666 Park Avenue Episode 4 "Hero Complex" Review

666 Park Avenue will probably be cancelled due to low ratings, however the show has been putting out a quality product for weeks now and is often ignored. It is not a noticeably scary show however more of a mystery show.

This episode however focused on Henry moreso than Jane and developed the character Nona a little more. This episode had 2 main story arcs and the sub arc involving the suitcase that Jane stumbled upon in the previous episode.

The main story arc of the two was Henry and Gavin's conflict that arose due to the investigation into Gavin's affairs. I felt this was a little far-fetched for starters and was poorly developed. Henry's decisions come with very little to no character develop whatsoever. We saw him make a choice with his back up against the wall, however I doubt what his employers wanted him to do was break into Gavin's place and illegally seize material. Also the adolescent teen boy hides his indecent material on his parents computer better than Gavin hides potentially damaging business deals. This made no sense, that someone as intelligent as Gavin would just conveniently have a file on his laptop labeled "Greenpoint Towers." Also while Henry making the decision to obtain this by illegal means was not likely, it was very likely that he would leave part of it behind for Gavin to magically find. Again, a very predictable outcome with your typical "hero" and "villian" conflict. This story was the least interesting until the end which will be addressed, but first it is necessary to talk about the second story line, that of Nona's.

I was happy to finally see a resolution with the Drake thief, yes it occurred conveniently however at this point if you have not suspended the belief that everyone will conveniently run into each other in the lobby you should just stop watching, it will happen as these people are all running around all the time and it is perfectly reasonable for someone to stop and talk to the receptionist about losing her sunglasses. However what I find hard to believe is that Nona would conveniently wear them just minutes after stealing it, this is just careless on her part however it did further the story line, albeit by a lazy method. I am willing to give this more leniency than Henry's story line partly because I just wanted it to advance finally. It was nice to get some information about Nona's background, which I wont delve into because I am trying to review and not summarize so much. Once all the items were being returned everything was better, and Rachel got a nice bit of information from Nona which contributed to the good conclusion.

The conclusion brought us back to last weeks story with the writer who whatever she writes comes true, it was nice to see this bleed over into this weeks story and it was nice to see what Gavin got from the deal, surely someone who could write any story and it be real could be very helpful, especially in this case when he is feuding with Henry's boss. The warning by Nona to Rachel really strengthened their relationship, as it came true and now Rachel knows a little more about her and can relate to her because of being separated from her parents. This was a nice and fitting conclusion, you saw Henry come to his senses which was within character, Gavin to say "oh well he made one mistake"(convenient answer), and Rachel to develop her relationship with Nona.

It was nice to see the suitcase finally get opened however, although you have to feel bad for the little girl since she just did not want him out. It also was nice to see the Drake controlling other people and transporting them or making them do stuff to people besides Rachel. It is truly powerful and most people do not even remember. It could bring about the question is Gavin in charge of the Drake or is the Drake in charge of Gavin?

This episode used some very convenient methods of storytelling to advance a plot(I am not holding the seeing everyone in the lobby as an excuse) I still think it was a weak episode for the series so I will have to give it an 6.0/10.

Ultimate Comics: Spiderman #16 review

I found this issue very lacking for several reasons, however by the end of it Miles seems to FINALLY be a part of the main plot that is dominating the Ultimate series.

My main complaint about Miles has been he lacks a rogue gallery and each new issue that fails to capitalize on this will suffer in my mind. I really do not see where Marvel is going with this series at the moment, although it appears they want to make him a member of the Ultimates, however my question then becomes why? Why have Spider-man fighting the same exact villians every single hero in the Ultimate Universe is fighting at the moment.

The series started off strong with the Prowler and had some pretty powerful moments, but this issue just continues the sub par storytelling that just keeps being compounded month in and month out. It took them how many issues just to get him to become a member of the Ultimates at a time when they should just be accepting everyone?

Miles is a likeable character, as this issue showed with some nice one liners and inter dialogue that made everyone love Peter, however him being Spider-man really needs to be fleshed out. I felt like I was reading an Ultimates issue, not a Spider-man issue.

Overall I give this comic a 3/10, it had a contrived plot, a random villian arbtitrarily thrown in to fix his dumb decision which was incredibly cliche, and failed to develop spider-man outside of the Ultimates.

The League Season 4 Episode 2 Review

If you are a football fan you need to watch this show, especially if you are a fantasy football fan you NEED to watch this show. It might be the funniest show on television and while you do not need to understand football to understand it, for instance I have friends who hate sports but love the show, it would enhance it.

This episode started off really strong and the main story lines were Kevin and Jenny's choice as to whether or not to give Chalupa a circumcision and Pete's whole waiver and rating system. I thought it transitioned well to get the other characters involved, but these were the main 2 things.

The whole circumcision thing worked out well in my opinion, it was a bit generic for him to get nervous about his Doctor and his wife, but overall I felt the story worked. Without spoiling too much the ending was well timed and as this show likes to do is bring back jokes in an unexpected way at the end.

Pete's whole +1 thing was great and could become a thing, I mean really people already do this when they see someone but this places a point value on it. It was a nice twist at the end with Taco, and I especially loved the breakdown of her point value of him at the end. The funniest line was the "Well you know my ex, so you probably know how I am in bed minus 1".

The Andre jokes were well paced and hit at all the right times, as was the ending with Shhhhhhhhheeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvaaaaaaaaaaa. It was great to finally find the answer to what is going on with Andre's penis. Yes I just typed that sentence.

