Tag Archives: watching

What'cha Watching Wednesday #8

I actually wanted to write a review for Felicia Day’s „You’re never weird on the internet (almost)„, but then I noticed it’s Wednesday and I haven’t done this thing in a while. So I present to you the eighth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, which again obviously covers more than one week.

What is this about?

Every other Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week(s) while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – different episodes (Watch Date: 24./31.08. – earlier last week?)

Wren again inspired me to watch at least one of the following episodes. So thanks, I guess? >_<
I started these random re-watchs with It’s a terrible life. It’s an interesting what-if episode, but as someone working in IT and fan of the IT Crowd my personal highlight was Sam sitting in IT support and asking the caller: „Have you tried turning it off and on again?“ I grinned like an idiot at that. This episode was also the introduction of Zachariah whom I had previously – knowingly – only seen as coroner Woody in Psych. I have to say: He does a great job at playing the creepy angel. 😀 I also liked that they turned their names from „Winchester“ to „Smith“ and „Wesson“ and of course the inclusion of the Ghostfacers. Another episode that I watched after I’ve noticed that I messed up their appearances in my Season 3 summary. Through this I finally remembered to check out why Ed (AJ Buckley) looked so freaking familiar to me: He played a minor role in one of the movies that influenced me quite a lot in my teens (see movie part). Oh, and it was quite confusing to find out what he looks like by now, though I’m still trying to figure out what the movie is called where he looks/dresses like the singer from Korpiklaani…
Anyway, in another sitting I checked out As Time Goes By as a reminder for the whole Henry Winchester/Men of Letters story line. I kind of enjoyed this episode and I really like the Bunker. So as they hadn’t opened it I had to watch Everybody Hates Hitler again as well. The general story line of the episode is interesting and it is generally quite fun. I like the rabbi and the golem and would have liked more information on them, but I’m just generally quite tired of movies/series restoring to use Nazi-themes for their narration… (We had an off topic discussion about this on wren’s side; starting about here)
Well, as I already watched a time-travel episode, I decided to take another look at The Song remains the same and even though my earlier question about this episode cleared up by now (it was revealed that Cain had offspring) there is now a new one. At one point Michael discusses Lucifer and mentions that he „practically raised him„. Soo… were (Arch)angeles created as babies or is he talking about the time after they imprisoned The Darkness and were starting to form their own personalities after simply following orders? I hope its the latter, as otherwise this would be another case of forgotten continuity…
I actually wanted to watch a different episode but ended up watching Pac-Man Fever. It was a Charlie episode and I liked it, except the ending, I’m not that good with mums currently… So, I needed something good and positive to cheer me up and took another look at Hibbing 911. I just really like Donna and Jody and I’d be more than thrilled if the Fandom plans to make a spin-off with them would become a reality.
For some reason did I want to check out the Metatron and Kevin episodes so The Great Escapist and Reading is Fundamental were next on my list. With them the tablets were introduced as well and I think those are quite an interesting concept. In a twisted kind of way do I like Metatron’s appearances, I can’t really explain it…maybe I just enjoy his conflict of – I don’t want to get involved in this – I want everyone to do as I say or maybe his snark, I don’t know. I liked Kevin, too, though I felt sorry for him a lot of times. And I think it’s a pity that they didn’t explore on the whole prophet thing more…
At some point I wanted to watch one of the Benny-episodes again, so I picked Citizen Fang. A very mean episode, with a quite creepy Jon Gries as Martin. I like Benny…
The last one on this list was a very strange watch for me, as Unmei and I watched Changing Channels in German the other day (It’s by the way called „Wie im Himmel, so auf Erden“, a shortened quote of Gabriel’s line: „As it is in Heaven, so it must be on Earth“).
It was really weird… I mean, I started watching the show in German back when it first aired, but I did not remember it like that…
I especially did not remember that Sam was voiced by the voice actor of Dragonball Z’s Krillin – which caused me to randomly exclaim „Krillin!“ at some point during the episode, yes, I do stuff like that, when I remember from where I know an actor or voice… – and Dean by Tenshinhan (or Tien Shinhan in the English dub), that I suspected before checking out. Castiel had too few lines to let me recognize, that his voice usually is heard with Jude Law, though it did sound extremely familiar. Interestingly his voice actor also voiced Curtis Armstrong (Metatron) in a different role, just like Gabriel’s voice actor, who also happens to be the father of Germany’s (possibly) most used, all-round voice actor David Nathan (Armstrong was also voiced by Spongebob Squarepants‚ for two roles). Okay, I’ll stop now… It might be apparent that I enjoy talking about voice actors… (Charlie’s does a lot of Anime stuff, by the way)
Aside from that is this episode one of my most-watched ones. I just really like the humour and the big reveal and stuff. Simply one of my favourites. 😀
Though Gabriel probably didn’t get that good of a face-change if Cas still recognized him…maybe it’s the soul he can’t change or something like that…
Oh, and one more thing: To get the quote right I looked at the transcript and discovered this funny comment from the transcriber:

The fire goes out; apparently in this world water extinguishes grease fires instead of spreading them. – 5.08. Changing Channels Transcript

Grimm – Season 4, Episode 15 -20 (Watch Date: 16./17.09.)

After quite some time did I take another try at watching Double Date to catch up with Grimm. I still don’t like the sub-plot with Adalind, with the episodes so far the one with Juliet looked better, but I unfortunately knew about the final outcome of that one. 🙁
So knowing the remaining episodes now there are a few things that bugged me about their strange narration.
Juliet’s turn from good to bad is way too fast and too weird. The characters that are usually so open to new things, that accepted supposedly bad Wesen into their group (Blutbad/Fuchsbau), now, when Juliet needs them most, despise her and want to change her. They don’t even give her a chance to adapt or help her in any way. All they want to do is make her go back to the way she was. I can totally understand why that frustrates her, still don’t get much of her choices, but still. It could have been good. It could have been so much more than that. Instead they turn Adalind into a semi-human again, she is still pregnant and for some reason everyone jumps on the bandwagon to help HER. I really don’t get it…
They also could have done more with the new royal – instead of letting him kill Kelly and then killing him off. He was fun…
With Juliet and Kelly dead, I kind of feel bad for Nick, though part of me wants to tell him that the whole thing is his fault, for not helping the woman he said he loved…
And what was up with the Jack the Ripper-Ghost hijacking and the devilish arms? That didn’t make a lick of sense. Why did he kill Wesen? Why did he kill Henrietta? Why was this story involved anyway? o.O

Doctor Who – Season 9, Episode 1-3 – (Watch Date: 19./30.09./3.10.)

