Tag: science fiction

Kiss Me First Season 1 Episode 5: The Witch Is Coming Recap

~ Metacrone

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In episode 5, The Witch Is Coming, Adrian speaks directly to the audience for the first time, perhaps trying to seduce us into joining his next venture, after Red Pill is done self-destructing. He shares his personal manifesto, giving viewers insight into his motives and background. As it turns out, the theme of episode 4, friends (and family) let us down, is the theme of Adrian’s life, one he’s reenacting in his cults. Each suicide or murder is a proxy for his own issues. As a real life human, he remains invisible, perhaps because he wants to erase himself most of all, but can’t until he’s done with his revenge on the world.

Adrian’s voiceover:

Take a life, any life. Take your life. Think about all the people you’ve encountered today. This week. This year. Then think about how many people you’ll encounter in your entire existence. Family, friends, colleagues, enemies, lovers. The ones who stuck around. The ones who got away. Fleeting, stolen relationships. Endless friendships that ended. Consider the ones you loved and couldn’t tell, or were afraid of, or secretly yearned to humiliate, or maybe suck out of the world. Then consider how it would be if it were all possible. If you weren’t lost, buried in your stupid life. But making it, shaping it and molding it until you had everything you deserve. And you were loved as you should be. 

This is what the cult and the game offer. If you play along with Adrian, he promises that eventually, after you’ve done everything he asks, he’ll be the one who’ll love you forever, unconditionally, in the beautiful mansion next to turquoise waters that Tess is arriving at now. It’s the sort of place that’s owned by the very wealthy, who can afford to mold and shape their lives, and pay people to stay with them. But, as the Beatles taught us, even the wealthy can’t buy real love.

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Kiss Me First Season 1 Episode 4: Friends Let Us Down Recap

~ Metacrone

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The battle between Adrian and Leila becomes more intense in this episode, as more real world players characters are drawn into their fight. Several Red Pill members meet for the first time in the real world, with varying results. Adrian’s plans continue to include violence, death and isolation. Even when his victims see through his machinations, like Leila, they are often powerless to stop him from manipulating and hurting people.

At the beginning of the episode, Tess has been gone for 4 days after the argument she and Leila had at the end of episode 3. Leila is hoping she’ll come back soon. Tess left her phone behind and Leila answers when it rings. It’s Adrian calling, of course, and he thinks it’s Tess that answers, or pretends to. When he finds out that it’s Leila who’s answered and that Tess is missing, he drops all pretense. Leila asks if he’s going to kill Tess when he finds her. Adrian insists that he “never kills anyone. That would be so unsubtle.” Lord knows, we wouldn’t want to lose the subtlety points when the judges score the game.

Leila asks why he doing this, but Adrian just says, “Let that emerge.” He leaves her with a challenge, “Who’s going to find her first?” Then he hangs up. Leila doesn’t want to be part of Adrian’s sick games, but she also won’t walk away from people who need her. Adrian is counting on that. Leila takes the bait, and tells the phone, “Me.”

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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 Episode 4: Other Women Recap

~ Metacrone

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This week, it’s Aunt Lydia’s turn. June is back under her control at the Red Center, and it’s Lydia’s job to turn willful June into submissive handmaid Offred. Her goal is for Offred and the baby to go back home to the Waterfords, so they can finish the pregnancy in the best environment for the baby. Lydia uses every punitive and manipulative tool at her disposal to break June, and continues once June is back in the Waterford home. Serena Joy and Rita aren’t spared from Lydia’s training either. Lydia is relentless, actively encouraging June toward a mental breakdown and dissociative disorder.

The main themes of this season are motherhood, isolation and loneliness, but other women is another one. Each of the women that we’ve come to know is facing a challenge this season, and they each need to decide who they are as a woman, and how they relate to other women.

Does a woman see herself as an island, only responsible for herself and her own needs? As a sister, mother and daughter, responsible for the well-being of her family? Or as a member of her community, however she defines it- the handmaids, Gilead, the human family?

Janine is doing her best to spread her love for her lost child out to her community, making her world a better place. Emily has tried to live as an emotional island, but Janine is challenging her to rethink that. Serena’s inability to have children has forced her to focus outward, but June’s pregnancy is giving Serena hope that she’ll be able to have a more intimate relationship with a child.

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Reverie Season 1 Episode 10: Point of Origin Recap and Season 1 Analysis/Review

~ Metacrone

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This episode is a nightmare. Oliver finds ways to threaten Reverie in the real world and the virtual world, and threatens Mara and Alexis besides. He’s the worst ex-boyfriend and ex-coworker ever. Both Alexis and Mara spend a significant amount of time dealing with tragic deaths they thought they’d already dealt with. And almost all of my theories and predictions are proven wrong, which is a sad, sad turn of events. The double agents and spies on this show always turn out to be low-level security guards and the like, which is no fun at all.

If Reverie gets a season 2, I hope they fill out their cast of regular and recurring characters more, and bring some complexity to all of the characters. I love the Onira Tech gang, but as it stands, Oliver is the only one who feels like a real human being with the full range of contradictory emotions and reactions. The rest of the regulars are always under control, even when they aren’t or shouldn’t be.

Mara has emotions, but she tries hard to be good. That’s why it feels so wrong to me that Mara talked Ray into shooting himself. Even when she was a down and out alcoholic, she was still a sweet, supportive teacher. Where has her mean streak been all season?

Let’s move on and find out how the writers decided to end the season, since they didn’t use any of my ideas. 😜😜

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Manifest: Watch the First 10 Minutes of NBC’s New SciFi Show

~ Metacrone

Manifest, or Prince Charming Takes a Plane and Gets Lost, as I Like to Think of It, Premieres Monday, September 24th at 10 ET/9PT.

