2017 Movies TV Recap Thoughts

Just like with 2016's entry, here are my quick thoughts / rankings of what I saw in 2017. Overall, despite lots of talent, diversity and variety, I didn't think 2017 was nearly as interesting as 2016, due to a mix of writing and execution. That said, let's get things started with...

Movies

Favorites
Get Out - Tight script, fantastic direction for Jordan Peele who brilliantly walked the line between horror and comedy, great social commentary re: racism, solid acting, atmospheric music and tension. Would be very happy if this won Best Pic

Kong: Skull Island - Total B-movie that was lots of fun. Went in with little expectations and came out very pleasantly surprised. Sam Jackson once again proving to be an excellent character actor, with John C Reilly being his goofy "self" right behind him.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - It's more of the same from the first, taking some interesting leaps in creative choices while holding back on others; particularly with how it riffs on James Bond. Definitely flawed with a number of missed opportunities, but lots of fantastic action sequences and a number of fun jokes and callbacks. I had a blast.

Colossal - What a bold and interesting movie! No one's really likable, though Anne Hathaway manages to make her character endearing/tolerable, but the way it handles toxic masculinity amidst Rampage-like giant monsters is utterly unique, which earns it major bonus points.

The Big Sick - There's so much to love with this very personal and based-on-true-events story from Kumail Nanjiani. Is it surprisingly a little formulaic for a reality-based rom-com? Sure, but that doesn't take away from how charming it is. Ray Romano was a surprising delight, along with Kumail's family.


Very Fun
Happy Death Day - It doesn't quite achieve the highs of either Groundhog Day or Scream, but damn if it isn't a fun time and seemingly achieves everything it set out to do. It left me wanting more in a good way.

Thor: Ragnarok - Taika Waititi's direction is basically the biggest selling point for me. Watching him just "play" with all his characters and settings is a treat, even if the stakes and tension are a little on the flat side; Cate Blanchett is a delicious villain, even if under-utilized / under-developed. Tessa Thompson, Jeff Goldblum and Waititi as the CG rock monster Korg steal the show.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - Pleasant surprise is maybe the best way to describe this film. It was a treat to just watch the riffs on both the original, video games, and most of the actors playing characters playing other characters - Jack Black absolutely steals the movie, with The Rock and Karen Gillan not far behind him, whereas Kevin Hart for better or worse is largely playing himself. Some really nice life lessons in the film, if a bit direct / on-the-nose.

Fun, But Room for Improvement
The LEGO Batman Movie - High energy and fun, touching on the essence of Batman and filled with interesting explorations of his various relationships. I would have liked a little more breathing room or something, but still good / very good.

Spider-man: Homecoming - Tom Holland quickly asserts himself as THE Spider-man. While fun to see a John Hughes-esque Spider-man movie, the films tones are uneven (fun comedy vs dark action), with the drama CONSTANTLY undercut but humor. Glad to see Michael Keaton as villain the Vulture, but felt a bit out of place / underutilized.

Split - M. Night Shyamalan returns to some familiar areas here. Sure, it can be faulted for using some outdated tropes and psychology info, along with once again having someone with a mental disorder as a villain, and there are a number of poorly written character, but DAMN if that ending isn't fantastic, not to mention the general high-level concept of the film tied to the ending makes for such interesting execution.

The Girl With All the Gifts - Good acting from Sennia Nanua and others. It's a nice story that's a little too video game-esque at times, but entertaining.

Life - This is both a not good and not bad movie, that doesn't really have any characters and is just the slow victory of the alien entity, with an ending that tries to pull something off but really didn't work. More fun to think of it as a backdoor pilot for a Venom movie.

Wonder Woman - Great to finally see DC's third biggest character on the big screen, but multiple weak villains and at least one weak act, plus a number of questionable choices ("hi" relationship to Steve Trevor) hold the movie back. Happy to see it get such success, here's hoping the sequel has more women writing the film with more insight from director Patty Jenkins.

