Daredevil - TV Show [Netflix]

Hero stories are always fun to watch. That, for me, is a given. I especially like when they have a bit of realism in them. For example, take the recent series that got released to the world in all its dark and delicious glory, Daredevil.

This series was more a ‘how he was made’ kind of story. I know there’s a term for that, but let’s leave it at that for now.

This series takes your average hero story and adds a dark tone to it, which keeps in line with the comic books. A thing I’m sure excited many fans. I must admit it interested me to some extent. We see our fresh-faced lawyer Matt Murdock and his partner, Foggy Nelson, opening up their amateur practice in the belly of hell’s kitchen as they venture to do the right thing in the wrong city.

But our sight impaired lawyer has some exciting extra-curricular activities outside of the law that he participates in at night that really makes for our story’s juicy bits. Except it isn’t the suited up version we know just yet, instead it is a man dressed all in black running around doing all he can to keep his city safe, while he barely considers the consequences to his own safety.

I like that they focused on the person before the hero as they showed, slowly, how he came to be the devil of hell’s kitchen before earning his hero’s title. There is something endearing about watching him fail as he struggles to always come out at the top as he stumbles into a larger game being played by the bigger bosses that run the corruption in hell’s kitchen.

Ah, but the bigger bosses were also something to be curious about. I must admit off the bat though that I was very disappointed by the character that would no doubt become the infamous Kingpin. Initially introduced as the man who no one could say the name of for a time, we have Wilson Fisk, who is supposed to be intimidating on appearance and such.

Though he began to grow on me near the end, I still found his right hand man more of lovable villain than him. James Wesley portrayed the characteristics of a man running a criminal organization far more than his boss and frankly I am very saddened by the way he was dealt with in the show. I personally feel the man deserved much more than that.

As for the other big bosses that stood in Matt Murdock’s way to get to Fisk, I felt like they could have been given more screen time. More episodes could have been squeezed out of these encounters, but I suppose what was given was good story that refused to be compromised by lengthy, unnecessary battles. Plus our poor vigilante could hardly take all the beatings without his gear acquired.

It was also nice to see that the other characters had a chance to get some character development and excitement in their lives as they did some gallivanting on their own and got entangled here and there as the story progressed further. Though I admit Foggy could have been given just a bit more development on screen instead of off screen.

Overall the show was a winner for me and I really hope a season two is in the works, especially with lots more episodes ordered. The tone is nicely set and the suit that our vigilante eventually gets gifted with is amazeballs. The only thing needed now is for the villain, our infamous Kingpin, to actually bring it in terms of acting and character and then we have a golden series.

Angry Mom - KDrama

There’s something about school drama’s that has me hooked recently and I don’t know what it is, but whatever it is, it has lead me to this interesting drama that addressed some serious issues in the Korean schools and honestly, in both my opinion and experience, schools in general.

Angry Mom follows the story of a fairly young mother who discovers that her daughter is the unfortunate victim of school violence and like most caring maternal figures she feels something must be done about it, despite the lengths her daughter tries to go to hide everything from her. 

After trying everything in the book to bring the situation to attention, despite her daughters lack of participation and consent, she discovers there is nothing much that can be done and nothing much anyone else is willing to do either as she quite conveniently comes across various situations that show her how the system, both educational and law enforcement, ultimately fails to protect the children.

Faced with the reality that things can’t always be done by the book, the mother struggles to come to terms with the fact that she is powerless to help her child, a thing most mothers have to face on a daily basis. But unlike most mothers, our lead takes things into her own hands and with the help of some eccentric friends, disguises herself as a student and infiltrates her daughter’s school.

As she sets out to confront the one she suspects of tormenting her child, she stumbles into a much larger scandal that runs deeper into the school and reveals just how corrupt and dirty the system really is.

This drama gripped me by the eyeballs and glued them to the screen slowly as the plot unraveled though I have to admit to some slow, irritating moments that dragged a bit, the overall story is quite fascinating to watch.

I find the main lead to have a well-rounded character that keeps me interested as she struggles to protect her daughter but also isn’t so strong against the corruption that surrounds them. It hits the feels spot to watch her struggle with the realities that most mothers in the real world most likely face daily without the determination our protagonist has.