Season Nine has started!
I was curious what this Season would bring as it would mostly consist of two-parters, but I kind of like the pacing. It reminds me of the few old episodes that I’ve seen by now. It’s really something different and takes a little getting used to, but still enjoyable.
In The Magician’s Apprentice The Doctor has one of his most epic entries: Riding a tank into a medieval axe-fight, while playing an electric guitar. That really reminded me of the guys from Sabaton and their stage decoration. 😀
I also enjoyed the Davros-dilemma of the episode – Note to self: Finally watch the one with the Fourth – and of course Missy was quite fun again. The first part had an interesting cliff hanger, but I didn’t fear for Missy and Clara. The Witch’s Familiar then finally explained how Missy escaped, which is quite a neat trick she has there. For a short moment I really pitied Davros and wanted to believe him, while something in the back of my mind screamed: They wont kill him like that! Well, that voice was right and I enjoyed the solution to the dilemma that seemingly created the Daleks ability to beg for mercy. Still, a lot seems to be left unexplained and that’s just unfortunate… (How did Davros survive? Is he even the Davros from Stolen Earth/Journey’s End? How did all these different Daleks come together? And why do they just dump the old ones into the sewers? What’s with the other planet from Asylum of the Daleks? What’s Missy’s plan with the Daleks? What did Missy want to gain by making the Doctor kill Clara?)
Under the Lake had a weird start, as I really didn’t understand Clara’s enthusiasm and was right there with the Doctor when he asked her to get a new boyfriend. She’s using these trips to distract herself from mourning and in the long run that’s not a good thing…
I liked that they included a deaf character/actress in the cast and the story so far seems interesting, even though I hope the theme of everything being a life and death situation will cease soon. It’s kind of annoying as you know there are still a couple of more episodes to go and they won’t kill of the main character before that – besides there aren’t any news on Capaldi already being replaced – so the shock factor is way off in those episodes.
Oh, and I kind of like the Sonic Sunglasses, miss the Screwdriver a bit, but they look cool. 😀 And I really like the Doctors new dressing style, I like the hoodie/jacket…

The Musketeers – Season 2, Episode 8: The Accused (Watch Date: 22.09.)

I’m confused…the break was too long.
Mark Warren is creepy…no comparison to his role in Doctor Who.
I liked Porthos and was annoyed by Aramis.
And why did I expect Rochefort to still be in the room and make a snarky comment when Athos and Milady left the hidden cupboard? o.O

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season 3, Episode 1: Laws of Nature (Watch Date: 30.09.)

Confusing yet somehow satisfying start into the new Season. They showed Jemma! And Fitz was amazing. And I’m really curious how this Season will continue…

Deadbeat – Season 1/2, Episode 1-6 (Watch Date: 4.-6.10.)

Like Undateable I am not entirely sure what to make of this show. I saw the add for the German version, checked out the English one – as it stars Tyler Labin from Reaper – and half into the second Season, I still think this is a very weird series. It’s still fun, though. And Lucy DeVito is soo cute… Still, twenty minutes an episode are far too short to get some actual grip on the characters and the world. It got better by now, but it’s still quite lacking and very random…

Different movies

I felt in the mood to watch Midnight in Paris again. The first time I saw it, I went to the cinema in Uetersen with Janzy for special English screening, I gave her as a birthday gift. We both like movies and with Tom Hiddleston as one of the side roles and the story sounding interesting and the whole setting in Paris with all the old writers, we quite enjoyed it. Though watching it again I realized that I seemed to have known Woody/Zachariah (Kurt Fuller) before I saw him in his TV roles. 😀 I really like the atmosphere and narration of the movie. It’s not just some story that focuses on one thing only, no it takes you on a ride through Paris, it introduces you all these talented people (I probably would enjoy this part even more, if I actually recognized them), it shows the struggle of an aspiring artist, the downsides of a relationship with someone very different from yourself and it gives you something to think about, regarding everyone’s „Golden Age“. Just a wonderful movie.
As I’ve seen a lot of positive comments regarding Jensen Ackles in Ten Inch Hero I thought I might as well check it out. It was a fun watch and explored some unusual topics. Half way into the movie I recognized Adair Tishler (Molly from Heroes) and she was just as cute a kid, as she is in the series. Still, there were a few weird choices: Last time I briefly discussed the whole changing yourself for someone else thing. In this movie it wasn’t the girl who got the change, but the boy. All throughout the movie he ran around confident in his appearance with mowhawks in different colours (I’m not entirely sure what the pace of the movie was, so it seemed, like he changed them daily…) and styles, piercings and everything. But to get his love interest he cut his hair short and took out the piercings and put on some „proper“ clothes. It’s just so frustrating. If she loves him, she loves him with the hairdo and piercings and everything, not because he somehow discovers to dress „decently“. He looks so uncomfortable…
They also had a sex-scene that let to a brutal boyfriend-theme, but I think it would have been enough to show less of that part and still get the story across.
And what’s up with the naked wedding?
As I wrote earlier did I discover in which movie I saw AJ Buckley before: The Forsaken (the German title also includes „Die Nacht ist gierig“/“The Night is Voracious“). It’s an old vampire hunter road movie thing, that isn’t even well done, but it’s still special to me. I do believe this is one of the first movies I’ve ever watched in the „horror“ genre and I think I was still about fourteen when watching this PG 16 movie late at night, hoping that my parents/my mum wouldn’t come in and ask me what I’m watching. In a way it shaped my interests quite a bit. Besides Buffy it took part in creating my interest in vampires (and other creatures) and their different backgrounds. The characters I liked most can somehow be found again in later favourite characters (Pen and Nick if anyone is interested >_<) and the title even became a reference for the family name of a branch of characters from Michael’s story. When I watched it again, I feared I wouldn’t like it as much as I did back then, but I still did. It’s fun in a weird kind of way. Pretty trashy, with lots of weird camera movements, but still great in a way.
Towards the end I had this memory that one of the characters would start singing „Enter Sandman“ by Metallica any moment now and put it aside, but then he ascended the stairs and the scene actually happened and I was happy that I remembered that correctly. So the soundtrack is also part of why I like this one so much. 😀

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

As I also found out that the actress of Becky from Supernatural played Brigitte in the Ginger Snaps-franchise I decided to re-watch those movies again – or finally watch the third part, that’s been lying around for ages…
Well, we’ll see when I’ll get around to do that and write another one of these…
PoiSonPaiNter

What’cha Watching Wednesday #7

I didn’t really feel like watching any series and focused more on old movies in the past months, but I still want to present you the seventh instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, which again obviously covers more than one week.

What is this about?

Every other Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week(s) while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.

Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 2, Episode 15: Tall Tales (Watch Date: 11.06.) and others

While writing my Season summary for Season Three, I came across the Trickster again and decided to re-watch his episodes(, but I didn’t feel like changing the title much more than adding „and others“ as I had included a date on the other episode). I really enjoyed this character and his episodes were quite fun in a weird way. He really had had potential, but then again, so did many characters on the show…
I just really like the struggle the Trickster/Gabriel portrays, he claims to not want anything to do with Lucifers and Michaels fight, yet he does everything in his powers that Sam and Dean accept their roles in it and shows them time and again that some things just need to happen. He’s great and as I’ve discovered recently a lot of fun to write, which might explain that my simple One Shot idea kind of turned into two Multi-Chapter stories…

Incidentally I couldn’t get myself to watch The Hammer of the Gods, I just couldn’t…apart from the fact that there is so much wrong with that episode, did I just not want to see the outcome of it again…

I also watched several other episodes, though I can’t remember which ones, Season Four/Five stuff with Lucifer, Chuck and the Horsemen I believe. I also took some suggestions from wrencollins in this matter and just watched whatever I felt like.

Outlander – Season 1, Episodes 1-7 (Watch Date 6./7.6.)

As it was about to air in German television I felt like checking this one out. We’ll it is an interesting concept, the characters aren’t bad and somewhat interesting, but as you can see from the watch date, have I not gotten myself to continue since June…

My dad has probably seen more episodes in German than I have in English…

Sense8 – Season 1

I let myself be goaded into watching another series again. And I do not feel bad about it.
This show is incredible.
Actors from the actual countries the story plays in, with the actual accents, filmed in the actual locations. Really great.
And the switch between the Sensates, when they changed the perspective in a conversation or one took over and handled the situation of the other, was quite interesting, especially in the finale. I really liked the finale, though I’m afraid it’s hard to top.