Ghost in the Shell - It does a number of things wrong, like butchering the story, being convoluted, and the controversial casting, but it's also relatively entertaining. The Major deserves better and Paramount butchered this one.

Stephen King's IT - Entertaining, but over-reliance on CG and repetitive plotting hurt. It's almost as long as the original mini-series, but doesn't cover nearly as much ground, though smart to divide the story into two parts focusing on the past and present. The 80s kids group direction was interesting, but didn't fully work for me.

Logan - Sure, I guess? The first half is better, but really, really weak villains, a weak second half and an awful decision to not include Sabretooth to round out the themes of family hurt the film.

OK
Alien: Covenant - It's a more even version of Prometheus, that doesn't hit either the highs or the lows, and the mad scientist angle with David is somewhat interesting, but it's not really a great "Alien" movie and hard to really care about anyone or anything going on - lots of characters still making stupid choices. Ridley Scott needs to get away from this franchise, though I'm mildly curious about him completing his trilogy.

Blame! - There are a number of interesting elements and parts to like, but the setup is missing along with compelling characters.

The Void - The ending is when things get good, but before then is less compelling characters, writing and plot. A nice homage to John Carpenter at the end may be worth the watch.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 - Really ham-fisted dialogue + meandering plot + underwhelming soundtrack + Mantis issues + too many flat jokes = Guardians 2. Kurt Russell is entertaining, but also poorly utilized. There is a moment with Drax and Mantis sitting and talking that's really sweet, but isn't enough to save the film.

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword - There may be a really good movie hiding in here somewhere, with a pretty interesting ending, but the intro and rest of the movie are awkward, flat and uninteresting, with some shoddy editing. The brawler aspect of Arthur is interesting.

John Wick: Chapter 2 - Not as good or interesting as the first, but also just didn't quite work for me. I can technically respect the action sequences and practicality, but it's like watching someone play a video game on easy mode.

Tokyo Ghoul - Shrug. Some interesting parts, but falls into the same boat as other mediocre live action anime/manga adaptations. The score by Don Davis (The Matrix) wasn't enough to save the film.

Pokémon the Movie: I Choose You - Some interesting and well-animated parts, but also fairly uneven and the ending is rather questionable - there are some fun videos on Youtube of people's reactions that almost make this worth it.

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - Low expectations helped make this more "enjoyable." It's completely serviceable and by this point you should know what to expect from the series.

Didn't Care For
Coco - This may be a good or fine movie, but I'll admit I struggled to connect to it, as I can't stand families that aren't supportive, even if there's relative justification for why they are the way they are. To me, too many characters were assholes (who made bad choices). Visually, it's absolutely gorgeous, though, but that wasn't enough to save a fairly by-the-numbers plot. Pixar is feeling tired and could use fresh blood. Great to see Mexican culture on screen, though! Particularly when it connected with so many people.

Baby Driver - I greatly respect and admire director Edgar Wright, and technically this is a fantastic film, but the music selection didn't appeal to me, along with the uneven tones and characters. I'm fully convinced there's an amazing 45-minute cut that better follows the journeys of Baby and Jon Hamm's characters.

Blade Runner 2049 - 2049 offered me nothing of interest - the music, visuals, characters and general story just didn't work for me. With such great talent behind the film, perhaps my expectations were too high.

Justice League - Underwhelming. This was DC's big debut of the team and that was it? Generic villain and plot? Over-reliance on CG? Inconsistent character direction from previous films? Looking at you - Batman (comedic) and Wonder Woman (not as compelling as Jenkins' direction). Time for a reset.

Really Didn't Care For

Bright - Interesting concept, but just bad execution thanks to director David Ayersand writer Max Landis. Underwhelming visuals and direction made the world feel really small. Joel Edgerton is the best part of the film, but can't save it. I'm confused where the supposed $90-million budget went.

