Idiot Boxing, HBO Finales Edition: Game of Thrones, season 8 (2019); Veep, season 8 (2019); Crashing, season 3 (2019)

The dour faces depicted here match what many viewers felt
about this final season of the titanically popular series.

Game of Thrones, season 8

Spoilers Coming (which frankly, you deserve if you haven't caught up and watched the show by now)

Well, that was a bit of a letdown.

Not that we couldn't see it coming, but the final season of the insanely popular fantasy TV show maintained the high-gloss, rather puzzling mediocrity that had been set up during the previous season.

The end of season 7 of the show saw Daenerys joining her forces with Jon Snow and several northern factions, including wildlings from beyond The Wall and other assorted motley bands. These uneasy and unlikely alliances gather at Winterfell to try and fend off the Night King and his ever-growing army of White Walkers, including a zombie ice dragon. Meanwhile, Cersei is down south in King's Landing. Though she had promised to send soldiers to the north to assist the presumptive Targaryen queen, it is all a sham, as Cersei plans to wait for the Night King's forces to, if not defeat, then at least weaken the northern forces before they attempt to wrest the Iron Throne from the domineering Queen Lannister.

Season 8, further winnowing down the established 10-episode pattern of the first 6 seasons, restricted itself to 6 episodes, the last four of which clocked in at nearly 90 minutes each. Despite having about the same running length as most previous seasons, this final season featured the sloppiest, choppiest hacking and slashing away of nearly every subtle, nuanced plot and character point built up during the show's first five or six seasons. There was evidence of this in the penultimate season, but it is often painfully obvious in this one. I needn't go through them all, as more dedicated and sensitive GoT geeks have done all of that legwork for me and unleashed their ire upon every social media outlet known to man. For my part, I agree with much of the frustration felt, though I hardly take it as personally as many seem to have. I'll stick to just a few major points.

One of a few cringe-worthy moments of romantic cheese in
this season. In hindsight, it may have been a clumsy attempt
to throw viewers off the scent of where the story was going.

Firstly, the idea of Daenerys "breaking bad" was very poorly executed. I don't think it's a terrible idea to run with the notion of "power corrupting," and even throw the audience a curve-ball by having a beloved character get warped into a dark version of themselves. But Daenerys's turn into a murderous, egomaniacal tyrant is barely organic in any way. Like so many things about this season, it felt as if the writers started with a contrived concept, and then worked backwards to shoehorn a "they'll never see this coming" notion into an incredibly undersized time allotment. I think Daenerys's arc could have worked, if it had been set up and alluded to more delicately along the way. As it is, it felt like it was tacked onto the end for shock value more than anything that served genuine character development.

Then there's Bran ending up on the Iron Throne. Again, this perhaps could have been an intriguing and satisfying story element had Bran done anything more than sit around in a wheelchair, staring blankly into space for 99% of the last two seasons. While his powers are intriguing, they were never explored or much explained, and Tyrion's grand speech about Bran "having the greatest story of them all" is baldly insulting. For me, this was yet another idea that seemed to be included for the sole purpose of keeping us viewers off balance. Having surprises in a story is great, but they have to feel logical within the story. Bran ending up on the throne felt far from that. You want a great story, Tyrion? How about your wife Sansa, who matured and survived the machinations of several of the most devious and evil bastards in all of Westeros? Or how about Jon Snow, the guy who was literally brought back from the dead and saved everyone from the savior-turned-psycho Danaerys? That's a pretty good story, eh? But no, let's wheel out the catatonic weirdo that barely anyone knows and have him rule the joint. Makes sense.

There were moments and elements of this eighth season that I did enjoy. The quieter second episode had some strong moments of interpersonal dialogue in it, and some of the battle scenes and fights were quite memorable. On the whole, though, I have to say that this was easily the weakest season of the entire series. Now granted, for a show that set such an incredibly high bar, this was almost inevitable. But the dropoff was more precipitous than I had expected.

The good news for people like me, who had been avidly reading the source books for many years before the show existed, is that there are still two more novels to come (if the George R.R. Martin eventually gets around to them). And I feel confident that they will be far more satisfying in their conclusions than the show was. Perhaps the saddest thing about the HBO adaptation is that, despite how incredibly strong the first five seasons are, I doubt that I'll ever bother re-watching the series due to the knowledge that it all ends with a bit of a "thud."

Selena Meyer, along with a few of her brutally incompetent
staff. In the finale season, Selena tries one more shot at
winning the presidency.

Veep, season 7 (final season)

In a fortunate contrast to the far more famous Game of Thrones, the scathing HBO comedy series Veep went out on a hilarious high note.

After what I found to be relatively more mean-spirited and narratively scattershot 6th and 7th seasons, the final season of the political parody show found that great groove that it had in its stronger earlier seasons. Despite every sign in the world telling Selena Myer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) not to make yet another run at the presidency, her unfailing ego and narcissism saw her once again ignore any sense of reality or what might be best for the country as she kicks off her campaign at the beginning of Season 8.

This season made full use of the political realities at work in the United States over the last several years, featuring thinly-veiled references to Russian interference in elections, the frighteningly broad appeal of ignorant bigots like the current Commander in Chief, and the crippling identity politics of the far left. Many characters who had previously been smaller players become concentrated versions of figures who we know all too well in reality. The moronic Jonah Ryan actually finds a support base for his platform of toxic idiocy. The oblivious Jordan Spleth finds himself backing up the political ladder through a series of gaffs and accidents on the parts of leaders above him. And plenty of others with no business making public policy are whipped around by the vortex of their own reckless ambitions within the maelstrom of U.S. politics. I’ll have to go back and watch the earlier seasons again, but my initial reaction was that this last season may have been the show’s best, which is really saying something.

