Weekend Watch - The Penguin Episode ONe

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the debut episode of the television spin-off of 2022’s superhero hit The Batman – The Penguin. It describes itself as a series following Oz Cobb (the Penguin) as he tries to seize the power in Gotham City’s criminal underworld and picks up following the events of The Batman. The show stars Colin Farrell in the titular role, reprising his performance from Matt Reeves’s film, joined by Cristin Milioti as the daughter of the deceased mob boss Carmine Falcone, Sofia, Rhenzy Feliz as an inopportune henchman that Oswald picks up, Victor Aguilar, Mark Strong as Carmine Falcone in flashbacks, and Clancy Brown as the imprisoned mob boss Salvatore Marone. The show is also slated to feature performances from Theo Rossi, David H. Holmes, and Kenzie Gray. Its first episode aired this past Thursday with subsequent episodes releasing on Sundays starting next week. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+; a strong, if slow, opening provides plenty to be optimistic for as the rest of the season unfolds, but I’m not going to guarantee anything just yet.

Should you Watch This Show? If you loved Matt Reeves’s The Batman and want to get a taste of that version of Gotham again, this is a must-watch. If you’ve been craving a good crime drama on television that doesn’t revolve around cops and lawyers, this also definitely checks that box, and it might also be a great prestige miniseries that everyone should watch by the time everything’s said and done.

Why?

                The Penguin’s first episode takes us deeper into the criminal underbelly of Gotham City, focusing on the grounded world of organized crime where Oz Cobb and his associates operate. It picks up immediately after the events of the film, giving unfamiliar audiences (what few there may be) a quick montage of news reports explaining the pertinent details as Cobb stands by a window overlooking Gotham, plotting his rise to power. The show then takes off with a literal bang as he finds himself scrambling to cover up a murder with the help of a hapless street criminal (Feliz’s Vic) who had the unfortunate luck of being caught trying to steal the Penguin’s rims. The remainder of the episode spends its time introducing us to the various characters who will no doubt become important players over the course of the season as Cobb visits mob mansions, prostitute-populated streets, drug factories, prison, and even his mother’s home in the suburbs as he attempts to shore up support in the city while gauging the wisdom of staying versus fleeing the inevitable gang war. Across it all, Farrell’s Penguin remains the central figure, playing all sides with just as much weight and squirrelliness as he had in the film, and we start to see the shape that this (mini?)series will be taking. The question of whether Cobb ends up more as a Tony Soprano or a Vito Corleone feels like the real drama of the series, and it should be a fun ride along the way.

                If there’s any major complaints to level against this first episode, it lies in its relatively slow pacing after a quick opening. It teases us with threats of mob violence and surprising turns, but so far all of the surprising turns have had very little lasting impact, serving more as tantalizing teases that never pay off as intensely as they possibly could. Obviously, this is the first episode of an eight-episode season, so they can’t be dropping every body and complicating the plot too much early on, but there will definitely be some fans who’ve come to the show more for its comic book premise than its mob drama who won’t be thrilled with the limited action of this debut. There’s enough twists and turns that have the potential to pay out into some interesting complications down the road that I’m willing (and even excited) to give the show time to cook up to its inevitably messy conclusion. Is this show going to dethrone The Sopranos or The Wire as the best crime drama in the history of television? Doubtful. Is it going to be the high action, high easter egg comic book show that Gotham was? Also probably not, but if you want a show that blends the energy of those two types of shows fairly well so far, you’d be hard-pressed to find something better.

                Led by a consistent Colin Farrell performance and the welcome addition of Cristin Milioti as his more ruthless foil, The Penguin promises to be a fun blend of comic book action and mob drama that might by your next favorite miniseries if it can follow-up on the many promises of its first episode. The next episode comes next Sunday (the 29th), and it should give us a better idea of the direction that everything’s headed. Here’s hoping it can come close to living up to the excellence of the film that inspired it.