I can’t even say who my favourite character is, I kind of liked all of them…Riley and Capheus are just incredibly adorable and cute, Lito and Will have quite hilarious moments, whereas Sun and Wolfgang show their badassery and Nomi and Kala, just show off their smarts, not to mention Freema Agyeman and Naveen Andrews, who made for interesting side characters.
I like the whole pretext of the show, its realization, the characters, pretty much everything…I can’t wait for Season 2 to be completed.

I am fairly certain that I might have a separate post for my Lost in Translation-series about Wolfgang – even though I have to say that they picked one of the most horrible sounding names here…
In German Wolfgang is fine, but in English? Just no. This is one of those names that, as a German, you don’t want to hear pronounced in an English way…

Speaking of translations…well…let’s say: I didn’t watch it directly on Netflix, therefore a lot of stuff is lost to me, as it did not have the translations with it, especially the Sun-focused episode, which was a pity.

Orange is the New Black – Season 3

Same problem as above, a lot of it was lost, as I didn’t have any subtitles. This was quite frustrating in the background episodes for Gloria, Chang and Leanne.

The overall storyline of this Season was a bit disappointing and boring – especially everything that concerned Piper. I just can’t stand her.
I really enjoyed the looks at the different inmates pasts again, I feel like this is always the most interesting part of the show. It was also fun to find out that another character spoke German, even if it was an Amish variation of it, that I didn’t really understand – though I believe it was the bad quality of the stream and my head still being stuck in English-mode…
The thing that bugged me most was probably Red. She was one of my favourites in the previous Seasons, but now, I’m not so sure any more. I also didn’t really understand the whole thing with Norma…

So in conclusion: This Season wasn’t as good as the others, but it was still fun.

Merlin – different episodes

I felt like watching a bit Merlin again and I think Gwayne and Servant of two Masters are my most watched episodes of the series by now. Another one is The Once and Future Queen that I this time even watched in German with Fairy during my recent stay at her place. I just love Merlin’s rant in that episode and wanted to see how it was done in German. This show is just always fun to watch.

Lasko – different episodes

For every non-German: Lasko – Die Faust Gottes (The Fist of God) is a German show from 2009/10 about a secret organisation of fighting monks (Pugnus Dei – hence the title) that fight another secret organisation Ares and other people who want to do nasty things to those who can’t defend themselves. As this show was produced by a station known for its love of scripted reality and casting shows, you might imagine the seriousness of the production. Lasko is a totally ridiculous show, with the titular character constantly loosing his Habit to fight the foes showing off his muscular chest. He has a chubby side-kick that is good for quips and wordplays and there are so many tropes and what not, that it gets fun to watch because of its terribleness.

The show started shortly after we started writing Warlords and Fairy and I made it a tradition to watch each new episode together and discuss it directly via ICQ. We had a lot of fun doing that and we still have fun watching the show now and giving off the same comments we used to make. We just love Gladius. 😀

Buffy – different episodes

Just as the ones above: I just felt like watching some episodes of Buffy and I do believe I even caught some I haven’t seen back when it was still on television. Well, it’s also interesting to re-watch it in its original language and not in the translated version I grew up with. Does anyone else consider Tabula Rasa one of the shows most hilarious episodes? 😀

Different movies

As I said in the beginning did I feel more like watching movies than series in the past few months and I came across several quite interesting pieces and some really weird choices…
As I don’t want to go into that much detail I’ll simply make a name-dropping description here and say a few things about them.
One last comment before I start: When I consider actors to be interesting, I like to check out their other work, so some of the choices came from that perspective and I probably forgot to add some of them.

Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) and Castiel (Misha Collins) in the same movie? Of course I had to check out Moving Alan, though I’m not entirely sure, what exactly I watched there… It is a weird mixture of Weekend at Bernies and other things I cannot name, just with two girls, a dead-turned-paralysed husband and an insane actor in the middle of the desert… it’s just weird…

Not much better is Par 6, another of Collins‘ older movies about a family obsessed with golf, though it has some more fun scenes than the other one. Downside for me: Their accents were hard to understand sometimes.

As it was in his imdb list as well I took a look at Girl, Interrupted, his role here was only a minor five seconds part and the focus was on the main characters played by Winona Rider and Angelina Jolie. I don’t really like Jolie as an actress, but in this role she was quite creepy, well, the whole film is strange and creepy, but still interesting.

What I, however, noticed is that Collins‘ minor or side character roles seemingly often include being the love interest or some kind of random hook-up for one of the main character. Which is kind of best shown in Over Her Dead Body, were he really is just that – same in Girl, Interrupted. Makes you wonder about his role in Supernatural… 😀
Anyway, that movie was quite fun, the idea wasn’t new – ghost fiancé stalks her ex and tries to convince him to not fall in love with another girl -, but doing the whole thing through a medium made for some quite funny scenes. And Paul Rudd did a good job at playing the confused and torn ex, but I think I have yet to see him in a role that I didn’t enjoy watching, which is in stark contrast to Jason Biggs, whose role choices I do often question, guess someone just has to do those things as well…

One of my, if not the, highlight/s of this watching streak was 3 Blind Saints, with Richard Speight Jr. as main character. This movie is hilarious and if you haven’t seen it, you should totally check it out – if you did, you should watch it again. It has a lot of slapstick and situation humor, but here are some of my favourites:

Several people try to get an out of jail free card, by claiming that they were saved by God – one of them is an atheist
The main characters end up having to pretend to be ministers in the local community with the atheist having to fill the role of the pastor.
Some very strange argumentations and utterly ridiculous prayers and sermons.
A very strange meeting with God
A couple of guys in drag – one of them unwilling to shave off his beard – trying to get a confession out of a bad guy, with a kink for girls in short skirts, who knows its them in drag and plays along.

I watched it for a second time on Sunday and I could watch it again, it’s just so much fun. It’s far from being perfect and has a lot of flaws (e.g. a missing and re-appearing beard/stubble), but it’s just one of those funny feel-good movies.

I grew up with the Harry Potter movies, so when I got the chance to pick up Driving Lessons
with Rupert Grint, I didn’t hesitate long. This movie has an interesting take on different things: The protected life of an only child, the downsides of growing old alone, growing up and being an artist. It’s a nice watch. Emma Watson’s The Secret Life of a Wallflower on the other hand took a more depressing turn. It shown some light on different usually left out problems (depression, suicide, homophobia, …), but it felt like they still left out things that would have made it more clear and more rounded. That’s a bit disappointing for an otherwise good movie. Though I somehow can’t remember the ending or I am at least not sure that what I remember is the ending…

On a similar depressing note was Coming Down the Mountain with Nicholas Hoult, but here I really liked the conclusion, even though some of the things that happened throughout the movie were quite creepy. It’s an interesting take on the struggles to live with someone who suffers from the Down Syndrome.
For some reason I decided to watch What’s Your Number? with Chris Evans and I’m still not entirely sure why I did. The movie isn’t totally bad, but it has some quite strange moments. Though not as bad as Totally Blonde, where my memory kind of betrayed me… I remembered it as a fun movie with singer Michael Bublé, but it turned out to be something entirely different and I’m not sure how I made it through the movie, as some decisions by the main character were utterly frustrating to say the least. Speaking of frustrating main characters: The Devil Wears Prada. I really don’t get the appeal of these kinds of movies where a woman with a totally okay style and personality changes everything in order to become the „better“ person for someone else (here: her boss) and loses herself in the process. Not my type of movie, but I like Anne Hathaway and Glen Close and felt like watching this again…

Tumblr is a great what-to-watch source when it comes to their favourite actors. So I checked out The Losers, with Chris Evans, Zoe Saldana, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Idris Elba in main roles. It turned out to be one of the DC-adaptations that I actually enjoyed. It was fun, had some good action and a lot of logical flaws, but still a nice watch.

