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Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Victory and Death (2020)
The Seige of Mandalore, Order 66, a Tragic Conclusion, the Perfect Ending
I'm going to review this episode along with the three that came before it. They deserve to be treated as their own feature.
I have never been the most hardcore fan of Star Wars. I love the original trilogy and I played the Lego games nearly religiously when I was a child, but other than that, I have never been obsessed with the franchise. But one of the things I really love within this franchise is the show, The Clone Wars. There have been many arcs within this show that I have adored; such as the Umbara arc, the Mortis arc, and all of the Maul's episodes, but these final four episodes when put together, make up the best that the franchise has done since Empire Strikes Back.
Taking place during Revenge of the Sith, this glorious final arc of the show finds Ahsoka (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) and Captain Rex (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) being tasked to go to the planet Mandalore in order to apprehend Maul (voiced by Sam Witwer). All the while... Order 66 is right around the corner.
First, I got to command the animation here. It is damn near cinematic in its presentation. The show has comes a long way since its rather choppy first season, the movements of the characters all have weight and agility, the expressions and actions are all on point. It is some of the best CG animation I've ever seen, regardless of it being on film or on TV.
Just as fantastic is the writing and characters. A rivalry between Ahsoka and Maul is something I never knew I needed. Both started off as flat characters in their initial appearances (and in Ahsoka's case she was really annoying) and both have since grown into some of the most complex characters in animated television's history. Ahsoka, the former Jedi, has grown into this amazing heroine who rekindles her faith in her former cause, whilst Maul, the former Sith, has been driven by fear, loss and all the torment he as been through. It's a strong yin and yang dynamic and one of the best things about these final episodes.
And the voice acting... my word, Sam Witwer as Maul is one of the show's crowning achievements. His sinister voice with his tinges of fright and worry, it truly highlights how much of a paranoid loon Maul has become. Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka is compassionate yet heavy hitting in her mature portrayal. But Dee Bradley Baker's balance of all the differing clone personalities and his main portrayal as Rex ranges from scorn to worry to desperation, it's a fantastic performance from Baker.
Overall, this is a masterclass finale to a great series. Fantastic direction, writing, characters, action, music, and animation. It does what every great prequel/spin-off does, it makes the original work better in retrospect, and I believe it's the best finale to an animated series since Avatar: The Last Airbender.
I could not ask for a better ending.
The Walking Dead (2010)
The Walking Dead - Television's Biggest Tragedy
My first glimpse into seeing The Walking Dead was in an article in Empire Magazine. Being as young as I was, I was around eleven or twelve, and it grossly intrigued me. I saw half of a zombie lying on grass and a police officer crouching beside it with anxious curiosity. I never read the article because I was young, stupid, and had an awful attention span. Nonetheless, the article about the then-upcoming Walking Dead show stuck with me. I was intrigued because as a kid I never really imagined what kind of shows could be on TV, and a zombie TV show only heightened my fascination.
One night, it was a Sunday night, I about to go sleep but I caught The Walking Dead on my TV as I was searching for something. I decided to stay up just a little bit later, and I watched the pilot episode, Days Gone Bye. I was honestly blown away, from the opening where Rick Grimes shoots the little girl zombie in the head to the final overhead shot of the tank that Rick hides in as all the zombies begin to overrun the tank. I believe the pilot of TWD was my transition from shows of my childhood to what I watch as an adult now. In retrospect, I liken it to the pilot of Lost, both were expertly able to grasp the viewer into their worlds instantly and never let go of our attention. Frank Darabont scripts and directs this pilot with such class and confidence that when it ended, I instantly wanted to watch the next episode. No other show before that made me feel that way, and from then on, I was a fan of TWD, but only for so long.
On IMDb, I believe reviewing an entire TV show would be difficult to do, especially a show that hasn't ended yet. But TWD doesn't do anything new. Like me, I believe a lot of people were gripped to the show by the pilot. I was excited for what Darabont wanted to give us, but then AMC fired him, and the show suffered for it, greatly.
Here, I'm going to try my best to explain the reasons why the show has fallen from grace so badly. Grant it, it took me a while to properly see how, back when I was a hardcore fan and would vehemently defend to my last breath. Ever since AMC fired Darabont, the show lost its vision. Season 2 was godawful and paced supremely poorly, even as young as I was, I wondered what happened to the show to make it slow down as badly as it did. I also wondered if the comics were paced like this as well, but they weren't. They were in and out of the farm as quick as can be, and it worked so much better. I don't mind going off track from the source material, because TWD had done so before and after (to varying degrees of success, mind you) and other shows have done it quite well (Game of Thrones, in my opinion). When Season 3 was announced, I was excited, if only for the fact that the villain from the comics, The Governor, would make his debut. This was a missed opportunity throughout the whole season. And how they utilised him was extremely poor and the Season 3 finale basically cheated the audience out of something that could've been spectacular.