The humor was fully back on point here, too. As stated, I found some of the humor in the previous two seasons a bit dark and disturbing to be terribly funny. While season eight certainly keeps things cynical, I felt that it rediscovered the right balance in order to keep things humorous rather than downright upsetting. In this final season, the political and social commentary and the vicious insults come as fast, furious, and hilarious as any of the best seasons earlier in the show's run.

I'm not sure what can be said about the cast that one wouldn't have already seen in any of the previous seven seasons. Nearly a decade ago, virtually the entire cast came into this series as well-seasoned comedy acting pros, so it was no surprise that they finished the run just as strongly as they all started. One could spend multiple paragraphs breaking down the hilarity behind the various characters and the actors' portrayal of them, but I'll reserve it for the star Julia Louis Dreyfus, who is arguably on the Mount Rushmore of modern era TV comedy. Just between her turn as Elaine on Seinfeld and Selina Meyer on Veep, she's a living legend in the field, never mind some of her great turns on lesser-known shows and movies. It was great to see her end such a great series on top.

There is no doubt that before long, my wife and I will go back and do a steady rewatch of this show over several weeks or a couple of months. From the very first moments we began watching years ago, we knew that we were missing certain moments because we were laughing so hard and the jokes were coming so fast. That's a mark of great comedy, and I'm already looking forward to the time when we work out way through the over-the-top madness of this show again.


Crashing, season 3 (2019)

Pete's new girlfriend, Kat. Pete may be getting his professional
comedy feet under him, but his relationships can still be messy.

Unlike the previous two HBO shows reviewed, this season was not expected to be the show's final one, with it being officially cancelled shortly before the end of this third season. This is unfortunate, as both my wife and I highly enjoyed all three seasons of this stand-up comedy-focused series.

This third season sees Pete Holmes continue to make a more serious living out of stand-up comedy. At the start of the season, he has wrapped up the lucrative-but-limiting college comedy tour that he netted at the end of the previous season. Through this season, he keeps trying to find a bigger break at more noted comedy clubs. This doesn't immediately go very well, but Pete finds romance with a strong, free-spirited woman, Kat (Madeline Wise). Pete has some successes and failures, both professionally and personally, and by season's end, he does find himself in a better place than at season's start. He's certainly not "big time" yet, but he is a solid, professional stand-up.

Once again, the show was hilarious from start to finish. From the jump, Crashing had the built-in humor of having an aspiring comedian interacting with well-known, well-established, extremely funny stand-up comedians. This season is no different, although at this point, the show relied less on famous guests and allowed Pete and a few other, lesser-known characters take more center stage. We also continue to get a bit more insight into the world of stand-up comedy, where success or failure can sometimes be infuriatingly out of one's control, even if a person is genuinely funny. I also found the fourth episode engaging, as it focused on the changing perception of offensive, Andrew Dice Clay-type "shock comics" who were big in the 1990s but who have lost nearly all favor in the wake of social movement such as #MeToo.

Although the creators of the show were planning on further seasons and HBO's cancellation was a surprise for them, this season did actually have some sense of closure to it. For a show whose plug was unexpectedly pulled, this is about all one could ask for. I'll be grateful to Pete Holmes and everyone involved for putting together such a fun show and introducing my wife and I to several comics whom we hadn't heard of before but whom we are now fans of. I still highly recommend this show to anyone who digs stand-up comedy. In a very manageable twenty-seven episodes at about 30 minutes each, it's easy to dive into the whole series and get plenty of great laughs.

New Release with No Spoilers: Avengers: Endgame (2019)

No Spoilers Here - Read Away!

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

What a titanic piece of work, and one that takes more than a few risks. That is why it is a highly impressive follow-up to last year's Infinity War, and a wonderfully fitting final chapter to the Marvel Cinematic Universe's (MCU) first decade of blockbuster movie domination.

Before getting into my general thoughts, I should point out that Endgame, like its predecessor Infinity War, is not a friendly film for those unfamiliar with the seminal films of the MCU. For the last few years, the MCU has been better described as a large-scale film series rather than a group of individual films which take place in the same "universe". While a viewer certainly doesn't need to have seen all 21 of the previous MCU films, seeing at least a half dozen specific ones will provide far greater context for the events in Endgame. My personal recommendations for the highly recommended "homework" films would be:

Iron Man
Captain America: The First Avenger
The Avengers
Thor: The Dark World
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Civil War
The Avengers: Infinity War
Ant-Man and The Wasp

There are a few other films that one could watch in order to fully understand some of the lesser plot points and gags in Endgame, but the nine listed above will give one a very solid foundation upon which to enjoy the new movie without feeling lost.

This being the "no spoiler" section, I cannot dive into the plot points except to state that Endgame spends a fair bit of time dealing with the fallout of Thanos's "snap" from Infinity War, with which he used the Infinity Gauntlet to literally annihilate half of the population of the known universe at the end of the previous film. The surviving superheroes grapple with the unfathomable loss just like everyone else - with varying degrees of success and failure. Some eventually move on. Others wallow in sad states of guilt and loss. Eventually, a possible and highly risky form of salvation is presented and those heroes left behind pull themselves together to try and enact it in an effort to bring back the countless numbers of people lost.

One of the movie's many strengths is seeing who among the
survivors ends up teaming together in the name of the new
mission laid out by Endgame.