The movie is fun, but I don’t think it was planned to be a comedy.

I also re-watched the Underworld movies with Unmei. We are three movies in and the fourth, The Awakening, would then be new for me as well. In the first three films it is nice to follow the different connections among them, but we kind of had large pauses between watching them, so some things weren’t that easy to recognize. It doesn’t matter how often I see these movies Lucien is still my favourite character of the four parts. Still, I don’t get how Michael Sheen could agree to betray the Lycans and become a sparkling vampire. o.O

Also on Speights list I found Noobz a movie about a Gaming Tournament and it’s participants. It took me a while to recognize Jon Gries beneath that god awful mullet, but it was indeed him who had a very strange and short conversation with Speights character and later on a tiny bit larger role in the overall storyline…
The movie is a very strange look on gamers and they used a lot of stereotypes and weird characters, but it still was somewhat fun. The effort in showing this kind of subgenre reminded me a bit of Knights of Badassdom, which is way more fun as it has a quite awesome soundtrack, that Noobz can’t compete with by having only two rock numbers. Still, when it comes to movies/series depicting gamers and nerds do I prefer Felicia Day’s The Guild and Zombie Orpheus‘ The Gamers– series. They feel way more accurate and genuine than the other stuff out there, which is kind of obvious as they are made by and for gamers…

Well, I didn’t only watch old stuff, I was also in the cinema a couple of times.
At first I thought I wouldn’t manage to see Mara und der Feuerbringer (Mara and the Firebringer), due to some scheduling issues in the marketing, but then I found out that it was screened in Greifswald and I took Schmusi and Anna from the HGWAnime with me to see it and we had a lot of fun. Finally a German Fantasy movie that isn’t as stoic and flat as German movies tend to be, has interesting characters, an interesting plot and funny dialogues. With songs like Echter wahrer Held/True Genuine Hero by Schandmaul it also has a nice soundtrack. Schmusi first thought it was Jan Josef Liefers doing the singing until I told her it was the singer of one of the bands that first got me hooked on Metal. 😀
Anyway, if you get the chance: Definitely check this one out!

I also saw Melissa McCarthy’s latest flick Spy and laughed a lot, though we were wondering if the age level was appropriate for that movie, as it did have some nasty sequences. I went to check out Mad Max: Fury Road after all the praise it got on Tumblr and I wasn’t disappointed. The strange and staccato like cut of the movie was a bit confusing, but it was still fun to watch. More fun, however, was Ant-Man that I originally didn’t even want to see, but went along when Fairy and her boyfriend asked if we’d go and see it. After the changed tone in Age of Ultron this one was more focused on the humour than the seriousness of it all. I don’t regret seeing this one after all.

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

We’ll see when I’ll write another one of these…

PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #6

As there is again stuff that got in the way of finishing this post on time (an unplanned trip home and a concert), I decided that I will turn this into a more irregular series. So, with some delay I present to you the sixth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday which again covers more than one week.

What is this about?

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 23/24: (Watch Date: 14./21.05.)

They really did it…
They really went through with that ridiculous idea of having to kill off one of the most beloved characters… Even now two weeks later, there is still much discussion over on Tumblr and I kind of think this might become one of the things the fandom just doesn’t accept or will be in denial about for quite some time.
The best thing in The Prisoner, which was very minor redemption for what they did the previous episode was Dean’s line:

„I think it should be you up there — not her.“

I agree with him whole heartedly, as I’m getting more and more annoyed by Sam. Story-wise he brought Charlie into that predicament, he didn’t listen when he was told to stop.
Still, so much more and so many different things could have been done with the whole situation. I saw contemplations for the body to just be an illusion, I read theories that Rowena taught Charlie a spell that would have helped her, I also came across the simple fact that Charlie could have just climbed out of the window which was even suggested by actress Felicia Day herself.
But no. They didn’t do any of it.
As a writer myself, the excuse that this was where the story lead them doesn’t really work for me (and I know a thing or two about stories that develop into completely different directions from what was initially intended: *click*). The narrative of the Season so far let to many things, but not to kill off Charlie in the most undeserved way possible.
Despite that was there another good thing for the episode:
Dean is slowly breaking apart due to the loss – which could have been handled differently, but still – and Castiel confronts him and tries to stop him.
What I find most incredible about this is that Cas, a powerful angel that could have easily subdued a mark-controlled/afflicted Dean, did not go back on his words to not hurt him and did not fight back and let Dean pummel and threaten to kill him. This was a very strong way of displaying his loyalty beside the spoken „And everyone you know, everyone you love — they could be long dead. Everyone except me.“ (And yes I’m still not calling it Romance)
What I understand even less then Charlie’s demise was why they included a look into the backstory for for the (Franken)Styne family only to have Dean kill them off? They could have spent that time to explore how Charlie could have escaped…or with re-animating her…or many other things better than to include those idiots in the first place…
From all the Season finales I watched in the recent years Brother’s Keepers was one of the most disappointing and unsatisfying finales.
The whole narration of the episode stood in stark contrast to the Season’s narrative. The title screen shows Angelic Grace destroying Demonic Smoke, yet Castiel was nowhere near Dean when the mark-plot was resolved, neither was either involved in the spell that caused it (One could go out on a limp an argue that they meant the encounter between Castiel and Crowley, but that does not qualify in my book). As I contemplated some time ago did a lot point towards Castiel saving Dean from the mark by sacrificing his Grace.
But no they added the book, the Stynes and the witch to unlock a nasty spell that would remove it, but unleash something very bad that the mark kept in check. Thanks to Death we know this and while the Winchesters seemingly accepted that Dean would be sent to another plain and Sam killed, so he wouldn’t start rescuing Dean again, the whole thing was called off when Dean misses his brothers head, reaps the reaper instead and Rowena casts the spell. Bonus points for the communication skills, that caused this whole mess to go down… A short phone call would have sufficed to tell the others to stop, but no reaping first, then we see what happens…
The new threat, The Darkness, had a similar entry to the Demons at the end of Season Two, but I kind of anticipated that one of the openings would destroy Baby, but no such luck here either…
The writer’s seem to be telling their own story, regardless of the things the characters did or said before, there also seems the be some kind of memory blockage when it comes to repeating plot lines that have been explored before…
A part of me wants to know how they will continue from here, another part – the larger part – wants them to redo the last few episodes and write them according to the narrative of the Season…
Maybe I’ll join the Fanfiction author’s and try myself on a fix-it fic….

Undateable – Season Two, Episode 7-8: A Live Show Walks into a Bar (Watch Date: 15.05.)

I don’t really have to add anything to my assessment from last time, but I got someone from the HGWAnime hooked on the show when I talked about the funny live show in these episodes with many guest stars like the guys from Scrubs or Ed Sheeran. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who liked this live show, so Season Three will consists only of live shows…

Orange is the new Black – Season One; Season Two (Watch Date: 15-19./21.05.)

