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09 Nov

Dash & Lily Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release,
This Dash & Lily review contains no spoilers. With a big, beating heart and a surprising amount of insight, Netflix’s series Dash & Lily is here to remind us of the world outside and the magical feeling of falling in love in the “before-time.” Based on the young adult book series Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares from Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (who wrote Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist) Dash & Lily continues in the proud tradition of Netflix romcoms and Netflix holiday fare of small-scale stories with warmth.  Lily (Midori Francis of Good Boys, Ocean’s 8), a shy…
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26 Oct

His Dark Materials Season 2 Episode 1 Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release, , , ,
Next to the monumental pile of cultural loss caused by the current pandemic is a short stack of lucky escapes – the projects that just squeaked inside the line, or were able to retool in such a way that kept them mercifully on schedule. His Dark Materials is just such a one. Filming on the second run had largely concluded by the end of 2019 (when it comes to child actors, you can’t afford to hang around for them to grow six inches and sprout a beard between seasons). And despite the extraordinarily heavy VFX burden on a show about talking creatures,…
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26 Oct

The Undoing Review (Spoiler-Free): Classy Thriller With An All-Star Cast

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We like to watch the affluent fall. There’s a particular kind of pleasure derived from indulging in the aspirational lives of beautiful rich people then watching it all topple – never more so than in the latest glossy drama from TV overlord David E. Kelley, creator of shows including LA Law, Ally McBeal and more recently Mr Mercedes and Big Little Lies. It’s the latter of these that The Undoing most closely resembles, not least because it shares a star in Nicole Kidman, who also executive produces. Swap the beachy idyll of Monterey, California for the glamorous bustle of New…
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23 Oct

Blood of Zeus Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release, ,
This Blood of Zeus review contains no spoilers and is based on all eight episodes. Many properties across all media look to Greek mythology for story inspiration. It’s territory that’s been explored from nearly every angle at this point. What makes Blood of Zeus feel exciting rather than regressive is that it presupposes that its story is a lost chapter of Greek mythology. It tells the saga of Heron, a warrior who learns that he’s a rejected offspring of Zeus and must become ready to confront his past in an effort to change everyone else’s future. Heron’s original story allows…
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13 Oct

Helstrom Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release, ,
This Helstrom review contains no spoilers. The first episode of Hulu’s final Jeph Loeb produced Marvel series (aside from the upcoming animated offering M.O.D.O.K.) Helstrom has everything you’d expect from the kind of straight-to-streaming exorcism movie you stumble across on a boring Sunday afternoon and immediately regret watching. There’s expository newspaper clippings about terrible crimes, fake exorcisms broken down by a cynically droll demonologist, a new fresh out of the church Vatican believer who wants to do good, creepy diary entries that look like they’ve been scrawled by demonic child, and a lot of sepia toned flashbacks. From the outset…
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10 Oct

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts Season 3 Review (Spoiler Free)

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This Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts review contains no spoilers. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is one of the most hopeful, cheerful, friend-centric post-apocalyptic stories on television. While the stakes are higher in season three, and the team of characters experiences some losses and set-backs, the sheer amount of faith in a better future packed into these 10 episodes is exactly the kind of story viewers need in the world amidst pandemic and political turmoil. The conceit behind the series is that 200 years ago, an apocalypse happened that created Mutes, intelligent, giant humanoid animals, who dominated the…
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06 Oct

Fast & Furious Spy Racers Season 2 Review (Spoiler-Free)

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This Fast & Furious Spy Racers review contains no spoilers. There’s something undeniable about Fast & Furious: Spy Racers season 2 (subtitled Rio). No matter how wild the action gets, no matter what weird situations it has its lead characters land in, and no matter how many jokes come off as just plain bizarre, it’s just hard to shake how fun the show is. A few times throughout this second season I felt myself losing interest only for the show to do something that immediately brought it back with full force. It’s not appointment viewing but the newest season of Fast…
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06 Oct

