than spoil anything, let’s get started.

The scene opens on beloved Canadian actor Christopher Heyerdahl, who you’ll definitely recognize from somewhere if you’ve watched any genre TV in the last 30 years. His character, Andrew Graham, is alone outside, in a deserted area, wearing a pair of coveralls and burning the personal effects of Linda MacVicar, who was Aleksander Andrieko’s foster mother in S3 Ep3. He even has her purse and phone.

The phone rings as he’s slowly removing and examining the items in her purse. He gently places a unicorn figure on top of the pile, then answers the phone, but doesn’t speak. It’s Linda’s foster son, Ronnie, who was also shown in episode 3.

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Midnight, Texas Season 2 Episode 9: Yasss, Queen Recap

~ Metacrone

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Yasss, Queen, episode 9 of Midnight, Texas’ 2nd season, serves as both the season and the series finale. This season’s storylines are wrapped up in spectacular, over the top fashion. The producers are shopping the show to other networks, so it could get more seasons eventually, and the episode ends with set ups for the next season, but nothing that takes away from the satisfying conclusion that’s already been reached.

I’m hoping that Netflix will pick up the show, since it’s already filmed here in Albuquerque, where Netflix is creating its North American studio. Plus, Midnight would fit right in with Sabrina and Lucifer, which Netflix picked up after Fox dropped it.

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