The Defenders (Season 1) (2017) - TV Review

Review:

*Originally written August 20th, 2017*

"Defenders Assemble"

Marvel and Netflix's The Defenders has been a show a long time in the making. We've had 2 seasons of Daredevil and a season each of Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist to set this up. For the most part, The Defenders is a success, it's a hell of a lot better than the painful Iron Fist and I liked it a bit more than Luke Cage and Daredevil season 2, but it never reaches the insane heights of Daredevil and Jessica Jones debut seasons.

Things are a bit muddled at the beginning. 2 of the Defenders are obviously needed back in New York for the inevitable team-up, but it makes the finales of Luke Cage and Iron Fist kinda pointless. They made a big deal of Cage going to prison in his show, but he's quickly released by Foggy Nelson in the opening moments of the premier, while Iron Fist is called back from China once he realises the real threat is in New York. There seemed to be a bit of a disconnect and lack of communication from show runners in setting up this series.

Things really shine when the team are finally put together. A whole episode takes place in a Chinese restaurant, and The Defenders get to interact and riff off each other. This is when the show is at its strongest. The cast have really chemistry together. Jessica Jones and Matt Murdock in particular have some of the best scenes.  Iron Fist is also at his best when he's with Luke Cage, but he's still a whiny bitch when he's on his own.

This show clearly didn't learn from the mistakes of Iron Fist (The panned final stage before The Defenders). In all fairness, this was already filmed and they clearly didn't have time to learn from the reception of Iron Fist. Still, Danny Rand is still the most annoying part of the show. He's so annoying and whiny. Which is a great shame when the rest of the team are so great.

Things also fail in the hands of the villains. Sigourney Weaver is completely wasted in a muddled villain that guess what? Listens to classical music! It's wildly unoriginal and she had the potential to be a villain on the same level as Wilson Fisk or Kilgrave. All the stuff with The Hand doesn't help. They sucked in Daredevil season 2 and Iron Fist, and they suck here. They at the very least are finally given some weight as a credible threat here to a point. Elektra is also back as essentially a rip-off of The Winter Soldier, back from the dead with an erased memory but can get flashbacks at the mere mention of her name.

There is some exceptional action spread throughout where each character gets their chance to shine. The boardroom fight in the fifth episode in particular has some real kinetic energy to it and I wish we got just a bit more of that. It's a shame that the finale lacked much of a real punch. There's a big action scene towards the end involving all The Defenders, but it lacked any real threat or fun. Hip-hop music also starts playing and stops out of nowhere for no discernable reason, it was really strange and felt like it was trying to tap into Luke Cage's unique style, but failed miserable and just came off as weird.

The consequences of the finale is also outrageous. I know Daredevil is a lawyer by day, but there is no way The Defenders would get away with the borderline terrorist act they committed.  The finale at least puts all The Defenders in an interesting place at the end (Except Iron Fist. Fuck Iron Fist).

I did appreciate the colour schemes. It was very faithful to the individual TV shows. Daredevil's scenes are mostly red, Jessica's are drenched in muted blues and Luke's scenes are primarily yellow. Bringing these shows together really worked stylistically without losing what made each member unique.

The Defenders wasn't amazing, but it's a step in the right direction for Netflix's Marvel Universe after a couple of missteps. There is real room for improvement (Especially in fucking Iron Fist), but for the most part, it was all good fun with some great character moments and everyone got to a chance to shine. 

7/10 Dans

All episodes of The Defenders are now streaming on Netflix worldwide
Watch the trailer below:

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Castlevania: Season 1 (2017) - TV Review

Review:

*Originally written July 8th, 2017*

"Bloodlines"

I have no really history with the Castlevania series. I played about 20 minutes of Lords of Shadow on the Xbox 360 about 6 years ago. So I went into this pretty blank, with not idea what it would be like and any familiarity with the characters. I was also pretty reluctant to watch this due to my general disdain for anime (Fuck anime). 

It was surprising to see I enjoyed this as much as I did. It benefits and suffers from only being around 90 minutes long with 4 short episodes. I felt like I barely had enough time to learn about these characters or even care about them. This is something that could be ammended with a much better second season (Which has been announced), but for the first season, things are pretty hollow, but easy watching.