As I still had some time left on the trial run from Netflix after watching Daredevil I decided to check out this series.
And again I have to say that I am baffled at the quality that was displayed. It is incredible that a format that is not easily accessible puts so much effort into creating great content, when programs for the masses are carelessly shoved onto the audience.
There were few things I didn’t like watching the show (e.g. Chapman in regards to my I-don’t-like-main-characters-problem), but so many more things that I enjoyed. I’ll probably get into more details later on, but there are some things I’d like to say here already.
I really enjoyed the stories of the side characters, which where way more interesting than learning anything about Piper. The show also criticises society in every form and shape a lot and it is good and necessary critique.
But the thing that got me to enjoy the show even more than I already did, was the usage of my beloved mother’s tongue during the episode You also have a Pizza. 😀
This episode will get a special instalment of the Lost in Translation series as one of the few positive examples. I’m still excited about it…
Though they do well with all kinds of accents and languages from what I can tell.
As diverse as the languages is the cast, the characters and their backgrounds.
Simply put: It’s a brilliant show.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of it.
Though I wonder if I am the only person that thought Trisha looked like a female Joffrey Baratheon, even though the actors are apparently not related…

Elementary – Season Three, Episode 24: A Controlled Descent (Watch Date: 28.05)

Finally some actual plot beside the case, but it still hadn’t had the effect I would have liked. They only hinted at Sherlocks relapse and didn’t show much of the struggle he went through afterwards. For character development it would have been interesting to see that.
But now we can only wait for Season Four and the possible appearance of Holmes senior. Maybe they will do some more character exploration there again…

Once Upon A Time – Season Four, Episode 16-23 (Watch Date: 30./31.05.)

So I finally managed to catch up with OUAT, but my initial excitement for the new development regarding the villains soon subsided. I mean, I get why they included a reason for why they became the way they are, but some of it just felt cheap, disappointing and too rushed.
There also where some things that didn’t make sense to me:

Does the Clover-thing from Oz have a cloaking spell itself or why the hell did Robin not recognise that thing, when they made the baby?
Why did they even have to include another baby? o.O
And why does everyone keep using his name as if he was called Robinhood and not Robin Hood? They could just call him Robin…
How can a real-world heart scan not notice a heart that supposedly is close to turning into coal?
Why does every bad guy have to be on some kind of revenge trip? It’s getting boring…
Why did Emmas childhood friend Lily have to turn out to be Maleficent‘s daughter?
Where’s Belles back bone when it comes to switching between Will and Rumplestiltskin?
Why does Will even get involved with her, when we know from OUAT: Wonderland that he doesn’t have his heart and is in love with another? (Where in his time line are we?)
Why is everything connected?

If anyone has answers for any of the above questions, please let me know.
Other than that was it kind of obvious that The Sorcerer is non other than Merlin himself. Though I was more disappointed in the conclusion of the Happy Ending for villains plot. Ursula, Regina and Maleficent pretty much got theirs, Cruella was disposed of and Rumple released the Dark One. I think I’d be more happy for the two of the first three, if I had known them a bit longer and we still don’t know what consequences Rumple will now face without the Dark One and if he considers it to be a Happy Ending.
For the whole Dark One lore I had hoped they would have included something fancy like the Baba Yaga creating it or something, instead we got another evil smoke thing that was battled at the dawn of time by a powerful entity. Still, this finale was much more enjoyable than the other one (even though the smoke in SPN looked a bit like the curse-smoke from OUAT >_<) .

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I accidentally spoilered myself for Grimm, so I’m not sure when I’ll feel like catching up with it and as all these series now had their Season finales I’m probably checking out other stuff until their return. We’ll see.
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #5

Without warning I skipped two weeks of this thing, but not because I didn’t watch anything, but because of my Dad’s and, well, my Mum’s birthday. I just didn’t feel like writing this. So, with some delay I present to you the fifth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday which again covers more than one week.

What is this about?

Each Wednesday evening I will publish a post in which I collected the thoughts I had throughout the week while watching the latest or any episode of a series or maybe even a movie.
Depending on how my time allows it, the comment will also be for those that I watched that day.
You’re warned: There will be Spoilers.

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 19-21 (Watch Date: 23.04./01./07.05.)

The Werther Project was a strange episode. On the one hand did it give us another look at the Men of Letters and of course the return of Benny, but on the other hand did it just re-iterate things we already knew. We know Dean has pretty much given up on getting rid of the Mark and Sam shows more and more ruthlessness in his pursuit to still try. Still, nice to see Benny again – even though he wasn’t the real Benny – and his discussion with Dean was well handled and interestingly put back in Purgatory.
When I read the title for Angel Heart I expected something different. In a way did it concern Castiel’s heart, but not like I thought it would. Just some episodes ago in The Hunter’s Game we saw the return of Claire Novak, the daughter of his vessel and now she is back and searching for her mother. Well, they find her, but it’s not a happy re-union… Just let me say that it was nice to get some closure on this part of Castiel’s background, even though I’m not entirely sure it was necessary to get rid of Claire’s Mum like that, but I’m probably just a bid touchy right now when it comes to Mum’s.
Additionally, it again showed that not all angels are alike and that there are bad kinds that would rather harm humans than help them.
As for Dark Dynasty, apart from the ridiculous fact that they turned the already useless addition of the Styne family into the FRANKENstein family and that it was already obvious that keeping stuff from Dean would turn out bad – because it always does, is there only one thing I have to say about this episode and especially about its end:

NOPE.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D – Season Two, Episode 14-22 (Watch Date: April/May)

As I expected last time did I catch up with this show to be prepared for Avengers: Age of Ultron, though as the release in Germany was before the one in the States (again) the last piece of the puzzle was still missing when I went to the cinema.
Anyway, the episodes were again a roller-coaster. We finally found out, why May is called the Cavalry, we learned more about Skye and the Inhumans and many more.
Skye’s story was interestingly handled and even though there was a different kind of Mum-problem as in Supernatural, I really enjoyed Skye’s last interaction with her dad.
They also finally made good on the relationship between Fitz and Simmons, but in a weird way. While they finally interacted and talked again, was there still not the same spark that made them special in Season One. I really liked them back then, but now that Simmons has changed to a more cold-hearted and calculating person this is all really strange. It’s not like I want them to be together – that would ruin the beauty of their relationship, though that is already ruined – but I just want them to be normal around each other again and the little nods with the sandwich in Afterlife or their general interaction these last few episodes. Though, seemingly the love-bug has latched on Simmons from seeing Hunter nearly lose Bobbi and she seemingly had a change of heart regarding Fitz’s confession from the last Season finale and though I’m inclined to refer to my earlier assessment of Dark Dynasty to how they coped with it in this finale…
Apart from that do I still not get why anyone would even want to be around Ward. I just can’t stand that guy and his misguided, manipulative ways… It’s also beyond me why they kill off interesting characters and keep the awful ones… He is just such a shallow and boring character… [Edit: Forgot to add, that I already discussed this character in length over at Pop goes the Culture and I just don’t feel like adding more to it right now…]
And why does everybody have an agenda? This is just getting ridiculous…
Well, I guess we’ll see how the next Season will turn out, as it just has been renewed. (Like Agent Carter, YAY! :D)

Daredevil – Season One (Watch Date: 25./26.04.)