Weekend Watch - Bridgerton Season 3

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the latest season of Netflix’s hit period romance series Bridgerton, which released the second half of its third season last week. The show, produced by television legend Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder), and created by her collaborator Chris Van Dusen, is based on the historical romance novels by Julia Quinn, which follow the romantic intrigues of the titular noble family and their compatriots in early 19th-century British high society. This season primarily adapts the novel Romancing Mister Bridgerton, which follows the romance between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), although it implements elements from some of the other novels as well. This season sees the return of most characters and actors from the first two seasons (absent still Regé-Jean Page’s Duke Simon Bassett and Phoebe Dynevor’s Daphne Bassett) while also introducing Hannah Dodd as the previously absent Francesca Bridgerton, Victor Alli as Lord John Stirling, Daniel Frances as Lord Marcus Anderson, and Hannah New as Lady Tilley Arnold. Now that the full third season is out, plenty of people have started sharing their thoughts on it, so let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+; where the first two seasons shone in their central romances, the third draws more on its supporting cast, which may or may not work as well for everyone.

Should you Watch This Show? If you’ve been a fan of the show from the start, this’ll continue to scratch that itch, and if you weren’t, it’s not going to do any changing of your mind.

Why?

                Bridgerton Season 3 continues in so much of what has made the show such a success – steamy romance, gripping drama, complex love stories, the Vitamin String Quartet, involved sets, beautiful costumes, and memorable characters who grow more complex with each iteration. It knows its identity and niche in the market and delivers yet again a hit for that broad subset of the streaming viewers. Unfortunately, it feels like a show whose writing is starting to get away from it, much as so many of the Shondaland shows do. Season 1 gave us a fascinatingly convoluted romance with critiques on society, gender roles, and even conceptions of marriage and nobility. Season 2 offered a subversive romance that also served as a redemption arc for a previously debauched romantic lead that somehow got us to sympathize with the fact that people actually can change. Season 3’s central romance tackles a much safer, more tried-and-true route of friends to lovers to enemies to lovers again, which tackles fewer social issues, though its subplots do feature some refreshing takes on how love looks different for different people, learning to forgive, and the self-sacrificial elements of family. It’s still a strong season of the show, but certain aspects of it feel less satisfying than in seasons past.

                In addition to the excellent production design, the performances remain strong with Nicola Coughlan, Claudia Jessie, and Golda Rosheuvel remaining the standouts. While the rest of the cast continues to fill their roles admirably, looking and sounding the parts that they are asked to play, these three women continue to grow their roles and inhabit their characters in ways that keep them iconic in every iteration. Rosheuvel’s portrayal of Queen Charlotte has become so iconic that it earned the character a spin-off prequel series, and she continues to be a dominating force who steals the screen not just with her wild hairdos but her gravitas and expressions in every one of her scenes. It’s a performance that easily becomes career-defining because of how memorable she has become. Jessie plays the second Bridgerton daughter, Eloise, who defies societal pressures as much as possible and had been Penelope’s best friend up until some drama at the end of the second season, and that break allows her to grow Eloise in new directions this season, showcasing her capability for repartee and satire on a new level than ever before without losing the sense of self and vulnerability that have made her such a lovable character. Coughlan also shines in her increased role this season; obviously, her comedic capabilities have never been in doubt if you’ve ever seen Derry Girls, but she brings a sensuality and authenticity to her romance this season that helps to sell the plot and keep the audience invested even when the writing is doing her story few favors. She is the moment, and she won’t soon let you forget it.

                Where the acting and production value remains at peak levels, the writing in this season has fallen off as the story begins to lose itself too often in the weeds, taking wind out of the central romance’s sails to puff it into a side romance for Francesca that seeks to set up what I assume will be one of Season 4’s two main plots (it’s a good romance, but it detracts from the main story unquestionably). It also spends a lot of time looking at the sudden entrance of the Mondriches into high society from their humble beginnings without actually offering much in the way of story for them besides feeling occasionally out of place. Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) is given an entire character arc this season, but it feels so aggressively two-toned that I wouldn’t be surprised if they rewrote her whole character between the two parts of the season (maybe if I had watched the two parts farther removed, I wouldn’t have noticed the inexplicable shift in her character from part one to part two). Even the drama of Whistledown and her secret identity, which is inextricably tied to the romance of this season, doesn’t really hold your attention like it did in the first two seasons because of the increasing number of people who already know the secret. Really, I was satisfied with the story but never blown away by anything groundbreaking or soul-shattering like I was with the first two seasons, but the open plots that remain for Season 4 to explore leave me hopeful that we’ll get back to that success quickly.