The animation is pretty gorgeous, I loved the look of everything. There's a variety of grotesque looking creatures and some stylish and gory action. It's also pretty dark, with some really gruesome moments, including an implied baby death, which was pretty cool.

My biggest problem with the show was just how short it was, despite enjoying it far more than I thought I would. I'm not entirely sure why this was even a season of TV due to its short length, it would have easily fared better as a film. The story was pretty simple and straight forward, so it was a shame they really didn't spend much time to flesh out characters that much, making everyone some pretty blank. 

There is a decent musical score throughout, but the voice acting ranges from good to downright awful. Most of the main cast are fine, it's when we get to the minor characters that the vocal performances turn absolutely abhorrent.

I don't have anything else to say. Castlevania was a better videogame adaptation than most, but it suffers from its short length, despite its beautiful animation and stylized violence. Hoping the show will improve a lot more going forward.

6/10 Dans

Castlevania: Season 1 is streaming now on Netflix worldwide
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The Walking Dead: Season 7 (2016-2017) - TV Review

Review:

*Originally written June 30th, 2017*

"Let it die"

The Walking Dead used to be a show that I really liked, a show that, I admit, had its highs and lows. It clearly peaked with Season 1, but my fucking god, this show has gone so far down hill that it's embarrassing. Season 7 has got to be the most frustrating, drawn out, self-indulgent piece of television I've seen for a long time. 

I tend to think the best shows last around 7 season max, but The Walking Dead shows no signs of an end game, and that's a problem. We have been through everything we could possibly see the group go through at this point and aside from a few moments of sadistic violence, Season 7 brought nothing interesting or new to the table.

I remember I had high hopes for Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Negan. His scene in the insulting Season 6 finale had real sinister intent and gravitas to it, but they sadly over use him to the point his appearances become annoying. He spends the whole season coming in and doing the same boring speeches about how "This is humanity now" and it become quickly tiresome. Less is more and Negan lost all of his effect. His baseball bat 'Lucille' became a joke quickly and also lost all its impact.

The opening episode was a big talking point due to the deaths of two main characters, who are beaten to a pulp in the most gruesome and nihlistic episodes of TV I have ever seen, and it set the tone for the rest on the season. The episode itself wasted its deaths by drawing out so long after the insulting Season 6 cliffhanger. Then these huge characters deaths lacked any sort of impact on the series in the long run. Showing them die in the Season 6 finale would have left a much better and impactful effect. 

The first half of the season showed Rick in an almost catatonic state, to the point of frustration. He's also barely in it. Which was weird, but gave the show a chance to explore some of the other characters. It's just a shame that they went nowhere with these characters. A whole episode was devoted to Daryl being tortured. It was just so relentless in its own depravity that it got boring. The whole of the season went round in circles despite the promise of this "All Out War" in the advertisment. When in reality, this was the last 20 minutes of the season finale.

Extending the seasons to 16 episodes and making them longer than 40 minutes has been a problem with me for a long time with this show. Season 7 pushed that to breaking point. The extended episodes of nothing happening were painful to watch. You honestly could have condensed this whole season into a lean 6 episodes with the lack of goings on here.

There are some bright spots scattered throughout. I loved the tiger, he actually looked good, compared to the usual CGI garbage in this show (That deer. Jesus Christ). Despite its huge popularity, The Walking Dead casually insults its fans with awful CGI blood and gore, which looks even worse next the excellent practical work they usually do. This show is popular enough to have the budget of good CGI, it's insulting how lazy and cheap they are with their content.

Urm, back to the good. There are some nice moments of levity here and there among the bombardment of grimness. An episode where Rick and Michonne go to the fair is a highlight. I also liked the introduction of a couple of new factions like the "Garbage People", who make Rick fight in some gladiator style trash pile. More creative stuff like that.

The Walking Dead: Season 7 is pure trash. The worst the show has ever got, to the point I even wonder why I watch anymore, and I think it's only because I'm seven seasons in now, so I'm gonna see this show through to the end, for better, or worse. I do have some real hope they'll improve things for Season 8, but if it's anything like this season, then fuck my life.

2/10 Dans

The Walking Dead: Season 7 will be released on Blu-ray and DVD sometime later in the year in the UK
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