The episode delivered numerous jokes throughout the entire episode and their Jokes per minute was off the charts. These were not just random but were well time jokes that usually hit and related to the overall story. You can tell they set out to tell a funny structured story and it hit in my opinion. I will remember this episode fondly.

Overall, I give this episode a 9.0, it delivered often and advanced the show into an interesting direction with the line from SHHHEEEVVAA

South Park Going Native

South Park "Going Native" Review

Every once in awhile South Park breaks it current trend and goes for a non parody approach that is built on jokes and a story line involving its characters, and they did so in this episode.

The episode started off very strong with Butters insulting the other boys and channeling his inner Hawaiian for rage. I do wish we could have seen the fight that started it all though but oh well every line he delivered was spot on. 

The episode then transitioned to what I thought were funny bits involving his family, especially on the correct pronunciation of Hawaii. Also the whole refusal to allow him on the plane was hillarious,not because he was a child but because they thought he was intoxicated.

The Hawaii scenes did not play out as well as I had hoped however, it all centered on one joke really and that was these people being natives. It might have clicked for others out there but it did not really register with me aside from the first time. SP does this a fair amount and sometimes it works really well, for instance in Sarcastaball or the shake weight, and sometimes they fall short like here. The parts where they fought with the Coast Guard were funny, and I cannot believe Butters killed all those people!

I did enjoy Kenny's subplot though, it was nice to see him get a notable inclusion in the episode and his letters back home were funny, in my opinion anyways. I thought he died and was surprised to see him wake up in the Elvis place, it was nice he saved them all though.

The ending was good as it showed Butters' main angst came from being jealous of Ben Affleck, a nice way to end the show.

I did like that South Park got away from the parodies and went back to what got them here, an episode with no real parodies and an episode built around Butters who has become arguably their 3rd most popular character for carrying episodes behind Cartman and Randy.

Overall I thought this was a solid episode and would watch it again, however it did not stand out so much and will not go down as one of the season's stronger episodes. With comedies it is often hard to rate them, however I will attempt to use a 10 point scale for them as well when taken into account how easy it is to recall the episode later on. Will I remember this episode greatly if someone mentions Butters in Hawaii I probably will not recall it that fondly, as I would say Sarcastaball.

Overall, I give this episode a 7.5, it delivered enough to be a passable episode but did not break through to that great territory.

Revolution Season 1 Episode 5 "Soul Train" Review

The search for Danny appeared to be coming to a close with Charlie and the gang close on Neville's track, however first they have to deal with Maggie's death. I was worried the show would drag out this scene however they did a good job of Miles setting Charlie straight about just how close they were to finding Danny and how you cannot afford to sit and mourn. At the time it just seemed like another moment where Miles was nagging on Charlie for being emotional that would not go anywhere, however as the episode went on we learned that was not the case.

I will break down the episode by character story:

The main focus of this episode however was Gus, oh I mean Neville. 2 episodes ago when he was barely in it I felt it suffered, Esposito steals any scene he is in and he owned every scene again this week(although I could have done without the image of him shirtless). I particularly like how the show uses flashbacks to enhance the story, and they used it expertly with Neville. It was nice to see him go from being a passive, shy, and someone who opposed violence to being shrewd Captain we all know. The transformation was well done in my opinion and his first reason to kill was similar to Charlie's, and Charlie's mom, family. His family was threatened by his obnoxious neighbor so he resorted to force and in that moment he realized what he needed to do for the safety of his family. It was a powerful moment that I thought the show did very well.

Also in Neville's story Danny came through, I especially liked him essentially telling Neville to screw off and quit it with the mind games. This kid really annoyed me in the first episode but slowly his character is growing on me.

Charlie, Miles, and Nora set out to get Danny into the town and do so undetected for the most part. While Charlie has been a weak point for me it was nice to see her fool Neville the first time. However he going after Neville instead of seeking out Miles was just stupid. I know she is an emotional character but still you would think by now she would have learned to listen to Miles. Miles conveniently comes through and saves her in his typical Han Solo/80s action star badassery. However her mistake of being noticed cost them in the long run.

Nora on the other hand was by far the weakest part of this episode. She sought out a resistance guy and reasons that killing Danny is a good idea. Yes, she reasons that the person she signed on to save was worth killing so a few officers would die. Somehow she forgot that Miles, the former second in command, left and the militia did fine but these no named officers will effect Monroe's army! That made no sense at all, I was thankful she was stabbed however she did end up changing her mind which essentially made her whole plot worthless and just an excuse to stab her.

The train scene was well done, I bet Gus went in there and said "They had a train scene in breaking bad this season, put it in!" Okay that probably did not occur, but still the scene was well done with some good reveals.

I am happy the show shifted from the prison jumping thing and now will advance the whole Rachel/Monroe plot more. I also thought it was nice how Charlie realized the full consequences of her actions and seemed determined not to pout, cry, or carry on but instead to continue the search. It showed that perhaps she is advancing as a character and actually listening to Miles.

The scenes with Rachel/Monroe were more of the same until the end, however she will finally started to reveal something about the necklaces. Also the reveal of Jason as his son made sense and was obvious throughout the episode, but now I actually care about the character of Jason after originally disdaining him.

Overall I felt the episode did a good job of keeping me(and hopefully others) hooked with questions to consider going forward and it delivered a strong narrative. While there was some dead time with Nora and in another way Aaron did nothing, it delivered probably the strongest episode of the season.

Overall I would give it an 8/10

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