XX - Perhaps my expectations were too high, as I really wanted to like this horror anthology by women, but it just fell flat almost every time. Some interesting parts, but outweighed by the not interesting.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - It's not the worst movie I've seen in theaters (Man of Steel), but I was face-palming frequently at the creative choices, execution and twisted/bad characterizations. Writer-Director Rian Johnson tried so hard to be clever with this one, which really, really didn't work for me. He did a disservice to the history of both the original trilogy and the setups from The Force Awakens (I'm OK with ignoring the prequel trilogy).

Didn't see, but want to:
Your Name
Dunkirk
The Disaster Artist
Logan Lucky
Girls Trip
Call Me By Your Name
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Lady Bird
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
I, Tonya
Mudbound
The Florida Project
Mother!
Okja
It Comes at Night
Phantom Thread?
The Post?

TV:

Favorites
Legion s1 - Such wonderful writing and execution. Highly creative, and a great depiction of both the character and X-Men universe. Phenomenal acting by Dan Stevens, and the rest of the cast is fun, particularly Aubrey Plaza

Master of None s2 - What a gorgeous and delicious season, with poignant writing and beautiful cinematography that's a touching homage to Italian cinema. The unfortunate scandal surrounding Aziz does hurt things a bit.

GLOW s1 - So much fun! Excellent soundtrack, filled with fun characters and clear respect for pro wrestling, the season starts good and just gets better and better.

The Good Place s2 - I may be cheating by including this, but that's the fault of broadcast TV. Season 2 has each episode upping the game, exploring new topics and constantly moving things forward. The season particularly stood out as a brilliant romance that explores philosophy in an almost child-like, storybook way.


Fun
Bojack Horseman s4 - Still entertaining, but not as good as past seasons, being uneven and less cohesive. Favorite episode was the 11th one, Time's Arrow, which is my preferred version of Coco.

Rick and Morty s3 - Still entertaining, but not as good as past seasons. Pickle Rick was my favorite episode, starting kinda meh, but quickly getting better and better, ending with a phenomenal monologue that fully analyzes and takes down Rick.

Doctor Who s10 - Easily my favorite season of Peter Capaldi's, which finally had the writing and plot gel. Pearl Mackie was so refreshing as new companion Bill. It's a shame we won't really get more of either.

Channel Zero: No End House - I like the tone of this show. This season has an interesting premise, that's maybe not as interesting as the first season, but it's a just to watch things unfold.


Good parts, but room for improvement
South Park s20 - Not as cohesive as past seasons, but almost always interesting.

Game of Thrones s7 - With one season left after this, we're in full swing towards the end game, which unfortunately means rushing through time at the expense of all the beautiful pacing of the first four seasons. Now that we're supposedly past the books' content, we're falling into disappointing fantasy and TV tropes. Showrunners Benioff and Weiss will really be proving themselves with the final 8th season.

Castlevania s1 - Only four episodes, with the first being an interesting and humanizing exploration of Dracula, and the fourth featuring some excellent (!) action, but the middle two episodes leave more to be desired.

Stranger Things s2 - Didn't seem nearly as cohesive as the first season. Perhaps changing the show to more of an anthology would be better?

Black Mirror s4 - Hang the DJ was a pleasant treat, but the rest just... left much to be desired, with a number of episodes exploring the same topic - digital consciousness and the exploration of its humanity. 


Didn't finish
Twin Peaks: The Revival - Got 5 episodes in before stopping

Star Trek Discovery - Watched the 2-part pilot when it came out, which left a lot to be desired, will aim to catch the rest once the season's done

Movies and TV of 2016

2016 was an interesting year for movies. A number of big blockbusters came out, but it was the indie movies that were the real winners, though it appears general consensus is hard to pinpoint one particularly "big" movie.

In any case, here are quick thoughts and my rankings for the movies I saw circa 2016.

Favorites
Kubo and the Two Strings - Hands down favorite movie. Amazing craftsmanship, production design and musical score, among others, help overshadow any story or character issues. It's message on the importance of memory and storytelling is beautiful (especially compared to self-indulgent Hollywood stories).