Thankfully, the first half of Season 4 came out, and my faith in the show was renewed. Those first episodes of Season 4, whilst they were not perfect, satisfied me. The season gave me what I liked, characters engaging in gritty survival and finally paid off on its promise with Rick versus The Governor, it was amazing. Then after the mid-season break, I was immensely disappointed once again, literally over a quarter of the season was filler.
Sadly, this would be the standard that The Walking Dead would follow for the foreseeable future: lots of filler with little plot progression and some instances of gold in-between. Drawn out storylines that never find its way off the ground or satisfy, uninteresting characters, boring action and completely tedious writing. It would carry on this way for the next few seasons. However, I feel there was one silver lining, something that could've made or break the show completely. The storyline of All Out War, with Negan as the villain.
Negan is famous in the comics for his swagger, his foul mouth and his total brutality. Not only did they cast Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Negan, who I feel is a perfect choice. The opening episode of Season 7 was so intense, so brutal, so nerve-wracking that I consider it on par with The Red Wedding. But then after that episode, it went back to the same routine, filler and bad writing and even worse pacing, and this time, the audience was sick of it. After promising All Out War for an entire season, it only just started by the end of it.
I stopped watching TWD after the Season 8 opener, I found it somewhat fitting that I finished the show after its 100th episode. But I don't think I could've handled that much disappointment again from what I considered to be a promising show in its early years. And now that I know Carl is dead and people still find it boring, and with the announcement that Andrew Lincoln will leave the show in its 9th season, I think that will be the final nail in the coffin for the show.
I can't stress enough how much it sucks that we never got the show that Darabont envisioned, instead the show has literally become a lifeless zombie of its former self. But by the time AMC finish milking TWD for its worth, it wouldn't even be a mercy killing to end the show.
Black Mirror: Shut Up and Dance (2016)
The Most Disturbing Piece of Fiction I've Ever Seen
I was on a binge-watching marathon of Black Mirror with a friend of mine, and we've enjoyed all of the episodes that we had viewed together, they were at times disturbing, darkly funny and bitingly satirical. Charlie Brooker has created an outstanding television legacy with his work in comedy, but Black Mirror will be his magnum opus. And this episode specifically might be the best thing to ever come from his poison-laced pen. It managed to do one thing I never thought any piece of media would do; it unnerved me.
The plot of this episode focuses mainly on a young man named Kenny, he doesn't look any older than an ordinary fellow just starting college or university. He has a job working at a fast food joint, he lives with his mother and sister, things seem to be going fine for Kenny. But as he continues his day, something rather disturbing happens. After he's finished masturbating in front of his laptop, he receives an email from a hacker(s) who has caught footage of him masturbating on his webcam, and starts to blackmail Kenny into doing tasks, or else they'll leak the footage. However, he is not the only one who is being blackmailed, and forms a somewhat forced and rocky alliance with a man named Hector who is being blackmailed for cheating or about to cheat on his wife.
The power of this episode comes from the script, the direction and the performances. We do not know, nor do we ever find out who the hacker(s) are, all we have is phone screens and all caps messages. Whoever this hacker or hackers may be, Charlie Brooker managed to make a huge threat from nothing but an unknown person messaging a phone. And the twist at the end is more alarming and disturbing that anything Shyamalan or even The Twilight Zone have ever done, but I'll get to that later.
The direction by James Watkins leaves us almost just as panicked as Kenny. When we find out he's being blackmailed, he sits on his bed, the camera pans in, giving us the sense of how paranoid Kenny is, and a taster for what is to come. The direction never lets from that point onward, making us anxious and uncomfortable to the episode's benefit.
Kenny as portrayed by Alex Lawther comes across a well meaning, genuine and relatable character, and his understandable fear, paranoia and anxiety over this situation is probably how many people would feel. But that only plays into the horror of the final reveal.
There was a moment where me and my friend spoke about Kenny's decision to rob the bank as it was happening, I knew something was up. I thought that if it was me in his situation, I'd let the hacker(s) leak the footage and face ridicule rather than jail. Something in my mind started to click, but I didn't want to believe it. Just why would he continue to follow their orders? After the robbery, Hector and Kenny make it up to a forest area, Hector is ordered to destroy the car they're driving in and Kenny is told to go into the forest. Kenny, hoping that his tasks will finally be over soon, confronts another man in the forest. The man is drunk and more anxious than Kenny is, because he knows the final task he has to do, and tells Kenny that they have to fight to the death. Kenny nearly breaks down, and just as the other man readies himself, he asks Kenny what the hacker(s) have him in for, Kenny tells him that he looked at some photos, and the other man asks him, "How young were they...?", and that was the twist.