So, apparently I couldn’t help myself but to sign in on Netflix and watch the entire Season in two days…
I never really cared about Daredevil as a character, I’ve seen some stuff, watched that movie back in the day, but barely knew anything about him and I probably confused him with other heroes more than once. But with all the good Marvel did in their movies and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Agent Carter and all the stuff I’ve seen over at tumblr I got more and more curious.

And I wasn’t disappointed.
It’s a really great and interesting show and very different from all that Marvel has offered us so far. Where usually there is black and white the characters here are ambiguous to say the least, everyone could be seen as hero or villain, depending on the point of view. They have interesting characters on either side. Fisk and his right hand man were just as interesting as Matt and Foggy. Though I was surprised at how likeable the supposed bad guy was, how utterly annoying a wannabe journalist (Karen) and how fascinating a mere nurse (Claire) can be.

Most incredible is, however, the acting. It’s always hard for an actor to get into a role of a disabled person, but pretending to be a blind character that can see through his other senses, but pretends to see nothing, sounds like a pretty difficult job to me. And it was well done by Charlie Cox, whom I only knew through his role in Stardust.
The only thing I found strange was his American-English accent, it sounded so weird and when I re-watched Stardust – for the first time in English – the difference to his more British-English accent was clearly, well, visible would be a very bad pun, but I can’t think of any better word.
Though pretty much everyone did a great job.
I’m really looking forward to seeing more of this show, though I’m also curious what they will deal with story-wise as they already killed off one major character and interesting side characters and put the main villain in jail – though Marvel villains rarely stay in prison for long…
(P.S. In my first part of the post I accidentally wrote Datedevil, which sounds like a weird comedy show about dating…)

Undateable – Season Two, Episode 04-06 (Watch Date: End of April)

Speaking of really weird dating show: Some time during my break I discovered this show.
It’s weird, not always funny, weird and has a bunch of ridiculous characters and did I say weird?
They play a lot with stereotypes and prejudices, but there are also moments of utter ridiculousness. It’s fun to watch and you don’t really have to think much while doing so.
It’s a nice alternative to the other shows.

Elementary – Season Three, Episode 18-23 (Watch Date 04.05./11.05.)

Two shows about Sherlock Holmes pop up close to each other: One keeps close to the books, the other only takes the names and some basics. Well, and one has way more episodes than the other. But I won’t go into more detail as I want to make a comparison post between the two series one day.
Anyway, Elementary is an interesting crime show, with eccentric characters and weird puzzles. But this show falls in the footsteps of many other crime shows and repeats the same pattern over and over again. There is little development in the overall storyline and character development, there is just the crime solving. The only things that happened were the change in relationship between Holmes and his sober companion and the possible promotion for the police captain.
It’s just getting a tad bit boring.

Escape Artist- Season One, Episode 1 (Watch Date 30.04.)

In a recent rush of buying some DVDs I got my hands on this one. Unmei and I watched the first episode in German, but we didn’t get around to continue. British crime shows are very different to what we are used to here in Germany, but it is always interesting to watch.
The bad guy in this one seems utterly creepy and there was again a mother who didn’t make it to the end of the episode. The story deals with some quite interesting aspects of the works in court, so I’m curious how this will turn out.

The Pretender – Season One, Episode 13/14: Bazooka Jarod/Ranger Jarod (Watch Date: 23./27. 04.)

We also didn’t manage to continue with (re-)watching this one in German.
But we discussed that it would be highly unlikely that what Jarod does in the series in general wouldn’t be possible in a current day setting and it would also be quite hard to replace the actor. Michael T. Weiss just does a really great job at portraying the childish genius of this character.

Doctor Who – Season Three, Episode 11: Utopia (Watch Date 03.05.)

As I already got the Netflix account for Daredevil I used the chance to find out how they translated the phrase uttered by The Face of Boe to The Doctor that played a role again in this episode:

„You Are Not Alone“

Turns out they didn’t, at least not completely. They used the English phrase and gave the translation afterwards, but you still could make the connection to Professor Yana (aka The Master). I think this is a good choice as renaming the character would have been silly…
Translated the phrase reads: Du bist nicht allein, Therefore the name would be: DBNA and I doubt anyone would go by such a name… (The formal version Sie sind nicht allein would make even less sense: SSNA).
Anyway, please don’t ask me, why I started thinking about this, things like that just happen.

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

As you can see did I catch up with with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, as I went to see Avengers: Age of Ultron on the 26th of April. The cinema here actually played the original version once, beside the German dub. Thanks to them sending me into the wrong room when I wanted to watch Guardians of the Galaxy in English I now got to see AoU for free. 🙂
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #4

To get back into the flow of Blogging I present to you the fourth instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday and its new logo.

What is this about?

Let’s start

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 18: Book of the Damned (Watch Date: 16.04.)

Just like last week did Tumblr force me to catch up with this show. It’s just no use to get spoilered all over the place (I know you can block tags, but I’m too lazy for that).
I was mainly confused by the whole Book of the Damned plot. I mean Sam mentions the book back in There’s No Place Like Home and pretty much sends Charlie off to find it, but that’s about all of what we learn about it. Okay, it’s evil and written on the skin of an insane nun, but regardless of that we pretty much no nothing more than that it might me capable of helping Dean.
Also the inclusion of yet another party with the Styne family wasn’t well executed either – right now they feel as useless a side-plot as Cole. And why does it have to be a Nazi-support family again? I’m getting really tired of those…
When it comes down to it I think this episode had two good things:
#1: Charlie returned!
I really like Felicia Day. I first met her as Codex in The Guild, who is probably just as nerdy as Charlie, no Codex is nerdier…anyway, Felicia so far did not disappoint me in any of the roles I saw her in. With Supernatural her appearance always leaves me grinning, but also fearing that she will not see the end of the episode, both because she has a high likeliness of getting (badly) injured and the shows high amount of female(-lead) deaths…
It’s by the way interesting that Charlie’s real name is Celeste, which derives from the Italian name Caelestis, means nothing else than: „from the sky, heavenly“ or in other words: celestial. You could also count „Charlie“ as reference to Charlie’s Angels and get another direct connection to the other celestial beings – even if just by name.
So technically we had a gathering of the heavenly host at the Bunker, when Charlie and Castiel met for the first time this episode (Sorry, couldn’t resist that one…).
Speaking of celestial poultry:
#2: Castiel got his grace back!
While I still don’t like the behind-Deans-back part of the current story line, did I quite enjoy the dialogue between Castiel and Metatron.
Several times now it was implied that Castiel is not like other angels.