                This latest season of Bridgerton continues to shine in the ways we’ve come to expect, if not quite so brightly in its story department, and it’s held up still by its leading ladies and a phenomenal production team. With the full season now streaming on Netflix, I’d recommend any who’ve been holding out after enjoying the first two seasons to go watch this one as well. If you’re someone who hasn’t watched the show yet, Season 3 is not the place to start, but I highly recommend the first two seasons as well, and if you’re someone who gave the first season a try but found it wasn’t for you, I can’t say that this one will suddenly change your mind. Figure out which of those categories you belong in, and then go and do what you want.

Weekend Watch - Fallout

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the latest video game to television adaptation from Amazon – Fallout, based in the world of the highly successful video game series from Interplay and Bethesda. The show, set in a postapocalyptic, retrofuturistic version of our own world, takes place 219 years after a massive nuclear war and follows a menagerie of characters who are figuring out how best to survive in the new wild west that is the bombed out west coast. It stars Ella Purnell as vault dweller Lucy MacLean, Aaron Moten as Brotherhood of Steel Squire Maximus, Walton Goggins as mutated former Hollywood star Cooper Howard, and Moises Arias as Lucy’s brother Norm MacLean in addition to a roster of recognizable cameos and B-list actors filling out the rest of the cast. The show premiered on Amazon Prime Video last Wednesday evening and has quickly become a hit with both critics and audiences. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+, it’s not a perfect show, but it captures the spirit of the games well without alienating potential new audiences with too much overreliance on lore and references.

Should you Watch This Show? It depends on what you’re looking for in a show. If you want gory, occasionally goofy, action with just enough heart and topical discussion of corporate greed and government infighting, this’ll be right up your alley. If not, I don’t know that the characters and world have enough to offer everyone to make it a universally lovable show.

Why?

                So much of Fallout’s highs and lows go hand in hand, with leading characters being hit or miss in their writing and how compelling their stories are, worldbuilding that doesn’t go too hard in its lore dumping but does require some suspension of disbelief, and action sequences that thrill but could feel excessive to some audiences. It captures the contemporary spirit of the latest Fallout games, embracing its kitschy 1950s meets wild west meets futuristic dystopian aesthetic and themes in every sequence. The music, production design, costumes, makeup, and visual effects (mostly) hold up really well and deliver what you’d want in a series based on these video games. They also don’t try to cater too intensely to the fans of the games that newcomers will be totally lost, which really helped my wife and me get into it from the jump – I have played probably ten hours combined of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, and she had no interaction with the brand before starting the show. I will say that I’m not sure if it offers enough to keep people who aren’t interested in the world and themes of the games super invested (i.e., this isn’t going to suddenly become your parents’ and grandparents’ favorite show), but it’s a fun one for its target audience of late teens to 40-somethings.

                As far as the show’s story goes, I’m not going to get too into it here to avoid spoilers, but I will say that they’ve done a good job with their characters (mostly). It’s really fun to see Moises Arias in a well-reviewed piece of media that’s not aiming for the YA audience, and his character has a surprisingly engaging subplot that allows him to flex some of his more serious chops without losing his snarky, jaded humor either. Ella Purnell shines as the series’ lead, playing the fish-out-of-water archetype so well as she slowly assimilates to the world outside of the vault where she was raised, serving as both audience proxy and compelling heroine at the same time. Lucy’s a really fun lead character for the modern era, and Purnell plays her well. So many side characters have such well-fleshed-out stories and characterizations that I don’t have time to go into all of them here, but it really does give the show that sense of being lived in that the best open-world video games seek to capture, and I’d argue that the combination of great casting and writing accomplish that even more so here. The true star of the show, though, is Walton Goggins, whose gunslinging “ghoul” is simultaneously the coolest and most loathsome antihero we’ve seen in a long time, especially in the world of sci-fi/action media. He gets to do a lot in both the present and in flashbacks, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him contend for an Emmy before it’s all said and done. The one character that I have some issues with is Aaron Moten’s Maximus. Moten does a good job of delivering the dialogue and playing up the character with his flaws and motivations. It’s just that the show takes way too long to flesh out his motivations, and in the time they take doing that, Maximus comes across as inexplicably incompetent, vaguely whiny, and generally not likable enough to be the secondary protagonist that they want him to be by the time we get to the back half of the season. I have faith that he’ll improve as a character in the show’s next season (hopefully), but his parts are definitely the weakest and slowest in this season – again, at no fault of Moten’s.