Update: My recap of the Pilot (episode 1) is HERE.

NBC has released the first 10 minutes of this year’s entry into the broadcast network scifi genre, where the real suspense is whether the show will get a second season, or the unicorn of the genre, a third. (#NeverForgetRevolution)

Much of the first act has already been seen in clips and trailers, but seeing it all together and in order gives it a sense of context. The new footage is some of the most meaningful, which could lead to interesting, original storylines if they pursue those avenues.

The video and more after the jump.

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Castle Rock Season 1 Episode 7: The Queen Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

 

This is Sissy Spacek’s episode, and not only is it brilliant, but she’s brilliant in it. The queen is the most powerful piece on the chess board, only slightly less important than the king. The true king of Castle Rock is yet to be revealed, but there’s no doubt that Spacek’s Timewalker Queen Ruth is powerful and understands more of what’s going on around her than anyone but her grandson Wendell will give her credit for.

Ruth goes up against the Kid in this episode, and is canny enough to keep everyone else away from the house and out of danger. Except for the one person who has spent his life trying to smother her with protection and who refuses to see the truth. Even Ruth’s power can’t protect Alan from the Kid’s revenge. But when you think about how much contact Ruth had with Kid, and how little damage was done as compared to Zalewski, the prison population as a whole, and now the psychiatric hospital, Ruth comes out looking pretty good. It was Alan who was easily manipulated. It took Kid 5 minutes to get Alan where he wanted him, and 2 days of constant stalking and gaslighting with Ruth.

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The Man in the High Castle Season 3: First Full Length Trailer and More

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

Among the world-changing events in Amazon’s new trailer for season 3 of The Man in the High Castle are the Nazi’s bid to rewrite American history by melting down the Liberty Bell, Juliana taking charge of the Resistance, and U2 allowing Pride (In the Name of Love) to be covered by another artist for the first time ever. Bono and the Edge must be fans of the show.

The new trailer is more than 2 minutes long and finally shows much more detail than the teaser trailers did, giving us a good idea of where Castle is going this season. It looks bold and exciting. They are taking the next step in world-building, opening up the parallel worlds for exploration and discussion among more of the cast and the original world.

Overall the trailer shows a natural progression of the storylines from their individual, secretive beginnings in season 1 to an organizational, national level in season 2, bringing us to an explosive, global, possibly multiuniversal level in season 3. With only 10 episodes and a season 4 renewal already in the bag, I’m willing to bet that the conquest/true exploration of the multiverse will wait for the next season, while this season is spent fighting over who is in control of the world when the gates are breached on an official basis.

The trailer and more after the jump.

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Netflix’s Upcoming Series The Innocents: Poster and Trailers [Updated 8/22/18 with Reviews and More Videos]

~ Metacrone

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Let’s take a look at Netflix’s new supernatural series, The Innocents, a story of Romeo and Juliet among the shapeshifters, which will be released 8/24/18. Season 1 of the British show, filmed in Britain and Norway, has 8 episodes. Hania Elkington and Simon Duric created, executive produced and wrote the series. Simon Duric previously worked on The Force Awakens and The Crown.

8/22/18: The reviews are coming in and they’re fantastic. More after the jump, including a Behind the Scenes video and interviews with the cast.

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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 Episode 3: Baggage Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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In episode 2, Baggage, June reflects on her complicated relationship with her own mother, Holly, as she faces leaving her daughter, Hannah, behind in Gilead when she escapes. June is moved from the Boston Globe offices and makes her way closer to freedom, so the reality of what she’s doing hits her in this episode. In Canada, Moira’s already physically free, but she and the other refugees must grapple with the lingering effects of what Gilead did to them and what it forced them to do.

June jogs through the Boston Globe building on what looks to be a well-traveled route. She’s been hiding there for two months and is still maintaining her shrine to the executed employees, with candles burning in remembrance. The employees must have loved candles. You’d think she’d have run out a long time ago. It’s a freedom of speech miracle.

She remembers her mother saying that women are so adaptable that they can get used to anything, and wonders what she’s gotten used to without realizing it. This mirrors Aunt Lydia’s statements that normal is just whatever you’re used to, and things in Gilead would begin to feel ordinary and normal to the handmaids before long.

Moira also still jogs, but she jogs through the streets of Toronto. Her route takes her past the refugees’ shrine for their lost American loved ones. It’s not so different from June’s shrine, except it’s outside.

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Reverie Season 1 Episode 9: The Key

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Mara continues her very bad day in this episode, trying to sort out how much of her life is real and how much is frighteningly real hallucination. Oliver, the king of blurred reality, takes over the medical wing and Alexis’ attention for seemingly benign reasons, but this is Oliver. He’s a manipulative, spurned genius and nothing will ever be simple with him. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems with Charlie either, and he’s all over this episode, intervening with Oliver and Alexis, and interrupting Paul and Mara to drop a bombshell.

The episode begins with Charlie arriving at Mara’s apartment not long after she’s figured out that she’s dating a hallucination. Paul and Alexis are already there. Paul’s making tea, because he’s a good boyfriend coworker, and as far as I can tell the Brits make tea in response to every life event. I support this habit.

Charlie has Mara tell her story in detail, but she leaves the derealization sex out. That kind of intense physical hallucination probably should be reported, but I understand her need for privacy. It protects Paul’s heart as well, so let’s keep his dreams alive for as long as possible.

Charlie and Paul try to reassure Mara that she’s safe and they’ll work it out. Mara jumps out of her seat to tell Paul that she’s done everything she was supposed to do, everything he told her to do, but she’s far from okay. Mara doesn’t even know if the rest of the team are really there. Everyone looks sad and guilty, but it’s Alexis, of all people, who responds. It’s the most warmth we’ve ever seen from her.

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