Perhaps the thing that stands out to me about Endgame is just how different the pace and tone are, compared to Infinity War. That previous movie had an extremely brisk pace and plenty of action, right from the jump. Endgame takes a much different approach, using nearly all of the first act (which clocks in at nearly an hour) in a somber mood, looking at the familiar characters dealing with their grief and some still searching for solutions. It's not without humor, to be sure, but the moments of levity are fewer and further between than any MCU film I can recall. For a dedicated fan of the MCU like myself, however, this was a very welcome and all-but-necessary shift, coming on the heels of such a wild and devastating end to Infinity War. Viewers not familiar with the main characters' backstories are likely to be bored by the slower pace, but such is always the case when one picks up a series in its final chapter. Once the second act begins, though, things pick up quite briskly.

The second act of the movie was a very fun one, despite being the most obvious form of fan service in the entire 22-film MCU. This is not to say that it felt contrived or pandering. It actually does make complete sense within the plot of the movie, all while offering real fanboys and fangirls tons of "wink wink, nudge nudge" moments for about an hour, as we recall the many, many details from earlier movies referenced in this part of the epic film. It all culminates in scenes teased, suggested, and hoped for based on Infinity War - a third-act battle sequence of huge proportions and featuring just about every major and secondary character from the 21 previous MCU movies. And as they've done with their three previous MCU movies, the Russos show that they know how to do immensely entertaining, large-scale action.

I don't think it's giving anything away to mention that time travel plays more than a small role in this movie (how else did we think the surviving Avengers might seek to undo Thanos's galactic genocide?). As with any story that uses time travel as a device, the plot can get messy and confusing if one thinks too much about it. Endgame doesn't get too bogged down in the weeds on this, which is probably for the best, but it does raise certain questions that I'm yet to come up with answers to, despite mulling them over for a good 48 hours after watching the movie. There are also a few other unresolved plot threads that may give you an un-scratchable itch, but there's nothing that torpedoes the main thrust of the story.

The other aspect at the heart of this film is the characters. Like the narrative, the Russos throw us more than a couple of curve balls here, presenting some heroes as totally shattered emotionally (and not always the ones you expect) while others remain staunchly dedicated to the seemingly futile search for a way to bring everyone back. It is during these inner struggles that it helps to know about the characters since knowing about their past motivations and relationships with each other adds greatly to the emotional impact of the entire movie, especially the first and second acts. And for fans who have enjoyed the emotional heart of this series going back to the earliest seminal movies Iron Man and Captain America: The First Avenger, the ending should be immensely satisfying.

***Since writing the above, I've seen the film an additional two times and thoroughly enjoyed its full length all three times. Of course, I'm a tremendous fan of this series, but it speaks very highly of such a long film that even a dedicated fan can gain so much enjoyment from it.

Spoiler Section - Beware!!!

So let's get into this thing a little more. I could probably write a 20,000-word rabbit hole piece about so many specific details and how I loved or disliked them, but I'll stick to a few of the larger points.

The time travel. Let's get this out of the way. As a plot device to resolve the devastation unleashed in Infinity War, it was a necessary evil. But evil it still was. Yes, it provides a great reason for our heroes to go back and revisit moments chronicled in several earlier films in the series, and do so in some wonderfully entertaining ways. But still, when one thinks about it all for more than a few moments, it all falls apart rather quickly. If 2014 Thanos, along with his army and Gamorah and Nebula, jumps ahead to 2023 to confront the Avengers and gets annihilated, then you've now obliterated all of the things that Thanos (and his army and daughters) did up to and after Guardians of the Galaxy. That has a lot of massive impacts, the most obvious of which is that Thanos is now no longer around to kick of the Infinity War story. On a smaller scale, Steve Rogers going back and staying in the 1940s to live out his life with Peggy Carter (a wonderfully satisfying moment of closure) leaves a ton of unanswerable questions about their relationship, such as why Peggy doesn't ackowledge him as her husband back in The Winter Soldier. And on and on the questions go, leading to a completely shattered continuity. That's by far my biggest issue with this movie. Again, though, it was probably a necessary evil, given exactly what had happened previously.

My other gripes are much smaller and easily shrugged off. The final battle is highly enjoyable, though I could have done without the high amount of posing and the cringe-worthy "She'll have help," up-with-women moment towards the end. Don't get me wrong - I love the women characters in the MCU, and I love seeing them kick ass, whether individually or together. But that moment felt so contrived that it broke my enjoyment of the battle. Oh, and why does anyone, including Peter Parker or anyone else, think that Captain Marvel needs any help to get through a few score foot soldiers? Did they not just see her single-handedly bring down Thanos's immense warship by flying through it in about 10 seconds flat? Those and a few other things had me rolling my eyes a bit, but again - easily shrugged off.

What impressed me the most is how the plot defied my expectations. As I do with all blockbuster movies which I'm eager to see, I completely blocked out any trailers or other information about the movie. That way, it could reveal itself to me upon my first viewing. Endgame rewarded that approach. Having a handful of the remaining Avengers rather quickly track down Thanos and execute him was not something I saw coming, nor was the five year jump in the narrative. And then there was fat Thor, Black Widow's sacrifice, and Steve Rogers electing to go back and reclaim the life he lost in 1945. I really do feel like the writers took some real risks with this story. They could very well have done a full two-and-a-half hour "let's go get Thanos" story, but they elected to focus more on dealing with loss and fighting to undo a horrendous tragedy rather than focus more on a revenge tale. I think this made the movie a great counter-balance and follow-up to Infinity War, which was a very fast-paced film heavily emphasizing action/adventure elements over emotional touchstones.

The curious thing now is the question of where the MCU goes from this point. It was a bold stroke to move the entire universe five years into the future, which threatens to really jerk with the continuity that many of us MCU nerds cherish. The threat of dangling time threads aside, I'm still completely on board with what may come. Right now, there are only a few "known" movies planned, but details are extremely slim. I do hope to see at least one more movie featuring the "Asguardians of the Galaxy," as Portly Thor referred to them. That team-up has a dizzying amount of entertainment potential. 