                Fallout manages to offer audiences an original story, fun world, faithful game adaptation, memorable characters, and strong performances in its retrofuturistic packaging, sure to please fans both old and new even if its story occasionally lags and it doesn’t necessarily have that universal charm needed to snag some of the older audiences. It’s so much better than I had any reason to expect, and I look forward to it getting that second season. You can currently watch this show on Amazon Prime Video, and I’d encourage you to do so.

Weekend Watch - Loki Season 2, Episodes 1 & 2

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating and review. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the opening episodes of Loki season 2 from Disney+. This new season of the show (the first to get a second season from the MCU Disney+ shows) sees the return of Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino, Owen Wilson, Eugene Cordero, and Wunmi Mosaku in their respective roles from season 1, joined in this season by Ke Huy Quan, Kate Dickie, and Rafael Casal in the new roles of OB, General Dox, and Hunter X-5/Brad Wolfe, respectively. This season is releasing weekly on Thursday evenings on Disney+. Let’s get into it.

Rating: B+; it maintains the solid production design and frenetic pace of the first season well, and the performances have only improved, but a lack of direction has me hesitant to call this new season a full-on improvement from the first.

Review:

                As far as season openers go, Loki season 2 has had two solid first episodes in terms of introducing its new characters and resolving most of the unresolved threads from season 1; however, it has so far done very little to bring in a compelling new conflict to fill the void now that Loki and Sylvie have convinced the TVA to accept branching timelines. (Also, this is not a show where you can jump in at the start of season 2 without having watched the first season and be fully in the know, so there’s that as well.) It feels like we’re moving toward either a showdown with Miss Minutes and Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Ravonna Renslayer or with some new version of Kang/He Who Remains, but all of those characters were notably absent from these first two episodes aside from a few statues of Kang (who seems to still be played by Jonathan Majors despite his arrest and accusations of abuse). On the positive side of things, the show continues to improve in its production design and casting/performances, giving audiences more of that dingy brown retro TVA vibe that they loved in the first season and more of Hiddleston playing the complex anti-hero that Loki has become.

                With the story picking up basically immediately after the end of season 1, we are thrust very much back into the middle of things and are introduced to a new complication for Loki – he is experiencing time slippage while in the TVA, jumping back and forth between the past and present. This comprises the main conflict of the first episode, as Wilson’s Mobius and Mosaku’s Hunter B-15 are able fairly easily to convince most of the TVA leadership (aside from General Dox and her hunters) that branching timelines are acceptable. Their quest to anchor Loki in the present leads them to Ke Huy Quan’s OB (Ouroboros) who runs all the tech for the TVA and knows a lot about the flow of time. The resolution of that episode then leads into the second episode’s conflict, which is stopping Dox and her hunters from getting Sylvie and reverting the timelines back to a single timeline. This gets the band back together as Loki, Mobius, and Sylvie have to team up to stop this from happening, which ends up being fairly easy – much easier than any of the resolutions from the first season, and with such limited consequences as Sylvie leaving again, I’m hesitant to fully commit to the rest of the season.

