sethos

HBO over here just started broadcasting one of HBO Brazil's shows, "Mandrake," about a shady lawyer in Rio. the amount of naked brazilian ladies on display is staggering. the title character is about as unlikeable as Hank Moody, total womanizing asshole with no morals but willing to take a lot of punches for his clients. I really don't know how I feel about it. The show opens with a quote about the moral depravity of society (from a text from 1796), and the show paints a bleak picture of the emptiness of (brazilian) lawyers and the general upper class. It's certainly different.

Revolution was pretty good again this week. you can't help but feel it would have been much better on HBO, AMC or Showtime, but it's still very entertaining (though they need to write Charlie better, less whiney). I'm kind of surprised that the story is moving at this pace with next week's preview showing off a confrontation between Uncle Miles and Gus Fring.

Oh man, I'm going to be chuckling over the latest Sons Of Anarchy for a little while...[ Spoiler : Venus Van Damme! ]. The look on Fat Elvis' face during THAT whole scene was amazing.

That was indeed hilarious. Shane is alive and a transsexual hooker. but it was all very heavy handed in its "look, we're such rascals, destroying a fat guy's life for profit, haha, we're so funny by making gay jokes with this kid.. oh shit, here's a sliced off breast and finger, this shit is all serious!" plotting. and the Gemma and Tara plotlines are even more atrocious than previous seasons. I'm still checking in sporadically, but I usually fast forward half the episode. that's what you get for killing off Opie.

Pilot for Vegas wasn't great, the lead chap was a little too old and wasn't at all convincing when it came to throwing down.

 

 

How was Chiklis? He'd be the primary reason I'd watch this

too soon to tell, first episode was more like a typical procedural than 60s Vegas version of Boardwalk Empire (or indeed, an updated version ofthe great Crime Story series). And surprisingly not very convincingly menacing for the man who gave us Vic Mackey. I thought Quaid was okay as Lamb, but the first episode didn't grab me at all.

First episode of Dexter ss7 was the best the show has been in years! moved a lot faster than I expected, with

 

Was this ever released in English? I'd be interested in reading it for sure if it was.

Yes, it was released in the UK by Selfmadehero, in the US by Abrams. it's pretty good. a bit slight and you won't find any new insights into his life, but it's a great biographical comic of Cash's life and it includes some great wordless adaptations of some of his songs.Also, Kleist is a great artist, really captures Cash's likeness without being too cartoony or realistic.

I enjoyed it. the emotional centre was there, but the plotholes (could nobody see the Statue of Liberty walking around the city??? couldn't the Doctor just go back a few years later and pick up Rory and Amy? etc etc) were very annoying.

I really thought Opie's death was cheap and unearned. Basically Sutter just saying "look, I can kill off characters!".

I did like the Last Resort pilot quite a bit. Also, I didn't hate the first episode of Elementary, which surprised me greatly.

well, that's me done with Sons of Anarchy, I think. [ Spoiler : killing off Opie, pretty much the only likeable character left, is a huge mistake in my book. ]

Revolution's second episode was okay, but nothing earth shattering. still too much Lost with flashbacks and shadowy conspiracies. I like the "let's assemble a team of RPG cliches" plotline though (Charlie's the ranger, Miles the fighter, Maggie the cleric, Nora the thief/engineer and Aaron the.. I don't know, lore master?). plus, the show really shines in its fight scenes, though nothing as good this week as last week's big fight (I guess that's what happens when you get Jon Favreau to direct your pilot?).

 

The girl's name is Clémence Poésy. She has been in the Harry Potter movies (which I haven't seen). She was the bigger of the two girls in 127 Hours, which shocked the fuck out of me. She seemed tiny in In Bruges.

She wasn't one of the two girls, she was the girlfriend in the flashbacks. just so you know ;-)

Only new game I've played this whole year is Journey That was terrific though.

gonna get a US PSN card to buy Odin Sphere as a PS2 Classic, I think. maybe Tokyo Jungle, that one looks so bizarre. Also, very interested in Far Cry 3. Really enjoyed the second game, warts and all. looks like they've taken care of most of the problems in this sequel (mainly, the respawning enemy checkpoints and the malaria). Gonna wait for reviews on Assassin's Creed 3, but it's looking good.

Still have to find Dragon's Dogma or that Dark Souls: Prepare To Die edition on the cheap...

Sons Of Anarchy's gotten off to a great start, two really good episodes - this is really a series that lives or dies by the strength of its antagonists and Pope's a proper bastard so I think we're in for some good times. Jimmy Smits really shone in the second episode, his manic glee at being back in the thick of it gave me a grin.

 

Speculation but it seems pretty obvious to me that Clay's planning on regaining control of the Sons and that the three new guys are all his.

worried that the whole thing about the marriage/birth certificates is going to go into something like "Jax isn't John Teller's real son" bullshit. After the copout of ss4's climax, I just can't get excited about the show anymore. You just know that whatever happens, there will be a giant fake out at the end.