The Handmaiden - Fantastic movie. It's like Hitchcock meets Paul Verhoeven meets feminism. Beautiful visuals and music.

Moana - Incredibly vibrant movie with luscious visuals and good humor, if occasional a little too post-modern. Enjoyable songs, with great messages and themes throughout the film.

Sing Street - It may be relatively cliche, but the overwhelming charm, 80s setting and fantastic soundtrack make it a near-instant classic. Also has probably the best song of the year: Drive it Like You Stole It.


Very Good, with minor flaws
The Hunt for the Wilderpeople - Great performances by Sam Neill(!), Julian Dennison (the kid!) and Rima Te Wiata (Bella!), with plenty of charm and goofiness. The dynamic between Neill and Dennison are great, losing only a little steam towards the end.

Don't Breathe - Great filmmaking throughout. Some excellent shots, interesting enough characters and solid tension.

Moonlight - Profoundly sad love story. Took a little time to fully sink in, but haunting.

La La Land - Didn't care for most of the musical numbers or Hollywood nostalgia, but loved the growth of the characters during the film. Great maturity.

Train to Busan - Doesn't add much to the zombie genre, but is a great ride.

Kung Fu Panda 3 - The weakest of the three, but still great music, visuals, style and message

Deadpool - Very fun characters and relationships help elevate the mundane plot, but is also helped by it being partly a satire.

The Mermaid - STEPHEN CHOW!!! It's a great return-to-form for Chow, plus more modern elements.

The Lobster - Quirky, creative and very original. The third act may be a smidge on the weaker side, but that final scene!

Swiss Army Man - Incredibly inventive film with some inspiring sequences, but it's weirdness may be polarizing - occasionally simultaneously good and bad.

Arrival - The philosophy presented in the film, combined with the direction, cinematography and music elevate an otherwise cheesy plot (global crisis) with hit or miss acting/characters.

Green Room - Not the most interesting characters, but once the film and tension gets going it does not let up. Even up to the last shot. Incredibly excellent job of tension.

Finding Dory - Incredibly well made, very sentimental, but also strangely almost completely superfluous

The Jungle Book - Gorgeous visuals help elevate an otherwise shallow nostlagia trip with some nice genuine emotional beats.

Zootopia - The relationship between the two leads plus social commentary help the film stand out, even if some of the jokes fall flat and the message is a bit garbled by the end. Zootopia is the more adult version of KFP3.

The Wailing - Interesting Korean horror regarding exorcisms and various religions. It starts as a comedy then slowly gets darker and darker.

Hell or High Water - Great relationships and dialogue save an otherwise paint-by-numbers plot. The movies screams TEXAS, but not in a bad way (similar to Fargo in MN). Nice commentary on land/history.

13th - Insightful documentary on the connections between slavery and the US prison system. The narrative could maybe have been structured better, but lots of information.

Enjoyed, but flawed
Batman vs Superman: Extended Cut - Acknowledging its made some disagreeable creative choices with regards to characters, the plot makes sense and may have received some undeserved hatred. Certainly better than Man of Steel or Suicide Squad.

Nocturnal Animals - Great cinematography, music, performances and ending, but it was missing something to really gel for me.

Star Trek Beyond - As the third entry, the film solidifies the series' direction of action-adventure. Entertaining, but fluffy, with zero new ideas (and a number of half-assed ones, like the new female character).

Captain America: Civil War - One of the more enjoyable Marvel movies, but very, very messy. Bit too self-indulgent at times.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates - Crass and sophomoric, but knows what it is and has a number of funny (and cring-worthy) moments.

Under the Shadow - An interesting story, with nice visuals, but not as compelling as the comparable The Babadook.

Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping - Pretty much what you'd expect from an Andy Samberg/Lonely Island satire on pop music, but well done, with good creativity and music.