New Release! The Shape of Water (2017)

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Arguably the best of the brilliant film fantasist Guillermo del Toro's several excellent movies.

Mexican director del Toro is an unapologetic fan of fantasy and horror films, and his movies have always worn this passion on their sleeves. From his debut film Cronos, through the much-heralded Pan's Labrynth, and even his lighter fare like Hellboy and Pacific Rim, he has always shown to be a master of blending visual spectacle with genuine heart. The Shape of Water is a culmination of nearly all of his greatest strengths.

The movie takes place in 1962, set to the backdrop of a United States in which hope still abounds for many to achieve the "American Dream" of upward mobility and consumer comforts. The Cold War is in full swing, but the U.S. is working exceptionally hard to craft and sell a utopian image to itself. Unfortunately for some, this image does not include equality for anyone outside of the WASP template. Within this atmosphere, we meet Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), a mute janitor who works at a secret government installation in Baltimore. One day, a rather severe government agent, Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon), arrives with a bizarre, humanoid, amphibious creature in captivity. In the course of her cleaning duties, Elisa grows fascinated with the creature, and she eventually forms an unspoken bond of trust with it, a trust which evolves further into physical and emotional attraction. All of this comes under intense pressure when Col. Strickland, a brutal authoritarian type who only sees the creature as a monster to be exploited for any scientific advantages it's body can convey to his country, makes moves to kill and dissect the creature. This springs Elisa into action, and along with several other marginalized friends, she contrives an escape plan for the inhuman obejct of her affections.

The movie is a wonderfully brilliant and uniquely heartfelt take on the classic monster movies of the 1940s and 1950s, most notably the classic The Creature from the Black Lagoon. What del Toro lovingly does, though, is go far beyond merely updating the same old story. Instead, he uses the basic element of the creature to tell a story of marginalized peoples during a time in U.S. history when homogeneity was a major part of a utopian ideal. Yes, an amphibious being from the jungles of South America is a highly fantastical proxy for people overlooked and cast aside due to their race, disabilities, or sexual orientation, but it serves as a perfect conduit for del Toro's cinematic brilliance, especially in terms of visuals. Just as he's done in his earlier movies, del Toro makes full use of the wide and beautiful color palattes at his disposal, crafting a movie that is marvelous to look upon. And many of the more imaginative sequences have the dreamlike quality that only movies can accomplish.

Beyond the stunning visuals, there is a beautifully poetic and romantic dark fairy tale at work in this movie. Some will certainly find it odd, if not grotesque, in certain ways. If one does see it as a fairy tale, though, it becomes much easier to accept the bizarre elements of the story, including the sexual ones. It is not often that I pull for a happy ending to movies, since they are nearly always done for reasons of pure sentimental crowd-pleasing. In this movie, though, I truly was hoping that the characters would find the happiness and freedom which they sought. For a somewhat cynical movie-goer like me, who tends to prefer downer endings in general, this is saying something.

As her expressive face often shows, Elisa is possessed of an
iron bravery and boldness that speaks far louder than her
missing voice ever could.

If you know anything about the cast, then it should be no surprise that the acting is outstanding. Sally Hawkins pulls off the amazing feat of illustrating a range of emotions for a character bereft of speech. Using her highly expressive face and wonderful body language, Elisa's love, pain, and longing are as clear as if she were giving articulate, empassioned speeches for the film's length. The nemesis in the film is played to perfection by the ever-intense Michael Shannon. I really would like to see Shannon cast in different roles more often, but there is a reason that he is called upon to play characters such as the imposing Col. Strickland - he's frighteningly good at it. There are also award-winners at nearly every turn, with Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer delivering just the kind of high-quality performances that you would expect.

This is all not to say that I found everything in the movie great. While some of the humor is quite good, a few gags don't quite hit. More than this, though, is that I found the story a bit heavy-handed and obvious in how it presented certain characters as being social misfits. Elisa's gay neighbor and her African-American coworker face the discrimination that was certainly typical of the day, but del Toro doesn't really present their plights in subtle or creative ways. For a movie that is bursting with vibrancy in so many ways, it would have been nice to see a little more novelty or at least deftness in the depictions of those discriminated against.

This was the fifth of the nine Oscar Best Picture nominees that I've now seen. While I still have several more to take in, this one is definitely very high in the running for the award. Though not flawless, it demonstrates the dazzling artistry and particular magic that can be accomplished in no other media than film. 

The Harry Potter Series, Part 2: Order of the Phoenix through the Deathly Hallows

This is the second part of my reviews of the entire eight-film series of Harry Potter adaptation from the novels by J.K. Rowling. The first part, covering the first four movies, is here.

Harry gets worked over by Dolores Umbridge, one of the most
detestable, of not exactly horrific, adversaries Potter and his
pals face off in the series.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Director: David Yates

Potter's fifth year was his roughest yet. Still recovering from seeing a fellow Hogwart's schoolmate killed in front of him by Voldemort himself, Harry now must deal with other threats. Hogwart's is gradually taken over by an authoritarian bureaucrat who wishes to stifle the merest suggestion that Voldemort exists, which puts Potter, his friends, and the entire wizarding community in grave peril.

This fifth movie is another strong one, though still not quite as good as Cuaron's Prisoner of Azkaban. It features a thoroughly dislikable, though rather different, nemesis for Harry in the form of Dolores Umbridge, the quietly sadistic, ultra-conservative Ministry of Magic employee who slowly but surely takes over the school. In my view, she is the most despicable character in the entire series, due to the fact that she is not truly "evil," but rather that equally dangerous type of person who denies their worst traits by doubling down on a rules and order. This does offer no small satisfaction when she gets her comeuppance, to be sure.