Other stuff I'm watching:

Louie: still excellent but not so much funny as just terrific storytelling.

Revolution: I don't know. that swordfight versus a shitload of guys looks great (very Assassin's Creed-esque, in fact), but other than that, the show is too much Hunger Games mixed with Lost for me. I'll stick around for a few more episodes.

Boardwalk Empire: great season opening, can't wait where they are going after last season's brutal climax.

Any new series coming up people are interested in? Only thing that is really on my radar is the final season of Fringe.

because I forgot to post this last week:

Yeah, bitch! MAGNETS!

cracked me up big time.

I loved Bisley's artwork, but this will be my final issue of Hellblazer till a new writer pops up: atrocious stuff.

If anyone hasn't seen (former Catwoman artist) Cameron Stewart's interpretation of what that Catwoman cover pose would look like from the side, it's worth seeking out. Don't have time to find the link now, but it shouldn't be hard to find.

oh, I know it's completely unrealistic. but it looks (and hopefully plays) awesome. it's a videogame about a guy living through his ancestors' memories of conspiracy stretching back to the Garden Of Eden, I'm not really looking for realism.

I like those first bunch of target demo thingies for the next gen consoles. thatFinal Fantasy one is pretty stunning looking, and looks almost as good as a CGI flick, apart from some jaggies on display. That said, it's all empty graphics stuff.

Pretty much all of E3 is very disappointing. it seems that every game not by Nintendo is in competition to "out-gore" each other, with very nasty stabbings and all appearing in every new game. The only game where it looks like violence isn't presented as entertainment is The Last Of Us (though certainly, that is some very nasty violence on show):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZYkj0glnqs

That said, Assassin's Creed III looks great, especially the naval battles. looks like I finally get a Master & Commander game

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpBL-g9-Ss4

That's the worst news, well no, that's some shitty ass fucking news. Are you sure you aren't being overly critical? My weekend hinges on that movie. Sort of.

 

How Ridley Scott do this to me? To us?

sorry man, that really is how I feel about it. the first half to two thirds work well enough (but for a large part due to the "ohh, that's the music from Alien!" and "ohh, space jockey!" bits) but the script really is dumb.

there are a couple of great scenes, but a lot more that were filled with characters making dumb decisions, speaking in cliched dialogue etc.

ALIEN transcended its haunted house origin with great characters, tight plotting and a superb monster. Prometheus destroys its hard scifi goals with cardboard characters, nonsensical plotting and boring creature designs.

maybe you'll have a different opinion on the film (maybe because now your expectations will be lower than mine were when I saw it), but every friend I've spoken to so far was really disappointed by it.

Prometheus: huge disappointment. starts out strong, but sputters out with a stupid, lazy script, wooden characters (apart from the terrific Michael Fassbender) and so-so designs (the ship and tech is all very good, but the creatures are beyond bland with

Yes, it looks good, but that is about it. it never transcends its b-movie nature, no matter how fancy it looks, unlike Alien (the movie which it not just related to, but whose basic structure seems to be lifted for the first 45 or so minutes. it also lifts huge amounts of material from The Thing, the works of HP Lovecraft and, with design of some of the creatures, the atrocious Dreamcatcher). severely disappointing and oin top of that it (spoilers for the end of the flick)

between this week's Mad Men and Game of Thrones, I don't think there will be a better single day of tv this year. holy shit.

I've seldomly seen reviews as divisive as the ones for Dragon's Dogma! I enjoyed the demo but those two short parts of the game did point out one thing I'm worried about: for an open world game, the battle gameplay does seem to be very one note (climb big baddie and hit him a lot). plus, the repeating voicework for your pawns. seems to be a bit too much going on at any one time. so, unsure whether to buy this one or not.

Isn't Brandon Graham the guy who used to script a lot of the Wildstorm stuff early on?

Beautiful art samples: rather Moebius looking...

no, Graham has previously done the truly fantastic King City (get the collection from Image Comics, it's great value for money) and Multiple Warheads one shot for Oni. He's a great artist. man, was that first Farel Dalrymple issue good or what? That guy is so good (the art for the first 3 issues was pretty amazing as well). Image is just killing it right now, with Saga, Glory, Orc Stain (infrequent as it may be), Fatale and Prophet.

strongly disagree: there was a great Firefly comic by Dark Horse with art by Fabio Moon (though in the same comic there was also a rather lame Han Solo/Chewbacca story), Archaia had a free HARDCOVER (!!) with Moue Guard, Labyrinth and other stories which was lovely, and I several others by the smaller publishers sounded great too.

I don't think I'll laugh harder at a scene in a film this year than during "puny god".

I think I made the comparison before but he's a latter day Gemmell, which is a big compliment from me.

Yeah, I can totally see that. Gemmell was even more sparse in his storytelling though. another reason why I love Legend so much.