My jaw dropped and I felt an empty pit in my stomach as I heard that line, I didn't want to believe it. But it suddenly all made sense, Kenny's extreme feelings of guilt, his persistence to keep his sister out of his room and away from his laptop and his persistence to follow all the orders given to him in order to keep his secret. But in the end, it was all for nothing, the hacker(s) have leaked everything about everyone. And while the people we see who have been blackmailed might possibly face lesser repercussions for their actions, Kenny's life is ruined after being outed as a paedophile, he receives a gut-wrenching call from his mother before he is feebly pulled away from police who arrive, and he'll most likely face consequences for looking at children, robbing the bank and murdering the other paedophile.
This episode made me want to curl up in the foetal position and take a break from the binge-watching. Which is what I ended up doing, this episode frightened me. Brooker may have tread over old ground by focusing on a protagonist who isn't all that he seems, but this is the most frightening episode of Black Mirror because it grounded itself in reality. The situations that Kenny, Hector and the other people found themselves in can happen to anyone. And that's why I consider this episode to be the best of Black Mirror, so far.
Mad Men: Signal 30 (2012)
A Leaky Faucet = The Best Episode of Mad Men
Pete Campbell is a character that I don't like. I've never liked him. I think he's a terrible, slimy, obnoxious snake in the grass. But he's a good character, a fantastic character even within the world of Mad Men. And Signal 30 is one of the richest character studies in fiction.
I did say that this is the best episode of Mad Men. Perhaps I'm over-hyping it too much, this is based personal opinion after all, and others can sing the praises of The Suitcase and Shut the Door. Have a Seat as much their heart's content (and I believe both of those episodes are spectacular). But I haven't seen a Mad Men episode, before and after Signal 30, that delves into the main themes of the show as much as Signal 30 does.
In this episode, explore into what I consider the core themes of this show; identity, adultery and masculinity. Through Matthew Weiner and Frank Pierson's script and through John Slattery's direction, we get to see Pete from all sides of his personality. Underneath his pretentiousness and pompous attitude, he is nothing more than a weak coward of a man.
Pete's behaviour stems through into his adultery, and when things don't go his way, his eyes go green. The high school girl he attempts to woo almost falls for him but by the end she goes with a classmate of hers. And Pete continues to feel the inadequacy he's felt for most of the series run.
In the title of this review, I've mentioned the leaky faucet, the faucet that Pete fixes at the start of the episode after keeping him awake during the night with the sound of dripping. The same faucet later bursts at a dinner scene later in the episode, and before Pete can fix it, Don steps in and is met with praises. Once again alluding to the inadequacy Pete feels once more, playing into the theme of masculinity.
In my favourite sequence of this episode, taking place near the end. Lane, who also goes through his own path of identity by trying to secure a client for the agency, has had enough of Pete's attitude, and gets into a fight with Pete. Which he ultimately wins, and Pete is left bruised and bloodied in Lane's punches and within his own insecurity. Upstaged by one of the most awkward characters in the show.
And when he says to Don that he has nothing, and when he's sitting in the class again, the sound of the faucet dripping begins again. And with the sound of dripping, we cut to black, and the humiliation stays with Pete.
This is an episode that is simply perfect, it managed to take a character so hateful and pretentious and bring him down to his bare bones. It's done in such a beautiful way, Weiner and Pierson's script is subtle and crafts a great character study. Vincent Kartheiser is superb as always, and this is his best performance as Pete in my opinion. But my favourite aspect of this episode is John Slattery's direction, he may be a good actor, but he's underrated behind the camera. Slattery captures all of the right moments for the perfect amount of time, nothing feels wasted in this episode.
This is definitive Mad Men, and one of my utmost favourite episodes of TV ever. This is an episode that demands repeat viewings, and deserves more attention. I cannot sing its praises enough.
Person of Interest: The Devil's Share (2013)
My Favourite Episode of TV Ever
In the fallout of Carter's murder at the hands of Simmons, Reese is out for revenge, seriously wounded and slowly killing himself by continuing on his path. The rest of the team scramble to find Reese before it's too late for Simmons, and before it's too late for Reese himself.