Sausage Party - An almost South Park-level of satire with great commentary on religion/faith, but significantly marred by an overly crude and sophomoric script.

The Siege of Jadotville - Pretty entertaining war-action movie telling a lesser-known perspective from a real-life event, though lacking a bit on story and character development.

Lights Out - Completely serviceable horror with nice visual design.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - It's fine. Not Burton's best or worst. Could have used more runtime and fleshing out of ideas/characters. Lead actor (Asa) could have been better and Sam Jackson could have been better utilized. 

The Nice Guys - Somewhat closer to the "meh" side. Russell Crowe is a bunch of fun, along with the daughter (though she has a few off moments), whereas Ryan Gosling is uneven. The film borders on a boring, been-there-done-that Shane Black story, though has nice moments and ideas. A lot of great trailer moments don't actually fit in the movie. Needed better editing for story and film.

Magnificent Seven - Probably more interesting if this is one's first exposure to this story, otherwise it adds nothing new to the narrative/genre. Good music and some elaborate, if not overly long, action sequences are the highlights, with some nice character moments when you can hear the dialogue.

Doctor Strange - Inventive visual sequences weren't enough to elevate a cliched script and origin story. Benedict Cumberbatch didn't work for me as Strange, though he was great in the end credits sequence. Lots of forced humor that didn't work.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - A number of interesting ideas and elements weren't enough to save this from an odd, if not inconsistent, choice of tone (not a fan of Yates). I did love Colin Farrell as the villain (more roles like this please).

Didn't Enjoy
The Witch - Started very promising, almost like Kubrick, but I didn't care about any of the characters. Interesting ending, but fairly standard witch movie.

Keeping Up with the Joneses - Interesting characters and relationships aren't enough to save an incredibly cliched and predictable plot. There are some good ideas, for which I would be either open to a sequel or perhaps a TV series.

Gantz: O - Mostly impressive animation, though the humans are on the weaker side. The dialogue is very weak to average, with a number of dumb/forced creative choices. Also, it's pretty sexist.

War Dogs - Probably wanted to be Wolf of Wall Street, but failed. Too slowly paced with unlikable characters.

Midnight Special - This felt like an incomplete, pretentious movie.

High-Rise - Started interesting, then falls apart. Never quite achieves the highs it wants to.

50 Shades of Black - Funny, but forgettable and generic.

Ghostbusters - Starts out OK, but becomes less funny after the first-third. Unearned action sequence at the end, combined with a messy plot/bad writing hurt the movie. An unfortunate misfire for the talented lead actresses.

Now You See Me 2 - Better off rewatching the first, which was dumb-but-fun.

Batman: The Killing Joke - The original content is the most interesting part, then taking a big dive when it goes into an accurate adaptation of the comic. We never really follow any one character, which hurts.

Joshy - Forgettable indie melodrama.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - The weak characters prevented me from being invested in the story, which could probably shave a good 40 minutes and not miss anything.

Suicide Squad - Hard to care about any characters, let alone the plot. The tone is uneven and the editing is sloppy. Becomes more consistent towards the end, but it lost me by then.

Spectral - Found the film to be very flat and bland. The name of the villains made me roll my eyes.

X-Men: Apocalypse - Can't spell "Apocalypse" without "POS"


2016 movies I've yet to see, but want to:
Elle
Don't Think Twice
Hidden Figures
The Edge of Seventeen
20th Century Women
Tickled
Justice League Dark
Lion
Jack Reacher 2
Secret Life of Pets


As for TV shows, I didn't watch much, but here are the highlights:

The Expanse: Season 1 - It may have technically started in 2015, but this was a great first season. First few episodes move the plot forward quickly, then do a better mix of plot and character afterwards.

Luke Cage: Season 1 - Great style, characters and music. Really enjoyed this, even if I wish they had extended the first story arc a bit longer, if only to get more of one character.

Black Mirror: Season 3 - Easily the best season of the series yet. San Junipero is a great episode of television, though I did have issues with the two characters falling in love so quickly. The season opener was a bit weak, but each subsequent episode gets better and better.

