Blindspot Review: “Eight Slim Grins”

Kyle’s Review

Blindspot plugged along with “Eight Slim Grins.” The cast are sliding into their roles, the story solidified Jane Doe’s connection with Agent Weller, and the secret organization gets bigger, while remaining secret.

Is it just me or has Weller had more of a response to Jane Doe, and the fact that she is the lady he thought she was, than he has to his own family? I kind of hoped Weller was wrong because I don’t see how ruining Weller’s father could possibly fit into the new world order’s plans. That’s what we’re dealing with here, right? Some uber-secret organization, pulling everyone’s strings, purposefully dropped Jane Doe into Weller’s lap. Actually, Weller’s name is tattooed on Jane Doe’s back, so this group is taunting Agent Weller.

I have to be honest and say that this week’s baddie faded in my memory. I had to watch parts of “Eight Slim Grins” a second time to recall that Team Jane Doe was tailing a crew of jewel thieves. The focus was less on these jewel thieves and more about people from Jane Doe’s past. The guy who trained Jane was shot and killed, and the guy from the jewel heist crew, who Team Jane Doe caught, had a link to Jane’s past and died by the end of the episode. At this rate, Jane will never find out who she is, or will she? She is the girl from Agent Weller’s childhood.

I’m sure Blindspot will add some more folks from Jane’s past to fill the void between now and when she was ten. Until then, I’ll keep watching this guilty pleasure. The action should intensify, now that Jane won’t be shackled to Agent Weller’s car, and Weller isn’t as wooden as he was in the first two episodes.

Verdict:

Blindspot continues to improve but it severed the only link to Jane’s past—that Jane knows of—and I hope the show doesn’t devolve into Jane learning one face or name and then that person dies as soon as she encounters them. I’ll give Blindspot a chance because it can be a lot of fun.

Heroes Reborn Review: “Under the Mask”

Kyle’s Review

The thick plottens with Heroes Reborn’s latest episode “Under the Mask.”

This entire episode spent its time trying to tie together the disparate parts to Heroes Reborn’s story in a slip knot. I don’t know if it succeeded at doing even that. I’m sure there’s plenty more going on behind the scenes but here’s what we know so far. (These might be slight spoilers for those of you behind in the mini-series but I don’t think they’re too big. Heroes Reborn is holding back a lot so little makes much sense.) Molly, the young lady who can locate other evolved humans, gets kidnapped and a mysterious corporation jacks into her mind so that anyone who owns a pair of computer glasses can spot an Evo from a mile away. Claire might be dead or in hiding or dead and in hiding. Somehow the high school boy plays a role in saving humanity but it isn’t as simple as “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The Latino superhero runs into more Evos—both enemies and friendlies. And Zachary Levi portrays the new burning man—er, the guy who can explode. Maybe.

“Under the Mask” ended with so many cliffhangers that I’m not sure which threads—if any—I need to hold and I know I missed at least a few more like the Japanese lady wielding Hiro Nakamura’s katana. The sad thing is that most of these threads would make a decent story if only two or three were used but I’m left drinking a carton of milk in two seconds flat, and the majority of the story’s curdling on my shirt. You’d have to watch “Under the Mask” a few times to catch everything and I don’t think there’s that many people who’d take the time.

If Heroes Reborn can’t clean up this mess in a timely fashion, I may have to stop watching and reviewing it. The solution doesn’t have to be a simple slogan like “Save the cheerleader, save the world,” but something needs to tie these characters together and soon.

Verdict:

Heroes Reborn “Under the Mask” ended with one mell of a hess. Viewers should question where characters’ loyalties lie but they shouldn’t question what’s going on in every other scene.

The Awesomes Review: “The Dames of Danger”

Kyle’s Review

The Awesomes paused the main story arc this week—as they’re oft to do this time of the season—and also split up the boys and girls. Even though Mr. Awesome and Dr. Malocchio didn’t make physical appearances in “The Dames of Danger,” they were present because this episode was all about the relationships parents and children share.

Livewire misses her father, Dr. Malocchio, and learns that her mother is one of the episode’s titular Dames of Danger. Livewire’s pregnant with Prock’s child—yet another level of parenthood explored—and reluctantly joins her mother and her cronies on a secret mission to stop Backstory. Yes. The villain of the week’s name is Backstory and we get a long, drawn out backstory for our villain. That’s so meta.

I love that “The Dames of Danger” receive their orders from a shrouded man a la Charlie’s Angels but The Awesomes give that formula a twist by having the mysterious man wire every women’s room in the world. In true Awesomes style, the Dames of Danger’s leader gets apprehended for installing cameras in every ladies’ room in the world.