The other elements of the movie are on par with Goblet of Fire - a plot that is entertaining and fast-paced, and that holds up well enough if you don't start looking too closely at it (this is always the case with the Harry Potter series, both books and movies). The visuals and effects are as good as any thus far, including some striking set pieces and costumes. As has been the case for the whole series, the themes and tones get a bit darker and more mature, with this film including more notable loss for Harry. It also features him grappling with exactly who he is and facing some of the more negative, destructive aspects of his personality. As a side note, I also enjoy that we are finally let in on a little more history of Severus Snape, one of the most complex and compelling characters in the entire Potter series.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Director: David Yates

Year six and Harry's penultimate year at Hogwart's is hardly much fun anymore. Although it is now clear to the wizarding world that Voldemort has truly returned, vindicating Harry, Potter and his friends now face the encroaching threat of Voldemort and his sinister Death Eaters. These dark forces begin to kill and attack anyone they deem a threat, including Hogwart's and its esteemed and powerful headmaster, Dumbledor. In the middle of this, Dumbledor enlists Harry to ferret out of a returned professor some key information about Voldemort's past - information which they may be able to use to put a true end to the malevolent wizard.

At this point, the fun and games are essentially over for Harry and his pals. The darker elements that have been encroaching on their world since The Prisoner of Azkaban are now in full attack mode, and the tone and plot reflect it. The dialogue, story, character development, and even set designs reflect the gravity and even terror at work at this point in the epic story. While it may not be the stuff of highly sophisticated movie-making, it is rather impressive for a "family" movie to have transformed its quality so dramatically. Yes, there is still an entertaining little quidditch match and a silly little sub-plot involving Ron's budding romance(s), but the movie never wanders far from the sinister elements lurking around every corner. Whether it's a fiery, destructive attack on the humble home of the Weasleys or the grim, fatalistic desperation around Draco Malfoy, there is less buoyancy in this film than in any previous Potter entry.

Personally, though, I think that all of these elements make it a better movie. After several movies that set up just how magical and valuable the wizarding world is to admirable people like Harry and his friends, the attacks unleashed in this movie have more power. If there is any notable weakness, it is that, at this point in the series, the film cannot stand alone. Any viewer who hasn't seen most or all of the previous movies will be missing out on so many backstories that the movie will be confusing at best and incomprehensible at worst.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione are joined by house elf Dobby and
a troll for a daring break in at Gringott's bank. It's one of a few
action scenes that come between several overlong,
slower scenes that felt a bit like busy work. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 (2010)

Director: David Yates

School is out at this point. In the wake of Voldemort and his Death Eaters' direct attacks on their enemies in the magical community, including their killing of Dumbledore, Harry Potter cannot afford to return to Hogwarts for his seventh and final year. Instead, he goes on the run with Hermione and Ron in order to find several magical items which will help them defeat the seemingly-invincible Dark Lord. The three are forced to stay light and mobile, as they desperately search for the items, often with little or no information to go on.

Of the entire Potter series, this is the lone movie that feels overly padded with unnecessary or drawn-out scenes. The filmmakers were, admittedly, in a somewhat tough spot. Author J.K. Rowling's final book in the series was a massive one, making a single movie adaptation virtually impossible (unless they wanted to make a four-hour film). So they opted to divide it into two movies. This was understandable, but the result is that Part 1 consists far more of buildup, plot points that go mostly unresolved, and several scenes which take the already-somber and relatively slow-paced movie and drag it out even more. To be sure, there are still the hallmark revelations and plot elements that make the story compelling, but the nearly two-and-a-half hour film could probably have been a good 15 to 20 minutes shorter and been the better for it.

Perhaps the standout contribution of this episode is the animated sequence that tells the story of the titular ''Deathly Hallows," magical items of lore that play a significant part in the final chapter of the epic series. The tale is visualized using computer-generated silhouettes, which creates a brilliant narrative and visual effect unlike any other in this special-effects-heavy series. Generally, though, this movie is really only a satisfying when you have Part 2 ready to fire up immediately after the credits roll. And I did...

In the final film, the fun and games are a thing of the past as
the little kids we first saw a decade earlier are now locked
in a deadly war with Voldemort's forces of evil.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011)

Director: David Yates

And so the decade-long, eight-film adaptation of the most successful children's book series in history ends. Well, they did it justice.

It's been long enough since I've read the final book (roughly seven or eight years ago) that I didn't remember a great many details of final chapter in the series. This probably aided my enjoyment of the movie. This final movie, when viewed shortly after the slightly hobbled previous film, makes up for that earlier effort's shortcomings

The final chapter sees Harry, Ron, and Hermione tracking down the final horcruxes that house Voldemort's soul and using them in a grand final battle between the "good" and "evil" forces in the wizarding world. Harry, obviously, sides with the group who feel that their abilities do not and should not raise them above "muggles," or normal, non-magical folk, while Voldemort and his allies seek to dominate the normal human world and eradicate any sympathizing magicians.

The scale in this final movie is understandably much larger than the earlier ones, and it is handled very well. Whereas Deathly Hallows, Part 1 was bogged down in many places, Part 2 has more than enough action. It culminates in some very satisfying final confrontations, and the story fortunately retains the more challenging elements from Rowling's source novels (challenging for a children's book, that is). Maybe my one takeaway from this viewing is just how interesting a character Severus Snape is. He is arguably the deepest, most fascinating, most romantic, and most tragic figure in the entire series. When one knows his entire story arc, it makes watching the earlier movies that much more engaging.