                What bolsters this season opener, though, are the performances from the characters – old and new. Wunmi Mosaku turns in another solid performance as Hunter B-15, this time on the side of Loki and Mobius, delivering her stoic but inspired lines with just the right amount of camp to match the show’s energy. Sophia Di Martino doesn’t have quite as much to do in these first two episodes as she did down the stretch in season 1, but her portrayal of Sylvie still holds up as the jaded, powerful, witty Loki variant that she is, and I’m glad she’s still in the show. Kate Dickie gets to do a lot with her limited screen time as the “villain” of the first two episodes, and it’s always frustratingly fun to see her get to lean into that loathsome side of herself (like in Game of Thrones and The Witch), which she does again here, giving the audience someone to root against in the early goings of this new season. Owen Wilson’s Mobius hasn’t gotten as much into the actor’s surprisingly complex bag this season as he did, especially toward the end, in last season, but his buddy cop repartee with Hiddleston’s Loki forms the backbone of the show, and it’s still just as good here. Ke Huy Quan joins the show in the role of OB, which feels like a character that’s always been there, showcasing how seamlessly the actor fits in with the energy and vibe of the rest of the cast and the show, bringing levity, lore, and some level of stakes to these first two episodes, and I look forward to seeing more of him as the season progresses. Hiddleston is in his bag here in these first two episodes, getting to be more villain and more hero than he was even in the show’s first season, really leaning into the anti-hero side of the character. In these first few episodes, he feels more established and in control than he’s ever felt as the MCU’s iteration of the Norse God of Mischief, and it anchors the whole show, offering (for me at least) the most compelling reason to see where the rest of this season goes.

                As the show leans more heavily on its namesake, Loki season 2 has opened with a solid foundation of characters, performances, and production value that helps it overcome its somewhat lackluster stakes and conflicts through its first two episodes. I look forward to it hopefully amping up as we jump into the middle third of the season, and if the performances are any indication, I think we’ll continue to see why this show was the MCU’s first to get a second season. It will release weekly on Thursdays for the next four weeks, wrapping up on November 9th if you’d rather wait until it’s all out to binge it.

Weekend Watch - The last of Us Episode 1

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch where each week, we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers is the first episode of HBO’s new television series, The Last of Us, based on the critically acclaimed survival horror games from Naughty Dog and Sony. The show stars Pedro Pascal, Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, and Anna Torv and opened its first episode to widespread acclaim from fans of the games and fans of television in general, briefly earning the highest IMDB rating for a television show ever. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: A-; this show is clearly well-made and has made fans happy. We’ll see how it continues to handle the hype.

Should you Watch This Show? Probably. If you loved the games, my understanding is that this is must-watch television and a phenomenal adaptation. If you know nothing about the games but like post-apocalyptic stuff, this looks to be one of the better offerings out there too.

Why?

                The Last of Us’s first episode, titled “When You’re Lost in the Darkness,” comes out swinging, feeling equally like a high-quality television show and a solid video game adaptation at the same time. If you’re like me and have only heard about the games but never played (because you’re an Xbox gamer only or something), the show does a good job of establishing characters, relationships, and the world in the first episode, doing enough to keep us less knowledgeable viewers hooked while paying enough service to the initiated to not alienate them. Their combination of worldbuilding and character establishment has made this one of the better first episodes that I’ve watched in a while, even if it is nearly an hour and a half in runtime (cable used to do double features for their premieres right?).

                Like he does in so many of his features, Pedro Pascal helps sell the product. His performance as Joel just in the first episode has me hooked and interested in his character development. He plays the hardened cynic who secretly cares about people really hard so well at this point that you’d almost forget his first major HBO role as Oberyn Martell. In The Last of Us, he dons a relatively believable southeast Texas accent and shows us a range in this first episode that goes from stretched but loving father to mournful and hardened veteran to begrudging caretaker who finally has had enough and decides to do something about it. Honestly, if he just turns this first episode in as a sizzle reel to casting agencies from here on, he’ll probably be in a job for the next twenty years.

                Luckily for Pascal, The Last of Us is no Wonder Woman 1984, and he doesn’t have to carry the show on his back. As apocalyptic shows go, the production value is high, and the storytelling seems to be taking it in a good direction. Director Craig Mazin and his team do a phenomenal job in this first episode of capturing the world and, strange as it may seem, the gameplay of The Last of Us in the medium of television. From an early scene of a truck suddenly forcing Joel and his daughter to take the longer, more dangerous route out of town to Joel’s to-do list of sidequests in Boston to what I assume is cutscene dialogue options when Joel and Tess are offered the job of transporting Ellie, this first episode showcases the right ways to turn a video game into a less interactive and more linear form of visual media.