The Right Stuff Review (Spoiler-Free)

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This The Right Stuff review contains no spoilers. It’s impossible to see The Right Stuff, Disney+’s new drama series about NASA’s Mercury 7 astronauts, and not think about the award-winning 1983 film of the same name, but those comparisons don’t do this streaming series version any favors. Where the film is widely and rightly lauded for its authentic and ultimately inspiring depiction of the real lives behind the men who pioneered the U.S. space program, the small-screen version of The Right Stuff never gets off the ground. On paper, I almost always enjoy an uplifting tale of humanity’s infinite possibility…
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01 Oct

Monsterland Review (Spoiler-Free)

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Is it possible for a show to be simultaneously well written and difficult to watch? Monsterland, Hulu’s latest horror anthology premiering October 2, 2020, proves that it’s possible to elicit discomfort and enjoyment at the same time, even though doing so might push some viewers away. What really works about this series is the way it forces viewers to confront how and why they judge each episode from their own personal perspective, sometimes even identifying with the monsters that are showcased rather than with their fellow humans. The depths of despair to which many of the Monsterland episodes take their…
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29 Sep

Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna Spoiler-Free Review

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Going into Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna I was apprehensive. The previous installment in the Digimon Adventure series, the six tri. movies, crashed and burned so badly it killed any enthusiasm I had for that original Adventure continuity. Starting off with so much potential they quickly devolved into awkward fan service (of all kinds), bad pacing, and character beats that just made no sense. There was no cohesion, little fun, and next to nothing of what made Digimon so special for a generation of fans. This movie is an apology for tri. It does everything right that tri. failed at. Last…
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21 Sep

The Walking Dead Season 10 Episode 16 Review: A Certain Doom (Spoiler Free)

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The end may be in sight but there’s still plenty of story to tell. That’s the overall tone of The Walking Dead season 10 “finale” episode, “A Certain Doom,” which closes another chapter in the show’s long run while also introducing the next. The episode, which sees Beta and the remaining Whisperers launch one last attack against Alexandria and the other communities, really feels like the conclusion of two years’ worth of storytelling, as those that remain after the “death” of Rick Grimes in season 9 band together at last to take down the show’s grisliest enemies yet. The setup…
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21 Sep

The Walking Dead: World Beyond Review (Spoiler Free)

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This spoiler-free review is based on the first two episodes of The Walking Dead: World Beyond. One of the best things about The Walking Dead‘s expanding universe is that it gives the show’s more talented writers and more skilled producers an opportunity to put their own creative stamp on the show and its legacy. Angela Kang took the reigns of the main property and has improved The Walking Dead significantly under her reign; her pending spinoff with Carol and Daryl shows promise, simply because she’s proven herself as a showrunner and she’s taking over a show with two of the…
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16 Sep

Fargo Season 4 Review (Spoiler-Free)

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This Fargo review contains no spoilers. Time has become an odd thing to track throughout the coronavirus pandemic, but it still seems hard to believe that it’s been over three years since the last season of Noah Hawley’s Fargo wrapped on FX. Fargo season 3 was often ponderous, existential, and meandering. It also routinely gave off a vibe that Hawley was growing tired of the Midwest, Coen-worshipping box that he had placed himself in. Perhaps time away from the anthology series allowed Hawley to return with a bit more energy, but also a narrower focus. Instead of a twisty-turny story…
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16 Sep

Utopia Review (Spoiler-Free)

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This Utopia review contains no spoilers. Utopia subverts what we know about geek culture and uses it against its characters in a dangerous game that changes the world. The suspense drama shepherded by Gillian Flynn, the author best known for Gone Girl and Sharp Objects, will arrive on Amazon Prime on Sept. 25 to wage a bloody path through the viewers psyches.  Based on a 2013 British black comedy of the same name, the American version of Utopia tells the story of a group of nerds who believe that the comic, also named Utopia, is based in fact. Wilson Wilson…
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15 Sep