“The Dames of Danger” didn’t add much to the main story arc this week but we’re left with some pretty big revelations that should ripple through the team in the coming weeks.

Verdict:

“The Dames of Danger” was a solid episode but it didn’t add much to the main story arc. We’ll have to wait another week or two for Mr. Awesome and Dr. Malocchio to make their moves but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the ride.

The Muppets Review: “Hostile Makeover” and “Bear Left Then Bear Write”

Kyle’s Review

Technical difficulties and Nuke-Con have put me behind on reviews but I did have a chance to catch up with The Muppets. I wasn’t impressed with “Hostile Makeover” or “Bear Left Then Bear Write.” The pilot showcased some classic Muppet jokes and delivered some self-referential humor but the second and third episodes tried to fast-forward the show from a new sit-com to one that’s been on for many seasons.

Sit-coms typically start off with broad, one-note and over-the-top characters and over time, the characters grow so that the situations the characters find themselves in amplify the humor because of the particular character(s) placed in those situation. As I mentioned before, The Muppet Show was a sketch comedy so there isn’t any history with which to build these connections. I liked how the pilot focused on Kermit and Miss Piggy’s relationship because they’re the closest characters to having more than one level.

The next two episodes stray from the Kermit/Miss Piggy dynamic somewhat and we’re given some hollow stories as a result. In fact, The Muppets are so deprived of deep characters that they had to invent two new characters, Chip the IT guy and a random second bear, so the show could explore certain topics. Chip and the other bear aren’t winners.

I don’t want to be too judgmental so I’ll probably stop reviewing The Muppets until it improves. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the show venture into the abuse Dr. Teeth experienced as a child. Some stories don’t need to be told.

Verdict:

I had high hopes but I can’t recommend The Muppets at this time. The show needs to figure out what it wants its characters to be and then commit to them, while trying to keep the elements that made the Muppets the Muppets. This will be a tall order.

Sicario

Jim’s Review

On the surface, I think I expected Sicario to be a simpler movie than it turned out to be. I went in prepared for shootouts and explosions, the standard action fare, and there was plenty of that, but the film managed to be surprisingly heady without being heavy-handed.

On an aesthetic level, the movie works quite well shot-by-shot in portraying the delicate nature of the struggle between border-states and the cartels. The aerial views of desert landscapes and urban neighborhoods convey that idea of a crisis lurking just beyond increasingly flimsy borders. The portrayal of corruption and brutality on both sides of the conflict rarely felt gratuitous to me, and more importantly, it came off as even-handed. The script certainly reaches beyond good-guys and bad-guys with its themes, and it conveys the idea that there is no clean way to fight.

Sicario’s greatest strength may be in its performances. Josh Brolin is convincing, and even perversely likeable as a government operative whose jurisdiction and character are always questionable. As the familiar rough-man-with-checkered-past, Benicio del Toro is solid, if a little formulaic, and Emily Blunt’s lead has great chemistry with Daniel Kaluuya.

I have some minor complaints with the script. Blunt’s character feels entirely too naïve. For a woman we’re introduced to as she kicks in a door and guns down a cartel henchman, it doesn’t add up. I know they want her character to serve as a surrogate for audience, but she shouldn’t feel as overwhelmed and unprepared for what she sees as is the audience. The reveal about del Toro’s character also hit me as an anticlimax. It’s teased before it happens. Some people who know him give their condolences, so it’s clear he’s tragedy-stricken, but this in conjunction with his “mysterious stranger” demeanor feel a little like a paint-by-numbers character sketch. There’s also a parallel plot with a Mexican state police officer that’s given just enough screen time to raise your expectations for a bigger payoff than it provides.

None of my gripes amount to a particularly big deal. If you sit down to watch Sicario, you’ll find yourself entertained, and probably even somewhat challenged. It moves at a good pace, and it doesn’t outstay its welcome. It isn’t as graphic as it could be, though it has its share of shock value, so if you’ve got a particular sensitivity to these things, you may want to stay clear. Otherwise, I’d say Sicario is worth a look.

The Visit

Jim’s Review

Whenever I tell someone I saw a movie, invariably they ask, “How was it?” or “Did you have fun?” but with a movie like The Visit, those are two completely separate questions. Respectively, my answers are, “awful,” and “yes.” The movie’s premise is flawed. A woman who is estranged from her parents, hasn’t seen or spoken to them in fifteen years sends her kids to spend a week alone with them. Furthermore, while her kids are off with these people she can’t even bring herself to be sociable with, she decides to take off for a cruise with her boyfriend, you know, so there’d be nothing she could do to come to the rescue and end our story prematurely should something go awry. If none of this sounds normal to you, congratulations. You’re probably not a particularly crazy person, but I don’t think Mr. Shyamalan will cast you in a movie.