This is an episode that's quite hard to describe, for me at least. Written by Jonathan Nolan and Amanda Segel, there's a solemn atmosphere in this episode, and it works to main message of this episode of loss. Carter is gone, and as we notice that Taraji P. Henson's name doesn't appear in the opening credits, we know that a fantastic character has finally met her tragic end.
We open this episode with a beautiful opening sequence, with Johnny Cash's rendition of Hurt in the background, it tells a story in its own way. In retrospective, when I look back on this show, I believe the opening five minutes of this episode are the most beautiful sequence the show ever did.
Chris Fisher's direction ups the intensity to outstanding degree, the scene where Reese stands off with the men who keep Alonzo Quinn in federal protection show off how much of a force of nature he truly is, and when he threatens Quinn, it is simply spine-chilling. Jim Caviezel truly excels in this episode, emphasising many emotions that John Reese is going through; pain (both mental and physical), anger, determination and regret.
But the team arrives just in time to stop Reese, Finch tells him that it's okay to give up and that Carter wouldn't want him to do this. And in a fantastic turn in Nolan and Segel's script, Reese goes against that, and makes one final attempt to kill Quinn, but his effort is rendered moot due to his gun getting jammed with his own blood.
And in a moment that caught me by surprise, Reese doesn't get Simmons in the end, Fusco does. Another thing that this episode does well is show how far Fusco has come in the series, from his corrupt beginnings to being a trusted, full-fledged member to the team. Fusco gets into a brutal fistfight with Simmons, coming out on top even with his broken hand, and just as Simmons expects Fusco to kill him, Fusco tells him that Carter changed him into a better man and that he'll never bring himself to undo all the good she did by killing Simmons, and instead arrests Simmons, fully redeeming himself. Kevin Chapman's performance is superb here too, and his monologue to Simmons makes him the star of this episode in my opinion.
But Simmons doesn't get off too lightly in the end. He meets his demise in a way that couldn't be more satisfying, Elias gets him killed by Scarface, showing the respect he had for Carter. It was an excellent ending to a long rooted story line that's been present since the show's inception.
This is my single most favourite episode of any TV show ever, and Person of Interest happens to be my favourite show. Jonathan Nolan and Amanda Segel's script hits all of the right emotional notes and has plenty of surprises, especially within the flashback sequences which give us insight into most of our main characters. Chris Fisher's direction puts on the edge of our seats matching the action sequences in tune with the hyper-synced soundtrack, offering a sense of adrenaline and a claustrophobic sense of dread in the more intense scenes. And the performances, especially by Caviezel and Chapman, are amazing in every sense of the word.
For me, it doesn't get any better than this.
Twin Peaks: Northwest Passage (1989)
The Greatest Pilot to Ever Bless TV? It's Certainly Up There
In 1989, high school homecoming queen Laura Palmer's body is found wrapped in plastic on a riverbank. The characters within the small American town just south of the Canadian border goes into a shaken state, and an FBI Agent by the name of Dale Cooper helps the local police force of this town investigate. This town is called Twin Peaks. This is the start of the show that changed television forever.
This pilot was written by Mark Frost and David Lynch, with Lynch in the directors chair. Lynch is synonymous in film circles for eccentric direction and surreal storytelling, and one would think that Lynch would restrain himself from his trademark weirdness, but thankfully he doesn't, and television today is all the better for it. I can see traits of Twin Peaks' cinematography in works like Breaking Bad, I can see the eccentric cast of characters in works such as Bates Motel, I can see traits of Twin Peaks' surreal imagery in The Leftovers. Twin Peaks' influence can still be felt to this day.
I'd say the main theme of Twin Peaks is found within its humorous and complex cast of characters, the type of people you find within a Soap Opera, the kind that is found in the idyllic concept of small-town America, but each character has a darker element to them. It's about the inner darkness within people. And Twin Peaks can get disturbingly dark, but is balanced with an off-kilter sense of humour that only a person like David Lynch could pull off.
The standout of the cast of Kyle MacLachlan, who plays the main character, FBI Agent Dale Cooper. Cooper has the deductive skills akin to the likes of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, but is an eccentric and polite man akin to a Mr. Rogers type. Most of the cast is also very good, particularly Ray Wise in my opinion. However, some of the cast is quite wooden (Michael Ontkean, I'm so sorry to say), and James Marshall is almost downright terrible in some parts.
I could go on, but there's only so many words I can use to describe this masterpiece of a pilot episode. Even if this was the only episode, it could stand proud amongst David Lynch's own filmography. Even if you don't like Lynch's work, you should still find a way to watch this episode if you haven't already. Because its influence is too important to simply pass by.
A masterpiece.