April 19, 2014

Orphan Black Season 1

A couple weekends ago I dove into Orphan Black. I watched the entire first season from Friday to Sunday. I’m usually not one to marathon a single show like that, but Orphan Black sucked me in and I couldn’t get enough.

The show ran its first season in Canada a year ago, then came to BBC America after that. I had never heard of it until a couple months ago. It became available on Amazon Prime streaming so I decided to check it out. I had absolutely no clue what it was about going in. After the pilot episode I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep going, but I went on to episode 2 anyway… then the story took a turn and I was hooked. I didn’t stop until I had finished the 10th episode.

April 2, 2014

Bad Sandy

After I wrote my initial reaction to Gravity the other day I decided to go read some other reviews. I liked the ones that focused on space as an allegory for depression. I didn’t immediately draw that parallel until (spoiler alert) dead George Clooney shows up and gives her a pep talk. By that point the movie wasn’t going to redeem itself in my eyes.

My dislike for such a widely praised movie got me thinking about my most over-rated movies of all time. Off the top of my head I thought of course of Gravity, but my other two choices were very revealing… Crash & The Blind Side. Hmmm… I sense a theme.

I didn’t think I hated Sandra Bullock, but maybe I really do.

April 1, 2014

Finale Blues

I watched the first two seasons of How I Met Your Mother, but have only randomly caught episodes here and there over the subsequent 7 years. Even so, I decided to watch the finale last night. I did not enjoy the way they went with the story at all. Most of the feedback I saw on Twitter didn’t like it either. This is a good piece written by Alan Sepinwall about the finale and how the writers had trapped themselves. The inglorious ending to a long-running show brought back memories of LOST, and it made me wonder if all the tweets about “wasting 9 years” were valid.

The first 2 seasons of LOST were amazing. The next 3 were okay. The 6th season was rough, but I held out hope to the end that it would all come together. When everything was said and done, the LOST finale definitely ruined the series as a whole for me, but I still love those first 2 seasons in spite of it. I have to ask myself the question, was “wasting” 4 years worth it because I got to experience the first 2?