The kids are the main characters here. The big sister is a tightly-wound, pedantic wannabe-filmmaker who throws around just enough vocab words pertaining to “narrative” to satisfy people who may have slept through a creative-writing course or two. Her little brother believes himself to be a rap prodigy, but is actually the single best argument I’ve ever seen for forced sterilization. You may think I’m overstating the case, but I’ll tell you this: at one point in this movie we see a naked woman in her 70’s howling and scratching at a wall, and that’s nowhere near as hard to watch as this kid’s freestyle rap about pineapple upside-down cake. I can assure you, by the time you hear the haughty Dawson’s Creek rip-off tell her little brother she’s at least “two standard deviations” smarter than him, you’re actually rooting for the old lady with the kitchen knife.

As you may be able to tell, all of this gets to be kind of funny, whether it wants to be or not. If you can keep your popcorn down during T-Diamond-Stylus’ (yes, that’s our rap prodigy’s assumed name) raps, it actually gets to be entertaining against its own will. The implausible elements add up to what becomes a fun game of I-Spy, if you can talk your movie neighbor into playing with you, and some of the attempts at jump-scares create legitimate laugh-out-loud moments.

I won’t spoil it for you, but you will never play Yahtzee the same way again after watching this film. It’s definitely a so-bad-it’s-good type of movie, but it’s not such a good so-good-it’s-bad type of movie that I’d recommend a trip to the theatre. It’ll be on Netflix soon enough. When that happens, invite a friend over, invent a drinking game, and go to town on it.

Bob’s Burgers Review: “How I Met Your Mother”

Kyle’s Review

It took Bob’s Burgers long enough but they finally unveiled how Bob met Linda. The setup for “How I Met Your Mother” was a typical one for Bob’s Burgers. Bob and Linda reminisce about the day they met. Linda tells the kids that it was Bob’s manly stache that caught her eye – and the engagement ring Hugo gave her – and then the kids wonder what would’ve happened if Bob didn’t have his mustache.

We were treated to three alternate time lines and the kids’ stories matched their personalities: Gene had Bob getting a robostache (in a Robocop knock off), Louise turned Bob into a werewolf via a tip of the hat to the movie Big, and Tina kept trying to keep her parents together at every turn. While Gene and Louise tried to pry their parents apart in their stories, they ultimately had Bob and Linda ending up as a couple. Tina was the only one who succeeded in splitting up her parents and she hated every minute of it.

Robostache

Despite the look into Bob and Linda’s past, we didn’t get too many revelations in “How I Met Your Mother,” but the show’s title begs the question, Why did it take 9 seasons to explain how someone’s parents met in the sitcom How I Met Your Mother? We found out how Bob and Linda met in 10 seconds.

“How I Met Your Mother” – the TV episode, not the series – was funny in parts: mostly with Gene’s Robostache story. We had some weird moments – thank you, Louise – and Tina, as usual, went for our heartstrings. In short, Bob’s Burgers had a solid season 6 premiere.

Verdict:

“How I Met Your Mother” was a strong start to Bob’s Burgers’ sixth season.

Blindspot Review: “A Stray Howl”

Kyle’s Review

The encryption of Jane Doe’s tattoos leads to some interesting clues. That was true of Blindspot’s pilot and stays true with “A Stray Howl,” but unlike the pilot, “A Stray Howl” added flavor to the supporting cast. Thank goodness. Sullivan Stapleton, who plays Agent Kurt Weller, is still stiff with his delivery but we saw that he has another side to contrast the hard-nosed special agent—he may even have a personal connection with Jane Doe. But despite these nice developments, we don’t get to know too many of the other characters. I said that the supporting cast has flavor but they’re still broad characters. It says something when you look up Blindspot on IMDB and find that most of the characters – even characters who are part of the immediate investigative team – are known simply as “FBI Agent.” We need more character development with these guys, as well as some names.

The weekly mystery involved a rogue Air Force drone pilot and how you can’t escape your past. Bringing the rogue to justice paralleled Jane Doe’s search to discover herself. She ponders what would happen if she didn’t like who she was and she experienced a memory that might suggest that she wasn’t a good person. On a personal note, “A Stray Howl’s” subject matter hit a little close to home, so it took a lot for me to get through this episode. Even so, “A Stray Howl” was a good episode. I had to fight back a laugh at points because of the absurdity of what Blindspot got wrong in terms of the Air Force and intelligence work, but this show introduced more elements that Blindspot could and should exploit. The characters are developing, not at the pace I’d like them to, but they are moving in the right direction and Blindspot looks like it might be something more than just an excuse to flash some half naked pics of a celebrity. The show also ended with a pretty good cliffhanger and looking forward to next week.