The other characters are also fun to watch and fall in love with as you find them crawling into your heart slowly as their stories get fleshed out, for example the delinquent that our Angry Mom first set out to deal with – Ko Bok Dong.

I definitely recommend this drama to anyone looking for a school life drama with a bit of meaning and plot mixed into it. I am also very interest to see where this drama takes its story in terms of the corruption and our Angry Mom, will she be able to overcome all those obstacles or won’t she? It’s kind of exciting stuff!

Tokyo Ghoul - Anime

In the many anime that I have been watching recently I have noted a significant amount of them lacking in one thing that has had me quite irritated and that has been character development. Sure they had some decent story and/or surprise plot, maybe lots of fan service or even a bit of moe factor to keep one distracted for a time. But the juicy bits of the trial and tribulation that make up an individual’s character and make you feel for them, has just been lacking… or at least for me it has.

Until this happened…

Tokyo Ghoul blew me away with its first season of which I finished in a day. The struggle we watch the tragic protagonist, Kaneki, go through is rich with so many developing points that build his character and break it down at the same time that it’s hard not to get drawn into his world and mind as you follow his story.

It starts out almost mundane as you watch a seemingly background character get dragged into a dangerous situation that almost costs his life then it turns out that he happens to be the main guy. It’s an interesting twist.

From mundane to suddenly dragged into the strange, we watch as Kaneki is thrown into panic as he begins to realize he might not have survived his attack unscathed as he notices certain changes.

It’s exciting to see how he deals with everything mentally in a world that hates ghouls and here he is, being something in-between. The conflict is interesting, especially as he gets to know more and more ghouls and they turn out to be totally different to what the news makes them out to be.

Then you have that ending of the first season and the sudden transformation Kaneki is forced to undergo. All I can say is…omg.

Who the hell ends a series off like that!?

Anyway, Season 2 followed and I must say I became a little confused by a few things. I felt like I missed some pieces of information.

Character development slowed down in this season, so it wasn’t as good as the first. It was as if the first season built up to this and this was meant as the execution. Whether that execution worked is up for debate.

Personally, I think it was a good season 2. That being said I expect a season 3 to exist simply because I feel like season 2 didn’t explain too much, or show too much other than some pretty cool fighting and some feel moments.

Season 2 focused less on Kaneki as it spread out to other characters and storylines, but I feel like the overall plot wasn’t highlighted enough and if you didn’t read the manga, like me, you’d be a lost fish swimming in a big fish tank waiting to see some coral at some point only to be fed some flakes every now and then and then fished out of the tank suddenly.

But that ending though, I cried. 

It was a good anime to watch. I’m glad it found its way across my eyeballs and I will definitely hope for a season 3, though something tells me I shouldn’t hold my breath for that.

Extant - TV Show [CBS]

Science fiction is always an interesting genre to watch, but that’s not what’s so great about it. What’s great is its rich variety of content and constant growing fan base that exists. Recently I watched a TV show that most likely tried to appeal to both sci-fi fans as well as a group of other fans of the movie world as it starred Halle Berry.

Now whether or not the blockbuster name was supposed to carry most of the story into the limelight while the acting and plot did the rest, I don’t know but what I can say is that the name dropping probably didn’t hurt in the conception phase during the production of this show.

The story follows an astronaut in a futuristic world who has just returned from a solo mission that sets various things in motion as she struggles to come to terms with the fact that she’s pregnant. Things get hairy as her superior, who seems to have left key details out from the real reason behind her mission, tries to kidnap her and she is forced to go on the run in order to find the truth about what happened to her up amongst the stars.

However, that’s not all the fun twists and turns in this sci-fi as it turns out that our astronaut was originally unable to have children and thus her and her husband, a scientist himself, decided to take in Ethan –an artificial intelligent android that he created.

As far as sci-fi TV shows goes I have to be honest, Extant fell pretty flat for me. There were too many factors in play, what with the discovery of alien life that just so happen to be trying to kill everybody and then the whole android son dilemma where our little guy gets manipulated by a devious third party who hates AI’s and thinks machines are going to take over the world thing, it all felt a bit like a drawn out movie that someone squeezed a TV show deal out of because the movies of this type of content have been done to death.

It was interesting for a past time, in which I mean I had this running in the background while I was doing other stuff, but as a show that I had to sit down and focus on for the whole 45 minutes….just a bit tricky.