                The Last of Us episode one introduces the show’s audience to its world and characters in brilliant fashion, capturing the spirit of the video game in the form of a television show that is sure to make most fans, new and old, happy. One small knock is the show’s current similarity to many other apocalyptic shows, which should be assuaged by the end of this first season if my friends who played the games are to be believed. Should it achieve that uniqueness and distance itself from the pack, I think we can optimistically say that we have been blessed with yet another hit from HBO. The show’s next episode airs tomorrow night, and all episodes are available from the time of release on HBO Max.

Weekend Watch - House of the Dragon - Pilot Episode

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch, where each week we take a new piece of film or television media, as voted by the followers on the blog’s Instagram, and give it a rating, review, and watch recommendation. This week’s subject is the pilot episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon, a prequel series to the wildly successful Game of Thrones, set 172 years before Robert’s Rebellion, the event that directly set up the events of Thrones. The pilot stars Matt Smith, Paddy Considine, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey, and Graham McTavish, among others, as major players in this family drama set in the land of Westeros. The viewership numbers for the pilot episode were apparently the highest of any HBO premier in recent history, allowing the show’s second season to already receive the green light before its second episode has released. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+/A-; there’s a lot to love and a lot of potential in this pilot, but I want to wait before I’m fully sold on the show.

Should you Watch This Show? If you were a fan of Game of Thrones, absolutely. If you like Succession or other family dramas and also want something with a more medieval/fantasy bent, absolutely. If those things are not your cup of tea, you’re probably okay skipping this one.

Why?

                House of the Dragon comes out swinging with a pilot episode full of intrigue, dragons, violence, big characters, and difficult content. After a brief, possibly unnecessary, prologue, the show flashes to its present with a dragon front and center, flying over King’s Landing – a shot that might be slightly triggering to certain fans of Game of Thrones who were less than satisfied with that show’s final season. Immediately, the show’s production value (much higher than most comparable shows) becomes apparent, with some pretty good CGI work, excellent set pieces, and decent costume and makeup design (some of the wigs look a little more wig-ish than others). The characters, whose names might be a bit more difficult to pronounce/remember than Ned, Jon, or Jaime, still stand out as individuals, particularly Matt Smith’s villain(?) Daemon Targaryen, Fabien Frankel’s hot, young nobody Criston Cole, and Milly Alcock’s young heroine Rhaenyra Targaryen. Smith embodies a combination of characteristics reminiscent of some of Thrones’s most iconic villains – the creeping menace of Ramsay Bolton and the entitled violence of Joffrey Baratheon – I’m intrigued to see where they take his character as the show progresses. Frankel’s simple charm combined with his character’s skill on a battlefield make him a potentially great tragic hero, alongside Robb Stark or Jon Snow or Oberyn Martell from the original show. Alcock brings much of the charm of a young Arya Stark and combines it with the tact of Margaery Tyrell to become the show’s new protagonist (at least at this point), having to walk the complex minefield that is the political state of Westeros. If we’re being honest, my two biggest concerns going forward with the show are its inevitable time jump, which has already been teased, as both Rhaenyra and her friend Alicent Hightower are portrayed by different actresses later on in the season, and its lack of a fully likable character (a Tyrion Lannister). Time jumps in the middle of a show’s inaugural season make me considerably nervous, as audiences don’t always react super well to a change in actor, particularly in shows with character lists as lengthy as House of the Dragon’s. I also know that you shouldn’t compare two shows when doing a review, but it’s hard not to with Dragon and Thrones, especially with the knowledge of how the original ended. The surprise deaths and complex political games will only take a show so far if it doesn’t have an almost universally beloved secondary protagonist. Overall, House of the Dragon’s pilot episode does a great job of filling the shoes that its fans expected it to fill with a combination of high production value and memorable characters; we’ll see where it all ends up as the season progresses, but there’s a lot here to be optimistic about in HBO’s return to Westeros. The first episode is available on HBO Max if you missed its premier, and the second episode drops on Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max simultaneously.