Lady Dyanmite: Season 1 - Delightful. The season's a bit uneven, but the highs are incredibly high. The lows are fairly enjoyable, as well.

South Park: Season 20 - First two episodes were brilliantly hilarious, then the show got a bit too real for awhile, while also scrambling to match the then-current political events, but brilliantly picked things back up again towards the end

Westworld: Season 1 - I was compelled while watching, but ultimately ended the season underwhelmed. Some really great episodes, but the show mostly worked via storytelling gimmicks that fall apart upon reasonable analysis.

Game of Thrones: Season 6 - The last episode was the real money episode, otherwise it was a slow season (though certainly better than S5) with some nice moments scattered throughout.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Season 2 - While the first season had rough moments, it was pretty fun, on the whole. However, with season 2, I gave up after four episodes.

2016 shows yet to watch:
Atlanta
Insecure

Lady Dynamite season 1 review

Netflix's Lady Dynamite is a delight. Pilot's a bit rough, second ep is better, third is when it hits Maria Bamford-Mitchell Hurwitz/Arrested Development gold. It may occasionally get too meta and Hollywood-focused, with the last few episodes losing a little steam and the timeline being very, very strange, but the word play, visual gags and incorporation of mental disorders are pretty great. I hope it's the beginning of something great.

There's some great acting, too, particularly Mary Kay Place and Ana Gasteyer, with a bunch of great cameos. Bamford herself is particularly entertaining, as is Fred Melamed.

Also, the ending musical cue of every episode has the potential to be up there with Curb Your Enthusiasm's end cue.

Very much RECOMMENDED, though it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

Black Mirror season 3 review

Black Mirror season 3 is its best season yet, primarily for the ideas. It does a good job of telling cohesive stories and being philosophical; it's better than Westworld season 1, in that regard. Arguably, the season gets better with each episode.

Specific episode thoughts below, in the order in which I enjoyed them...

1. Nation of Hate - I enjoyed the detective story, liked both leads and enjoyed the commentary on social media and government surveillance, as well as consequences of speech and actions. The general conceit of the bees was kinda dumb, though, and it was probably a bit on the long side.

2. Men Against Fire - Perception is reality and everyone is being lied to! Enjoyed the commentary on the military and how soldiers aren't treated well (they're commodities). The eugenics element and commentary on humans was also good. Was it lacking a bit something? Yes, but I liked the topics and ideas.

3. San Junipero - Really enjoyed the commentary on the afterlife and digitization of personalities. Didn't really buy into the love story (both are in love after one or two encounters? ok... I could understand with Yorkie, but not Kelly). The acting from both was rather good, though Yorkie was a bit annoying initially, along with some stilted dialogue earlier on. It was fun to watch how it played with the tropes from different eras. Would have been nice if there was something more to the guy who was interested in Yorkie (maybe he was a shell digital representation or dead). Was a loose thread, but not really the focus.

4. Shut Up and Dance - This was fine. That the focus was on trolling was interesting, but it lots steam for me rather quickly - it seemed rather apparent they were screwed no matter what. Also, reminded me of the movie Nerve, despite not seeing it. Little twist at the end was interesting. The kid's acting was also interesting, in that it wasn't a typical kid.

5. Playtest - Also OK. Some of the ideas were interesting (evolution of gaming, tapping into the brain, calling parents while we can), but the general gist of a horror story made it too apparent that reality was going to be messed with. The specific ways in which it occurred were certainly interesting, and the final reveal of the length of time was interesting, but... wasn't as good as it could have been.

6. Nosedive - Fun idea about heightening social rankings, but the general "tragedy" of the story was so on-the-nose and trite. BDH's big speech was cringe-worthy to watch, but entertaining. It does make me want to disconnect from social media more. Basically, felt rather by-the-numbers.

Finally watched the pilot to Westworld. Thoughts with minor spoilers...

