“War has a way of distinguishing between the things that matter and the things that don’t.” (Matthew)
Well, we’re back. The year is 1916 and we’re in the middle of the first World War. The stakes are high but still everything has its usual casual charm in Downton Abbey’s second season.
“I think there’s no one else in the all the world; there’s only you and me.” (Gillian)
Okay, I’m not going to beat a dead horse for long, other reviewers have done this already. But please do allow me this short rant: Boardwalk Empire has never been more blatantly Oedipal than this. In one episode, Jimmy Darmody went from shellshocked criminal to tragic victim of his surroundings. And to think it was as easy as letting his sleep with his mother and kill his father.
“How’s your thirst for adventure, Captain?” (Tintin)
It should be no secret that I’m a Belgian. And, as is mandatory on our dictatorial catholic schools, where the whips are aplenty and fagging is still a hip new thing, I have read all Tintin comics. When applying for a job, the topic would casually pop up: “What do you think of Thomson’s motivation on page 23 of The Temple of the Sun?”* To which we would find a fitting answer. Common practice.
Then came Steven Spielberg and we, the mighty Belgians, roared with outrage! What had he done to our ageless blank slate male? What had happened to the clear line drawing, Hergé’s trademark style? And – gasp! – character development? Seriously?!
In all seriousness, it turns out Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is actually pretty darn good.
Monsters, Inc. is an amazing film. The first Pixar movie not to be directed by John Lasseter, it further consolidated the already wildly successful California-based computer animation studio, showing that it wasn’t just a one-genius operation. Monsters, Inc. let Pete Docter in the director’s chair and with great success. But why is it so great? In this article, I’ll be digging a bit deeper into the story structure used in this surprisingly unconventional flick.
Today, I’ll talk a bit about the way Monsters sets up its world. (more…)
“How Nucky shoes be fitting these days?” (Chalky)
If you say you didn’t see it coming, you’re pretty much blind. Sure, it’s HBO – if Boardwalk Empire were a network show, Angela’d been dead ages ago. But, even with HBO’s budgets, a role can be so piss-poor that not even money can save it. So Angela bit the duts in what would otherwise have been just another Boardwalk Empire episode.
“Sometimes I feel as if I were living in an H.G. Wells novel.” (Violet)
For an episode spending so much time on introducing a telephone and with a very predictable cliffhanger, I was surprised to not see two and two put together. It appears that, in case of war breakout, the good old telegraph is still the way to go. Downton Abbey finished off its spectacular season with a bang followed by a very predictable non-existent cliffhanger. Jeez, it’s 1914, we all know the war was coming.
„Burt, fucking, Reynolds!?“
Reviewing a game like Saint’s Row: The Third might sound easy, but to me it’s a pretty hard thing to do. I’ve basically sunk 25 hours into a sandbox GTA-clone, 25 hours I spent running tanks out of airplanes, using a chainsaw in a wrestling match and racing gimp-pulled rikschas. And now I’m going to convince this game is not just clever, but well-thought out, too?!
“Got caught in the wrong cookie jar.” (Nucky)
After having given it some thought, I’m absolutely stunned at the fact this episode was just as disjointed as I thought it was going to be. It’s obvious: in an episode with Nucky in Belfast and Margaret’s girl coming down with polio, worlds couldn’t be further apart. What did surprise me, however, was how they adequately used Margaret’s story to play this out as a familiar theme: that just when she needs Nucky the most, he’s nowhere to be found.
“Sybil is entitled to her opinions.”
“No. She isn’t until she is married, then her husband will tell her what her opinions are.” (Lady Crawley and Violet)
For an upstairs-downstairs type show, this episode of Downton Abbey spent a lot of time with the layers’ seperate quarrels. On the one hand, there was the Sybill-conflict; on the other the whole questionable affair with Mr. Bates and the wine. Let’s have a closer look, shall we?
“My brother. He’s smarter than you are. And a lot more dangerous.” (Eli)
What an episode. What an episode! Sure, it was all set-up for the season’s final five episodes, but what a set-up it was! This was Boardwalk Empire as we’ve never seen it: small, emotional, and very, very sad.