Weekend Watch - The Sandman

                Welcome back to the Weekend Watch, where each week we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give you a review and recommendation for watching it. This week, the subject is Netflix’s latest horror series: The Sandman, based on the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman. It features Tom Sturridge as the titular “Sandman” or “Morpheus” or “Dream” and also Boyd Holbrook, Patton Oswalt’s voice, Vivienne Acheampong, Vanesu Samunyai, David Thewlis, and many others. It follows the story of the King of Dreams after he escapes one hundred years of imprisonment in the human world and seeks to set his realm and the things associated with it back to relative normalcy. Let’s get into it.

Letter Grade: B+, there’s a lot of potential here, but it still needs some work to be great

Should you Watch This Show? If you are at all a fan of the graphic novel, yes! If you are looking for a dark fantasy show with really good worldbuilding, then also yes. I don’t think this show is as universally watchable as some of Netflix’s other releases (read Stranger Things) though.

Why?

                Let’s start with some of what makes the show good. From what I can tell, fans of the graphic novel are highly pleased with most of what the show has done with the source material, which is always a good sign for adaptations (we’ll see how Amazon fares next month with their Rings of Power series). The aesthetic of the art comes through well in the visuals, which are mostly phenomenal to behold – some of the more intricate CGI leaves a little to be desired, but for a television show, the effects are pretty solid. The world of the novel also comes through well in the worldbuilding of the show. The many realms and mythical characters come into the story naturally and with adequate explanation, leaving very little confusion as to the role of each new character. The worldbuilding also leaves you wanting more by the end of the season – at least, it did for me, the sucker for good worldbuilding. Unfortunately, because of all of the characters and story arcs that are brought into the ten-episode season, the story sometimes gets left by the wayside and then caught up with later, rather quickly. The two main stories that feature in this season are deeply interesting in their own right, but because of the exposition that also has to occur, the stories both resolve rather quickly and conveniently with little payoff of things set up earlier in the show. At the same time, it feels like this show wants to set up for an adaptation of the entirety of The Sandman, the graphic novel, as many characters have now been introduced who have larger roles to play later on in the greater story, so that’s promising. (That does mean that we need even more watchers when season 2 drops in the future so that Netflix doesn't cancel it as they so often do. In addition to the solid worldbuilding and oddly paced storytelling, the shows acting is at times great and, at others, only so-so. Vanesu Samunyai, whose first credit is this show, puts forth a valiant effort as Rose Walker, the Dream Vortex and focus of the second half of this season, playing to the levels of the actors in her scene. When across from Tom Sturridge, Boyd Holbrook, and John Cameron Mitchell, she brings a very solid A-game, showcasing the emotional and emotive range of a far more experienced actress, holding her own and even upstaging these more seasoned actors. At the same time, in scenes with Razane Jammal’s Lyta or Eddie Karanja’s Jed, the show reverts to acting more on the level with a CW superhero show (still entertaining in a popcorn-y way, but definitely with more cheese). In addition to the performances of Sturridge, Holbrook, and Mitchell, the true highlights of the show come from David Thewlis as the villain of the first arc – the very creepily unhinged John Dee, whom he portrays with just the right amount of menace – and Kirby Howell-Baptiste and Vivienne Acheampong as the two positive mythical influences in Dream’s life – Death and Lucienne the librarian respectively. Death’s one episode in the middle of the season serves as a high point in both the acting and worldbuilding of the show, showcasing its potential, highlighted in Howell-Baptiste’s subtly emotional portrayal of the avatar of Death, who is apparently Dream’s favorite sibling and the one with the most influence over him. In similar fashion, Acheampong plays Lucienne, the librarian of the realm of Dream, and the closest thing Dream has to an advisor or a friend in his own realm. Her acting is consistent throughout the show, delivering a lot of exposition without ever feeling unnecessary and while having a legitimately involved character arc at the same time, developing alongside Dream. All told, the first season of The Sandman is a mixed bag of great worldbuilding, inconsistent storytelling, and acting that is all over the board. The show’s potential to get better makes it worth watching, along with its skillful adaptation of the original source material.