Ratched Review (Spoiler-Free)

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This Ratched review contains no spoilers. In dramatic lighting and with lush period costumes, Ryan Murphy’s Ratched tells a sordid backstory of Mildred Ratched, the militant, unfeeling nurse made famous in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Ryan Murphy’s take on Nurse Ratched was always going to be bombastic and campy, and with a shorter episode count and tighter runtimes, unraveling her aim and getting inside her head could have been a thrilling game. But instead of deliciously wild, it reads like a failed high-budget parody of a Ryan Murphy show. Almost every editorial choice, from the radio…
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14 Sep

The Third Day Review (Spoiler-Free): Weirdness Reigns in Creepy Island Miniseries

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This spoiler-free review is based on the first two episodes. There’s a Woody the Woodpecker cartoon where Woody starts to fall from a height, then double takes, flaps his wings and soars into the sky saying, ‘Hey! I forgot I was a bird!’ Every so often, TV pulls the same trick. It goes along, airing detective shows and cooking shows and superhero shows and property programmes, falling, falling, falling… and then it suddenly remembers, ‘Hey! I forgot I was Television! I’m a box of mad, uncontainable dream magic conjured by imagination wizards who send stories through the air! Hop it, Gregg Wallace. I’ve…
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14 Sep

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Review (Spoiler-Free)

Netflix, New DVD release, , , ,
This Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous review contains no spoilers. My five year old nestled under one arm. My ten year old clutched the other. And I’ll admit, my hands were covering my face a couple of times. That, in a nutshell, was the family experience of watching the first season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous.  If you’re familiar with the legacy of Jurassic Park, you know the premise: there’s a theme park full of genetically engineered dinosaurs (where some catastrophe always happens). Based on the events of the first season, the series takes place concurrent to the events in Jurassic…
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08 Sep

Julie and the Phantoms Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release, , ,
This review of Julie and the Phantoms contains no spoilers. Probably the only thing you need to know about Julie and the Phantoms before going in is that its executive producer is Kenny Ortega. If that doesn’t instantly ring a bell – well, he’s the guy who directed the High School Musical movies, the Descendants movies, and, of course, the evergreen Halloween classic Hocus Pocus. This nine-part supernatural teen drama is the first of his projects for Netflix, and it’s just as charming, warm, and finger-snappingly musical as you’d expect.  Julie (newcomer Madison Reyes) is a 15-year-old singer-songwriter who recently…
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28 Aug

Away Review (Spoiler-Free)

New DVD release,
This Away review contains NO spoilers. Humanity loves stories about looking to the stars. Who among us hasn’t looked up and wondered what’s out there? Or what it might be like to explore worlds beyond our own? Netflix’s Away is a fictional take on the obvious next step in the space race – a manned trip to Mars, complete with all the breathtaking awe and constant terrifying threat of death that will naturally involve. (Whenever we get there.) At the same time, it’s the story that will make you hope we do manage it some day, an aspirational tale about…
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27 Aug

Young Wallander Review (Spoiler-Free): Netflix Prequel is a Very Serviceable Thriller

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They say you know you’re getting old when policemen start getting younger. By shaving decades off grizzled veteran Inspector Wallander, Netflix’s latest will age us all. This six-part crime drama transforms Sweden’s most famous detective into a fresh-faced junior officer. Confusingly for fans of Henning Mankell’s hit crime novels and the previous screen adaptations, Young Wallander is young now. This isn’t a period prequel delving back into the character’s past, but a reimagining taking him back to day one, in the present.  Present-day Malmo isn’t a safe place to be. At least, not for the residents of the Rosengard estate, a…
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DVD Guide reviews current dvd releases of movies and TV shows. The reviews of these dvd releases are my thoughts and understandings of the movie, dvd releases or TV show and not be taken as fact.

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