He is compassionate for (certain) humans (in particular).
He enjoys being around them
He willingly defies orders to do what he believes is the right thing to do.
He thinks in colours.
…

The way I see it, was the only reason his missing grace bothered him, was the fact that he couldn’t continue to help and felt useless and was even willing enough to die as punishment for what he had caused in Heaven. He also felt so bad when he took another angels‘ grace that he had pretty much given up and would have used it until nothing remained and he would get back to the point before he got it, but as he saw a glimpse of hope to restore his own grace, he took it.
But why did I like the conversation?
Metatron not just implied, but directly asked what Cas even is right now. They discuss – well Metatron has more or less a monologue about it – being human and show some of its perks. He doesn’t even consider Castiel to be an Angel of the Lord any more. At that point Cas is living on borrowed grace and not really following anyone’s orders but his own – and maybe the Winchesters. He also has experienced humanity in many different ways (being mortal himself, watching humanity, being with the Winchesters, …) So when we finally see Castiel’s wings again it is kind of a big shock.
When we first saw them back in Season Four a fan made this theory of the molting angel and that raising Dean from hell had quite an impact on him/his wings.
But now…well…his wings are barely existing any more and it is kind of terrifying. I can’t look at pictures of it without feeling bad for him…
But somehow, aside from the very bad state of his wings, do I kind of get the feeling – and judging from some theories regarding this Season’s intro others do as well – that Castiel will (have to) sacrifice his grace/himself to safe Dean from the Mark and become mortal in the process. It just seems like everything is pointing in that direction…

The Pretender – Season One (Watch Date: 16.-22. April)

Again I haven’t really gotten around to watch more than this…
But currently it is more the re-watch with Unmei in German.
It’s weird because some of the translations are quite different from the original. The best example would probably be the often quoted key-conversation between Miss Parker and Sidney regarding Jarod’s return to The Centre.

English:
Sidney: „The Centre wants him alive.“
Parker: „Preferably“
German:
Sidney: „Das Centre will ihn aber lebend.“ (But the Centre wants him alive)
Parker: „Wenn sie meinen“ (If you say so)

Aside from that is it difficult to answer Unmei’s questions, because even if I don’t answer to not spoiler her, she sometimes considers it an approval of her theory.
But it is interesting to see her reactions to some of things. For one does she not like the sinister grin Jarod has when he starts to plot the punishment/confession. I have to admit it is quite creepy, but it certainly fits. Though I do wonder why people don’t realize that his expression has changed throughout the revealing conversation…
Still, one thing is for sure: We would both never want to be on his bad side…

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

With Age of Ultron around the corner I think I’ll now have to catch up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as it is said that the story again leads to what happens in the movie.
We’ll see if I can manage to do that before going to the cinema.
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #3

Due to my long absence from Blogging this is only the third instalment of the What’cha Watching Wednesday, but also one that will span more than one week.

What is this about?

Let’s start

Grimm – Season Two, Episode 14: Bad Luck (Watch Date: ~21.03.)

When I felt a bit better I tried to regain some normalcy by catching up with the shows I watch. Grimm was one of them. Some time back I already talked a bit about the show (still have to re-write that post) and I also mentioned that I want to make another series about the weird usage of German words in it, but so far I didn’t get around to talk more about it.
What I also didn’t manage to do is catch up further.
I’m still a few episodes behind and this one is the last I saw (I tried watching Double Date, but stopped after ten minutes or so, because I didn’t feel like watching more).
Anyway, the episode put an interesting twist on the „Lucky Rabbits Foot“ myth, but took a weird turn on the actual story line.
I’m still not sure about the whole Juliet-turned-into-a-Hexenbiest plot, but I do believe this could turn out interesting, as they so far usually portrayed them as the evil/bad guys and with one of the good guys becoming this kind of Wesen they could gain some redeeming features – like they did from the get go with Monroe and Rosalee as good Blutbad/Fuchsbau. I know Renard is technically a Half-Zauberbiest, but he is still not as good as the other two in my book.
What I do not get is the new plot with Adalind. She is such an annoying character and now she is pregnant from the Grimm thanks to a One Night Stand under a spell? Yes, awesome plot. [/sarcasm]
Seriously, when has a weird-ass pregnancy ever been a good plot-devise?
I mean she isn’t even a good mother to the child she designed to have as insurance/bargaining chip and she gets a second child right away?
As harsh as it may sound, do I hope – for plots and everyone’s sake – that she loses the child.
As interesting as a Wesen-Grimm baby would be is this predicament something I do not need explored while they are dealing with other more interesting things.

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season Two, Episode 12/13: Who You Really Are/One of Us (Watch Date:~21.03.)

Skye struggles with her new powers, Bobbie and Mack reveal to Hunter who they really work for and Skye’s dad teams up with quite destructive forces.
Or simply put: This show gets more and more interesting and I just don’t feel like watching, as much as I want to. >_<
As for these two episodes: The glimpse at Mays back story with the appearance of her ex-husband was nice and gave her a little more depth. Though Skyes character development throughout the Seasons is by far the most explored. She now has people she sees as family and therefore rather harms herself than accidentally hurting them. It is not the healthiest of traits, but a good one to have.
Her path is understandable, what I didn’t understand was why Mack kidnapped Hunter to reveal that they are secretly working for the real S.H.I.E.L.D. He kind of lost credibility and sympathy points for that …
It just didn’t really make sense to me, but I guess it will be explained in the episodes I haven’t watched yet.
I really want to know how the Inhumans and the second S.H.I.E.L.D. story line come along, while trying to stay away from Spoilers, but I just can’t bring myself to watch the next episodes…

The Musketeers – Season Two, Episode 18: The Prodigal Father (Watch Date: ~21.03.)

Another series I probably haven’t mentioned yet.
I initially started watching this one because I wanted to see Peter Capaldi in a different role than the strange rival Doctor from Fortysomething and to see him in action before he became The Doctor.
The show is fun and interesting and the actors are great.
This episode focused a bit on Porthos, who soon became one of my favourites (in fact I’m even considering to change this guys‚ origins just so we could use him when Warlords get’s a screen adaptation one day >_< – though I’m afraid Howard Charles is a tad bit too short…).
It’s great to see a bit of his back story and have him show his wits for once. I mean, it is one thing to trust a newly found father, but it is a totally different thing to pretend to trust him, while still being loyal to the people, who became his family. I think this whole situation was handled quite well and as audience I did wonder were Porthos‘ loyalties lay, but I really liked the conclusion.
Rochfort on the other hand was the weird, creepy guy from the start and he now has his signature eye-patch and a plot to plan against the queen. As I haven’t seen the last two episodes of the Season I don’t know yet how it concludes, but I guess it will be interesting.
And just for the record: It was so weird when I heard the English pronunciation of the names the first time – especially d’Atagnon. Not that I’m doing any better at using the French way of their names – I can’t say Richelieu without nearly breaking my tongue – but it’s still weird…

Supernatural – Season 10, Episodes 15-17: The things they carried/Paint it Black/Inside Man (Watch Date: ~21.03./~Easter)

Logging on to Tumblr and not being spoilered for Supernatural is quite impossible, so I did manage/was forced to get up to date with this one.
I don’t really know what to think about the current story line. I never really felt connected to Sam and his character becomes more and more ruthless and dislikeable by the Seasons. Dean is supposed to be the Knight of Hell, that is coping rather well considering the circumstances, but Sam is human and that makes this an even more terrifying development.
After 10 Season they also have not learned that doing stuff behind the other ones back isn’t the best of ideas – though I liked seeing Bobby again and the whole plan they thought up was quite fun/interesting.
Though I still don’t really get the relevance of Cole. Sure he has a history with Dean and seeks/sought revenge and kind of reflects how many Hunters came into their world from a different perspective, but it is still kind of annoying…
By the way: My Review for the Second Season of Supernatural was recently published over at Extremis Reviews.