So this was a fun little OCD movie project of mine. I anticipate that these movies will have an incredibly long life in world popular culture. While the first couple of movies' effects and overall techniques are already a little dated and tired, the remaining half dozen films in the series have the look of ones that will remain relatively timeless. 

The Harry Potter Series, Part 1: Sorcerer's Stone through Goblet of Fire

A few weeks ago, having fallen ill for about four days straight, I felt the urge to watch something that was entertaining, comforting, and didn't strain my foggy brain. Upon realizing that I had actually never seen the final film in the Harry Potter series, and I had my answer. I had seen all of the first seven movies, but not since they had originally been released in theaters.

I'm not going to go into the minutiae of the various plot points that run through the 7-novel/8-movie tale. I'll keep things rather short, assuming that most people already know the basics or would rather just watch the movies for themselves. Here's how I found them upon this rewatch:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)

Director: Christopher Columbus

In this first movie, we meet Harry Potter, a mistreated orphan boy who is informed that not only is there a secret world of magic and wizards, but that he is a rather special young man who is destined for great things within this wondrous landscape. He is brought to Hogwart's School of Wizardry, where he befriends Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. The three eventually foil a plot by one of the school's teachers to help revive Voldemort, the presumed-dead evil wizard who killed Harry's parents 12 years prior.

Still an entertaining and faithful-to-a-fault adaptation that hasn't aged particularly well, The Sorcerer's Stone introduced all who hadn't read the books to the world of Harry Potter and the witches, wizards, and other dazzling elements around it. There are certainly clumsy elements to the story, and the three primary child actors had not really found their footing as performers. The special effects also haven't held up very well, with the CGI now looking rather garish and clunky. Director Christopher Columbus goes for fairly broad dialogue and comedy, as he's done in his other movies, which doesn't serve us older viewers terribly well.

All the same, the world that author J.K. Rowling created is still a lot of fun, and it provides enough wonder as it is revealed to us, even if the pacing is overly brisk. The plot also features enough amusing turns to keep things lively, and the adult actors are all absolutely perfect, as it's difficult to go wrong with actors the caliber of Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, and the like. The movie isn't flawless, but it is a solid enough beginning to this movie franchise juggernaut. 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Director: Christopher Columbus

Chapter two of the Potter series sees Harry return to Hogwarts and become embroiled in another mystery - this one involving various students turning up literally petrified around the campus. As Harry digs deeper, he learns a little more about his own history as well as the history of Voldemort, with whom he seems to be inexplicably linked.

Although still containing a few of the weaknesses of the first film, this second entry made some marked improvements. Main child actors Watson, Radcliffe, and Grint show a little more comfort with their roles and acting chops, even if they're not completely natural yet. Also helping matters is that the already-considerable adult cast is assisted by the inclusion of other top-notch actors like Kenneth Brannagh and Jason Isaacs. The effects are noticeably better, although the Quidditch match CGI still looks too artificially glossy and awkward.

As with the source novels, the tone and sophistication increases ever-so-slightly. This second volume features higher stakes, involving a bit more menace and some intriguing insight into the still-mysterious arch-villain Voldemort. The little plot turns reveal more clever updates of familiar myths and fairy tale elements. 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2003)

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

This film sees a 13-year-old Harry in his third year at Hogwart's dealing with the presence of the ghastly Dementors as they hover around the school on the lookout for an escaped wizard convict. The convict, Sirius Black, has some sort of tie to Harry's dead parents, and strange and dangerous events start to unfold around the school.

I always remember this third film in the series as the strongest one, and this repeat viewing didn't diminish that opinion. Directed by highly accomplished director Alfonso Cuaron, Azkaban almost immediately offers a darker look and tone, quickly introducing the horrific Dementors, grim reaper-like beings which siphon the happiness away from those unfortunate enough to go to near. These terrible creatures are a serious part of a grimmer chapter in the Potter series, one which sees the inclusion of great British actors like Gary Oldman, Emma Thompson, and a few others. 

Other improvements over the previous chapters include dialogue which is less clumsy and an overall reduction of sentimentality. The plot, still highly faithful to Rowling's novel, also shows a bit more care with its details. Of course, a savvy and mature fan of science fiction and fantasy tales can pick many details apart, but if one keeps in mind that this is a family movie, then it clearly stands superior to its passable predecessors.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

Director: Mike Newell

The fourth movie in the series gets into the action more quickly than the previous installments, soon getting to the titular and lethal "Goblet of Fire" tournament in which Harry unwillingly becomes a competitor. Now 14 years old, Harry is dealing with not only the stresses of the tournament but also questions about romance and friendship. These latter life elements eventually take a back seat, though, as Harry ultimately comes face-to-face with Voldemort himself. 

Goblet of Fire is something of a blend of the strengths and weaknesses of the previous three movies. It generally overcomes some sappier elements in its first two acts with some deadly serious consequences and repercussions in its third act. While some of the first two-third of the movie is given over to teenage angst, the final act makes it clear that play time is over. Over in a way that includes a full-on murder right in front of Harry's face. Not exactly the stuff of kiddie movies, which is quite welcome to any of us viewers past puberty. 

The three primary characters of Harry, Ron, and Hermione are now acting as moody as nearly all 14 year-olds. The interpersonal drama can be a bit tedious at times, but it does create a deeper sense of character. Even if the sappier parts of the drama become a tad thick, they are dispatched in the final part of the movie, when the long-teased nemesis Voldemort finally makes his first true, full appearance. He brings with him the sense of terror that's been building through the previous three films, to be sure, and it sets up the rest of the series extremely well.