I largely enjoyed it as the first chapter in an ongoing story, so the slower pacing was tolerable. It did get particularly slow in the middle, but what can you do.

Easily the worst part of the episode was the music - the title sequence felt like a Game of Thrones rip-off (not surprising), the general score was whatever, and then the crowning achievement of crap: the cover of "Paint It Black." It was a bad cover and didn't fit the scene (felt forced). It's like they were going for Battlestar Galactica's "All Along the Watchtower" cover and failed miserably.

Also, there were some stupid (world-building) moments, which presumably will be built on but I'll call out now:
1. The engineer (is that her job?) lady kissing the whore IN THE WIDE OPEN. Unless your job is to QA the bots like that, you're going to be having a talk wtih your supervisor. Skipping the kiss and teasing her intrigue would have been a better way to go.
2. The dialogue writer is shitty with dialogue. This is a multi-million if not billion-dollar experience and they get a hack writer as the lead?
3. Similarly, why introduce a coup/climb the corporate ladder/nefarious ulterior motives for Westworld in the first episode? That scene could have been cut to shave time and placed in a later episode. Let Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins fuck up a bit more.
4. Back to the business of Westworld - this is a huge, highly resourced entertainment/electronics company and they do no real QA before releasing updates to their consumers? What in the fuck?!

What self-respecting company wouldn't have a beta environment with beta testers to test out the potentially dangerous and life-threatening robots. Maybe if they want to save expenses, but if there are fatal flaws and the company gets shut down, they have no business. I thought Jonathan Nolan had gaming experience...

A couple quick things I liked:
1. The "programmed" state of some of the narratives, with branching options. It was interesting to watch how the robots behaved when new elements would be introduced (e.g. robots being distracted or humans interfering). This helped to show how game-like the world is.
2. The fly narrative. A simple tactic, nicely executed.
3. Ed Harris as the Man in Black. Dig it.

I am definitely curious about the show and look forward to watching the next few episodes. This has me intrigued in a way that Preacher did not.

The pilot gets a solid RECOMMENDATION as a very good episode, just shy of greatness (though it may be arguably great).

Jessica Jones - a light review

Jessica Jones is a great feminist twist on standard male-lead action-crime shows, with some great characters (Trish and Jeri, to name two) and very interesting takes on both PTSD and the patriarchy (SPOILER: most straight white male characters are villains).

However, it loses steam a little after half-way through. The series could have dropped a storyline or two, reducing the episode count to 8-10 episodes and been better/tighter for it.

Thoughts on the two protagonist/antagonist:

Jessica Jones - Cool and badass, while also dealing with PTSD. She's an interesting character, but her arc over the show is a bit flat. Most of the time, she's in her dour, tired mood and for all she drinks, alcohol never seems to affect her. She emotes most when she's in a panic, which is great to see, but one would think the alcohol could be better used to play into her PTSD. Perhaps her "flatness" is commentary on someone with PTSD (or I'm missing something), which is definitely interesting and can hopefully be elaborated on in future seasons/series.

Kilgrave - Simultaneously very interesting and lame. His powers are incredibly strong, but his focus is so small - all he wants is Jessica. He lacks the flare of more grandiose villains (e.g. Wilson Fisk, Joker, Goldfinger, et al), but is also a very interesting character and case study. That his focus is only Jessica separates him, but makes him slightly underwhelming; however, he goes to some "cool" lengths to achieve his goals.

At the end of the day, Jessica Jones gets a fairly solid RECOMMENDATION, as the main plot between Jessica and Kilgrave is good. Just be wary of the many melodramatic sub-plots that detract from what could have been a tighter personal story.

The Prisoner (1967) review

Brilliant series. Patrick McGoohan kicks ass. Absurb, but awesome, ending. Sure there are some filler episodes, but they're not bad (they're the same type of bad that a bad Pixar film is). The standout episodes are just some of the tops that television has to offer. Way ahead of it's time.

Will revise soon.