Verdict:

“A Stray Howl” did enough to keep me watching Blindspot. Hopefully, the show will continue to find its feet and make strides with the characters not named Jane Doe.

The Awesomes Review: “Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughters”

Kyle’s Review

“Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughters” was an interesting episode of The Awesomes. From a main narrative perspective, The Awesomes threw in a few things that will slow the big reveal of Mr. Awesome as the main villain the season, while also furthering Mr. Awesome’s candidacy for U.S. president. We even see Dr. Malocchio get integrated into main narrative and he’s on his way back to Earth. The Awesomes have great pacing this season. I could see these threads playing out and then tying up within the final three episodes, where we’ll see Prock take on his dad. But before that happens, we’ll encounter a villain a week over the next month. This week’s villain was the granddaughters of Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, and Adolph Hitler.

Everything’s better with Nazis as a villain and you can’t have a parody of Indiana Jones without including them. We got some slams against bigotry and racism but millennials as a generation suffered the worst blows. The Nazi granddaughters wanted to reanimate their Pappies with the Weeping Angel’s Stone because they were their grandfathers and they couldn’t be bad. Also, they fell asleep in History class. Who cares about old people anyway?

The Nazis were a sidebar to The Awesomes taking down the trio of teenage girls by sowing the seeds of mistrust. Once the girls were dispatched, the Nazis disappeared, but the girls didn’t stop with reanimating their grandfathers. Dinosaurs, mammoths, and other ancient creatures made appearances. You could say that there was an abundance of awesome on The Awesomes this week. My favorite ongoing gag was Sumo being treated as Short Round from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, but there were some others. “Snacks! Why does there always have to be snacks?”

Verdict:

“Indiana Johnson and the Nazi Granddaughter” allowed The Awesomes to flex their pun muscles. The season has a great pace to it and we can see the pieces fall into place for the finale.

7 Wonders: Leaders

Some of the greatest ancient civilizations find leadership with 7 Wonders’ first expansion. Who will guide your civilization to victory?

We’ll get to the game review in a bit, but we must kneel before the game demigods first.

The Fiddly Bits
Designer: Antoine Bauza
Publisher: Asmodee
Date Released: 2011
Number of Players: 2-7 (best with 4)
Age Range: 12 and up
Setup Time: about 10 minutes
Play Time: around 40 minutes (adds about 5-10 minutes to the base game)
Game Mechanisms:
Card Drafting
Set Collection
Simultaneous Action Selection
Variable Player Powers

Game Flow:

We covered the 7 Wonders game flow in a previous review. Here’s a link if you missed it.

The most important thing 7 Wonders: Leaders adds is leader cards. Each leader has their own unique ability that can guide you toward victory.

Game Review:

I don’t know if there’s a more polarizing board game expansion. Some people never play a game of 7 Wonders without 7 Wonders: Leaders. Other folks will leave the table if you intend to play with it. The crux of this debate rests with the first round’s gameplay.

With no 7 Wonders: Leaders, you collect stuff and form a plan of attack as you draft cards. This style of play leads to a free flowing game with nothing becoming concrete until the second round—sometimes mid to late second round. Some folks love that 7 Wonders is this fluid. Others don’t. This second set of gamers are the ones who’ll want to play with Leaders.

Alexander, Tomyris, and Caesar Leader Cards

7 Wonders: Leaders adds a little structure to the first round of play, which can be a good thing because while you can win 7 Wonders by any means, you can’t win by every means. You’ll have to commit to a victory condition of some kind and some folks like drawing into a leader. If you draw Caesar, Alexander, or Hannibal, you’re probably going for a military victory because what else would Caesar do? The same thing applies to leaders like Archimedes, Pythagoras, and Aristotle and science victories. The pen is mightier than the sword but you wouldn’t bring a pen to a sword fight.

Hypatia, Archimedes, and Pythagoras Leader Cards

The debate goes back and forth. I fall somewhere in the middle of the two trains of thought but I find that teaching someone how to play 7 Wonders is easier with Leaders, even though there’s an extra step. 7 Wonders: Leaders serves as training wheels for an easy game to play but one that’s also difficult to master and win.

Verdict:

If you own 7 Wonders, you should own 7 Wonders: Leaders. It makes for a good teaching tool for new gamers and you can always gauge your gaming group for who is willing to play with Leaders. If you get a lot of nays, you could always play without it, but you’re just as likely to get more yays.