So the first half of this eight-film series was solid enough, although the earliest movies haven't aged as well. Fortunately, the general trend was that the quality improved, which boded well as I headed into movies five through eight (review coming in a couple of days).

New Release! Star Wars: Rogue One (2016) [Spoiler-Free!]

Director: Gareth Edwards

Spoiler-Free Review! Have no fear!!

Though it's not without its flaws, I found Rogue One to be excellent in many ways. Enough ways, in fact, to count it among the best two or three Star Wars movies in the entire series.

In an interesting move, the powers that be decided to greenlight this story which, until this point, has been a micro-font footnote in the greater Star Wars narrative. In the original 1977 film Star Wars: A New Hope, we learn that the plans for the Death Star's fatal weakness were obtained "at great cost." Rogue One tells the story of that cost, and it does a rather fine job of it.

The tale focuses on Jyn Erso, a young fighter who is highly capable but seems to be without clear purpose. Jyn's father is the chief engineer in charge of constructing the Death Star, something which makes her very valuable to the rebel movement that is desperately struggling against the Empire. Jyn gets caught up in the rebellion, as they make a desperate attempt to discover Jyn's connection to everything before the Death Star becomes fully operational and can lay waste to entire planets as it continues its march of domination across the galaxy.

The movie is strong enough that I can comfortably place it among the two or three best movies in the entire Star Wars series. In keeping with J.J. Abrams approach with last year's The Force Awakens, director Gareth Edwards made sure to stick with the classic aesthetic of the original trilogy, with a some deft updates thanks to modern CGI technology. Also present is the fun sense of swashbuckling adventure, with plenty of narrow escapes, tense standoffs, and various forms of combat. This is actually an area where Rogue One stands out from other movies in the series, in that many of the action scenes are bit more creative for a Star Wars movie.

Probably the movie's greatest strength is the overall tone and resolution. Anyone who knows the Star Wars story knows how this tale is going to end, basically. It adds a certain weight to the proceedings which is usually not present in the other movies. Even The Empire Strikes Back or Revenge of the Sith, which famously end on down notes, don't reach the level of loss that we get in Rogue One, and the movie is better for it.

Two mild weaknesses and one massive strength: Diego Luna
as Cassian, Felicity Jones as Jyn, and the droid K-2SO,
voiced by the underrated Alan Tudyk.

The movie is not without some flaws, to be sure, but none of them is crippling. One or two characters don't seem completely hashed out or explored. More than this, though, is that I found a few key performances a bit lacking. The always wildcard Forest Whitaker turns in a strange take on his character Saw Gerrera, and chief supporting actor Diego Luna is not always easy to buy as a hard-as-nails renegade Cassian. The most obvious, though, is lead actress Felicity Jones. She's not terrible by any means, but I never bought her as the supposedly uber-tough loner/survivor that she is supposed to be. It's most obvious when she tries to give a rousing speech to other rebels - a speech which I had a hard time buying when looking into her soft, pleading eyes. Daisy Ridley's gritty performance as Rey in The Force Awakens was far more convincing.

Despite these quibbles, there's more than enough to overcome them. Not the least of which is the introduction of K-2SO, the best droid character in the entire Star Wars movie franchise, by a long shot. He (It?) is one of several secondary characters who spice up the movie immensely. When you add a flat-out awesome sequence with Darth Vader at the very end of the film, you get plenty of blockbuster fun.

If this is an indication of what Disney is going to be doing with these one-off Star Wars movies (the Han Solo standalone film comes out in 2018), then we Star Wars fans are in for a treat in the coming years.

New Release! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Spoiler-Free section first)

Director: David Yates

Spoiler-free Section

An entertaining popcorn fantasy movie that brings us back into J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter-verse.

The story takes place 70 years before the events in the Harry Potter books, in the United States of the mid-1920s, where a peculiar Englishman named Newt Scamander (Eddie Redgrave) disembarks at Ellis Island with a strange briefcase. Scamander is a wizard who looks after exotic magical creatures which are under threat of death or even extinction. He keeps the beasts he finds in his traveling case, which thanks to magic, opens into a massive set of rooms and open spaces which can easily contain the many critters under his charge. Scamander has come to the U.S. to return one of the creatures to its native habitat. However, a few of the creatures in his case manage to escape and begin to run amok in New York City. While all of this happens, the wizarding community in the United States is in crisis, as a bizarre and mysterious destructive force has been killing and causing damage around the city. The devastation threatens to reveal the U.S. wizarding community to non-wizards, leading to a likely war which most wizards understand would have disastrous consequences for all involved. Scamander becomes wrapped up in this affair while he tries to track down and recapture his beasts.

The movie is plenty of fun, if not quite as tight or consistently creative as the best Harry Potter movies or other fantasy adventure films aimed at wide audiences. The tale of Newt Scamander is a pretty thinly veiled advocacy of "green" sensibilities, with Scamander playing the part of the concerned zookeeper who is the only one who seems to care for creatures misunderstood and feared. This certainly isn't a bad thing, but it's not exactly the most original concept. It does help that the creatures that he's chasing are amusing to watch and consider. The concurrent tale of turmoil in the U.S. wizarding community uses a darker element which Rowling didn't use in the Harry Potter books, but also isn't the most novel idea, either. For the sake of avoiding spoilers, I'll write no more than to say that I quite literally saw exactly the same story idea used in an episode of the CW show Supernatural in an episode earlier this season. Due to this, I was able to anticipate the "twists" in the story fairly easily. This doesn't torpedo the story, but it did take away a bit of its punch for me.

Queenie and Kowalski, probably my favorite part of the film.
The relationship between the two is the most deftly handled
and the most touching.