Once Upon a Time – Season Four, Episodes 14-16: Darkness on the Edge of Town/Unforgiven/Enter the Dragon (Watch Date: ~23.03)

As I mentioned before (another re-write worthy post) did I get hooked onto this series quite fast. Now it’s into its fourth Season and many things have happened since then.
Though a few things remained unchanged for me: Regina is still my favourite character and I still don’t like the Charmings. If any of the enormous cast deserves a Happy Ending it’s the (no longer) Evil Queen. Yes, she did some really bad things, but throughout the Seasons she has done a lot to redeem herself and we’ve seen that a lot of what she did was due to a twisted sense of vengeance.
Unlike the Frozen storyline do I enjoy the current turn to the search for the author and focus on the bad guys. Rumpelstiltskin got quite dull throughout the Seasons and is now finally getting back to his former glory, even though his actions are quite cowardly, which is his theme anyway.
We also got some new villains trying to get their turn at a Happy Ending. I really like their portrayal and back story so far. It really makes the actual story line more and more interesting again. The only things I wonder is who would date a Dragon (And why does everyone need to be related in some way? o.O)? And how much time has passed since Rumpel was exiled, that Belle is already seeing someone else? (Another subtraction from the sympathy points)
Still, I couldn’t get myself to continue watching as well…

The Pretender – Season One-Four + Movies (Watch Date: March/April)

Well….the only thing I currently seem to be able to watch is this old show…
When I was a teenager I caught some episodes on television and really liked what I saw. For quite some time now I wanted to watch the whole series and now as I didn’t want to tarnish the other series I’m following by watching them with a heavy heart I decided to catch up with this one. (I also tried Parks and Recreations to get my mind off of things, but I got kind of bored after the first Season)
I do believe there will be a separate post about it one day, but let me tell you this: It is surprisingly helpful when trying to cope with the loss of a loved one. The series deals a lot with these kind of things and portrays some great life values.
It’s also quite funny and has many interesting characters, just the main story line gets weirder and weirder by the Season/episode…I mean, like, really weird, Adalinds-baby-is-normal-in-comparison-weird…
I still started to re-watch it now in German with Unmei and occasionally re-watch one of the English episodes, as this is still the only thing I feel like watching at the moment…

What were you watching?

What episodes (or movies) did you enjoy/dislike throughout the week/month?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I hope I can get back to watching stuff like I used to, but right now I have this enormous watching-block (just like writer’s block only with shows – only that I’m also having a writer’s block right now when it comes to stories…) whenever I think about starting an episode. I really hope this gets better, but I’m not sure if there will be another instalment next week.
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday #2

And we continue with the second instalment of What’cha Watching Wednesday.

What am I going to do?

Let’s start

Sleepy Hollow – Season Two, Episode 18: Tempus Fugit (Watch Date: 26.02.)

Well, last week I ranted about not liking Katrina’s character development and now she’s dead…
But frankly I care more about how Ichabod will deal with having lost both his wife and his son on the same day, than about their actual passing. In regards to characterization both of them were spent: Henry’s story expired with him turning against Moloch, and her grief was turning Katrina useless.
It’s a pity the writers decided to move her that way, as she would have been a good magical addition to the team, but like this it seemed more like they were going for love-triangle (or square if you include the Headless Horseman).
I really hope they wont turn Abbie and Ichabod into a couple, that would so ruin their chemistry…
Though while getting rid of a stagnating character was a nice turn of events, it also felt a bit rushed and we unfortunately did not stay in the 19th century for long…
It was only a one time deal. 🙁
At least as far as this season goes, who knows what they’ll come up with if the series is renewed for a third season.
Just like Agent Carter, I do hope it will be.
The premise is just too interesting to be dropped…

Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – Season Two, Episode 11: Aftershocks (Watch Date:04.03)

So, Agent Carter finished and now the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are back and I have to say that it was a nice start into the second half of the season.
Not too rushed, but not too slow either, some of the lose ends were brought to a nice conclusion, though I still don’t like that they killed off Trip. Back then it felt like such a wasted death, but with Skye struggling to comprehend her change it gains some meaning.
Bobbie and Mac seem to plan something bigger, might even be Hydra spies, Fitz protects Skye’s secret from Simmons, who seems to be a little too forward with her solution for what happened.
I always liked Fitz and Simmons and their chemistry, but since their separation and the weird re-union, I prefer Fitz on his own. He seems to still have the compassion, Simmons is currently lacking, though I do hope his condition will improve soon, as it is a bit tiring to see him helpless each episode – and yes I know it was a heavy injury, but characterization-wise does it get boring soon.
All in all some interesting developments and nice character development in this episode.

What were you watching?

What episodes or movies did you enjoy throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

Things have gotten in the way all week, so unlike I anticipated, again only two episodes.
PoiSonPaiNter

What'cha Watching Wednesday

Soo….as I’m following a couple of series and the Reading Together works quite well for keeping track of thoughts regarding my current reads and I kind of did something like this with this post already, I thought, it was high time that I rant a bit about what I’ve seen in the past week in a more appropriate setting.

What am I going to do?

Let’s start

Sleepy Hollow – Season Two, Episode 17: Awakening (Watch Date: 19.02.)

I do believe I haven’t mentioned yet that I am watching this series, but tadaa: I do.
It’s a really interesting concept and even though it had me confused more than once throughout the first season, do I still enjoy it.
It has great characters and interesting foes.
Anyway, from the beginning I kind of felt odd about Katrina. She never really fit into the group or at least tried to fit in and her arrogance and stubbornness made her dislikeable to me. Her whole obsession with Henry/Jeremy(, whose own madness is brilliantly portrayed by John Noble, though the portrayal does remind me of his role in Fringe) is just so…annoying…for a lack of a better word. She just doesn’t want to move on and keeps going in circles characterization-wise, up to the point were she drives herself quite mad. I get that she is a mother, but that’s just weird character development.
Though there is one upside to this: A set-switch to the 18th century, with Abbie now being in the wrong period!
Can’t wait for the next episode to see that happening and I just hope it wont just be a one time deal…

Agent Carter – Season One, Episode 8 – Valediction (Watch Date 25.02.)

I can’t believe this season is already over…
When I read last week that the upcoming episode would be the finale I was utterly shocked. It was far too soon to leave Peggy (and Jarvis I feel the need to add him here).
It’s such a fun and great and cool series and Hayley Atwell is just such a beautiful and brilliant actress. James D’Arcy does a great job as well and it’s just such a joy to watch those two interact.
Right after the first episode aired I wanted to watch more and I dearly hope the series will be renewed for another season – and many more after that.
The finale followed the slow narration of the previous episodes, but it is still packed with action and incredible fight scenes. It’s just fun to watch.
I really enjoyed the progress Peggy’s colleagues Thompson and Souza made in regards to their view on her, and even the late chief towards his end (that kind of still doesn’t bother me). Though I have to admit, that I find it confusing that in this series the characterization tables are turned.
Where there is barely any depth to the women in pretty much every show or movie, here the men are portrayed quite shallow. (Hence my apathy regarding Dooley’s passing)
For a series that does so much good in terms of representation (especially for women) this is a bit unfortunate. Still, this might as well have been due to the low amount of episodes, as we did get a few glimpses at the main male side characters‘ actual personalities.
But all in all great series and a great finale.
And I really want to see more of Peggy’s adventures!

What were you watching?

What episodes or movies did you enjoy throughout the week?
Anything you’d recommend checking out?
Let me know in the comments below!

Final Words

I start a new regular thing and I nearly managed to only watch one episode the entire week. Go me! Luckily I couldn’t resist watching the finale of Agent Carter right away, so you get two thought-thingies.
Next week will most likely be more, as I now have to catch up with all the episodes I’ve missed.
PoiSonPaiNter