The acting wasn’t terrible and the effects were decent, so at least there was that. However, if I had to suggest this to other people, I’d have to say, go in with low expectations and judge for yourself. Who knows, maybe you like it more than I did?

Fast & Furious 7 - Movie

The seventh instalment of the fast and the furious movie franchise was always going to be a movie to have high expectations for, after all it would be the last movie we all got to see the late Paul Walker in and most likely all the others gathered for. So needless to say most movie goers went to the cinema expecting gold or at least a shiny silver and after accompanying a group of friends and family recently to go watch the movie I must say, it did not disappoint.

The racing crew delivered, in my opinion, quite a nice feature film in both acting and story as they tackled a revenge plot and a little side plot of one of their own recovering lost memories. For what it generally was, a racing movie with cars and girls, it gave good action shots with some daring stunts and some interesting location shots.

The cars were beautiful and the women were breath-taking as we followed the story where we find the crew being hunted by the brother of the man they took down in a previous film. As Dom so nicely puts it, ‘the sins of London have followed us home…’

Their hunter proves to be a deadly opponent as it turns out he happens to be a ‘ghost’ assassin, feared even by the people who created him, so basically your average bad guy that everybody is scared of.

But Dom and the family aren’t left alone to face this new threat as a secret, no name, shadow group approaches them to offer their services to help them deal with this new bad guy… so long as they do them a tiny little favour. I find this turn of events was just a convenient way to give the group the toys they would need to do the cool stunts and action scenes they would do later on in the movie, plus an excuse to go travelling to the beautiful locations they end up in.

The acting was on point with their respective characters that I am sure they have fully embraced at this point in the franchise. There was also a notable sombre tone that was underlined in the end of the movie for obvious reasons that took time to let the actors say a last goodbye to their late friend that made for a somewhat happy ending that still had you reaching for a tissue or two.

So all in all, it was a good action movie that satisfied the hunger for action, cars and sexy ladies. Plus the story was laid out, filled in and tied up all with a pretty bow. What more could you ask for?

Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso - Anime

I’d like to think of myself as a rational human being. You know, one who knows real from imaginary, but recently I found myself bawling my eyes out as I watched an anime from start to finish in just over a day. It was as if rationality abandoned me and I powered through those episodes like a starved animal who has just been handed a juicy steak.

Watching Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso was an interesting experience as it deviated from all the action and harem anime I’ve been bombarded with lately but I have to admit it was a refreshing change. The anime hooked with both story and visual brilliance, not to mention amazing soundtrack, as it leads into a more real world tone with deep underlying messages and strong character building and without the usual fan service and magical battles here and there.

Though that’s not to say the show didn’t have its own type of magic in the way they delivered the score of classical music that forms part of the storyline.

The story follows a boy who is a genius at the piano but loses the ability to hear himself play, and a girl who is a violist who doesn’t care for convention but instead for the love and miracle that is music. It’s a simple story that has the two meeting under unusual circumstances only to grow close and help each other along the way and grow out of their certain circumstances.

It’s a beautifully written story that draws you in and captivates you with all the colour of its characters and their struggles. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so invested in an anime like this so I have to give props to the creator of such a brilliantly executed tale of romance, drama and mystery.

Following the struggle of the main character, who I’ll affectionately call Friend A, you see a variety of things from comedy to unrequited love and then heartbreak, all of which never gets boring even when the classical music aspect is brought in. But most of all you feel his sorrow and trust me you’ll cry with him, unless you’re a heartless human person.

Then you have the bright love interest that brings colour into our protagonist’s life and you get to experience some more comedy, maybe a few ‘WTF’ moments as you try to figure out the true nature of her relationship with Friend A and then there’s that amazing duet between out pianist and violinist that both moves your heart and breaks it.

However, it doesn’t end there as even our so-called side characters get some decent development as they grow throughout the anime and find themselves as well. This anime manages to break people and build them back up in a matter of a few episodes, showing more character development than some other anime have in whole seasons.

What’s surprising about this anime is you don’t need to be some classical obsessed nerd to love it, or at least that’s my opinion. You just have to want to see something good. That’s it.

So I’d say this is a pretty good anime to watch whenever you have time, and if you don’t have time – make time.