In such fantasy tales, characters can make or break the story, and Fantastic Beasts does a solid job with its people. Scamander is, while twitchy and uncomfortable, likeable and quirky enough to carry much of the film. The U.S. witch Tina, played by Katherine Waterston, is also solid enough, although her character is never fully fleshed out enough to be much more than a capable and noble figure. And the attraction which develops between her and Newt never feels totally organic. In contrast, the relationship between Tina's witch sister Queenie (Alison Sudol) and the "no-mag" aspiring baker Kowalski is as endearing a romance as I've seen in such a family picture. Thanks to brilliant acting by both Sudol and Dan Fogler as the earnest and amicable everyman Kowalski, I found myself truly hoping that they could find some sort of happiness together. There is even a very affecting moment of loss pertaining to their relationship that I surprisingly found quite touching. Most other characters are fairly black-and-white, which suffices well enough.

The visuals are what you would hope from a big-budget Hollywood flick. They're captivating enough, and I imagine would be enhanced by a viewing in 3D (I watched it on in standard format). I am generally a fan of using people, makeup, and costumes over CGI for effects, and Fantastic Beasts does lean a bit heavily on the latter more or less out of necessity. Fortunately, it doesn't rob the film of too much texture.

So this was an enjoyable return to J.K. Rowling's most wildly successful world. I just read that this is meant to be the first of a five-film series. Fortunately, it mostly feels like a self-contained movie, rather than one meant to be a setup for several future films. It's a great way to test the waters and see if you enjoy this foray into the past behind one of the most titanically popular fantasy worlds created in modern times.

Spoiler Section - You've Been Warned

For a guy so concerned with the well-being of his creatures, Scamander sure doesn't put much stock into getting the clasps on his briefcase fixed. I know, I know. It's sort of a necessary plot device, but it felt like a type of carelessness that runs counter to everything else we learn about his character.

Tina helps Newt out of one of several jams in which he finds
himself. It's just a shame that the film didn't dig a bit deeper
into Tina's skill as a field investigator for her ministry.

There are a few questionable plot points that get completely railroaded, presumably for the sake of pace, many of them regarding Tina's place at the Ministry of Wizarding in New York City. We learn that she was demoted from her position as an investigator - or "auror" in Potter parlance - because she reached out to a rather unfriendly no-mag, but that's about it. But I feel as if we never get to see her truly flex her skills as an auror. She does save Newt's bacon more than once, but the implication is often that she is far more capable than the film ever fully depicts. This seemed like a missed opportunity. Not to mention just how easily and repeatedly the other investigators dismiss her out of hand, despite Tina's clearly being a level-headed and dedicated member of their organization.

In that vein, things do feel a bit rushed at several points of the movie. Perhaps this is based on the filmmakers' assumption that most viewers are already familiar with the basics of the Potter universe and don't need a refresher. This may be true, but Fantastic Beasts throws a fairly high number of characters, creatures, and concepts at viewers in relatively short order. Several of them seem quite interesting, but they are never given more than a few moments of screen time, and so they are often little more than window dressing  - a pack of colorfully-dressed folks waving wands around and either destroying or fixing things.

There are also a few clumsy moment in the plot. A little over halfway through the movie, Tina finds a picture of a woman who seems to have significance to Newt. Tina raises the point, and Newt's response hints as some unresolved relationship, but the entire story remains extremely vague about it. And at the end of the movie, Newt acts as if he's had some sort of soft breakthrough and gotten past her. It's a tad awkward and watered down, making the entire sub-point seem of little to no value. There are a few other points a bit like this, where an element which has potential to add depth to the characters or plot goes unexplored. None of them is tragic, but they do weaken the movie just a bit.

My gripes basically arise from several sloppy or overlooked details that keep the movie from being as tight as it could be. Again, I did enjoy the movie, and I'll certainly watch it again at some point in the future. 

Doctor Strange (spoiler free & spoiler versions)

Director: Scott Derrickson

Spoiler-Free Section

A solid and fun entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), if not one that I count among the absolute best in the series.

The 14th movie in the MCU, Doctor Strange follows the title character Doctor Steven Strange's evolution into mystic heroism. Strange is a neurosurgeon whose brilliance as a medical doctor is only matched by his own arrogance. Tragedy strikes when a car accident results in severe nerve damage to Strange's hands, leaving him desperate for any type of procedure - no matter how radical - that might return the use of his hands. He follows a lead to a village in Nepal, where he is taken into a monastery that trains people in mystic arts. These arts not only allow their users to perceive alternate dimensions and realities, but also to channel energies for fantastic purposes. Though Strange is initially only interested in regaining the use of his hands and reclaiming his life as the world's foremost neurosurgeon, he is eventually thrust into a battle against a terrifying extra-dimensional threat to Earth.

The first thing I'll say about Doctor Strange is to commend it for being the most self-contained movie the MCU has produced in a while. Even 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy included a few characters and concepts introduced in earlier MCU films. There are a couple of very brief references to such things in Doctor Strange, but not knowing them does nothing to diminish a viewer's enjoyment of the movie. This is something that has inevitably become more and more difficult for MCU films, but this latest movie does it well.

The story vacillates between some very fun and creative elements and some tepid, unimaginative ones. In order to stay true to the comic book origins of the character, the writers opted to follow the model that has already been used in plenty of other origin movies, comic book or otherwise. An arrogant and successful man is stricken by personal tragedy. The tragedy makes him take stock of his life, and he adopts a more benevolent and heroic perspective of the world. Then he saves it. Doctor Strange doesn't deviate from this formula. It does, however, make the protagonist's redemption a bit more interesting through the introduction of magic into the MCU. Strange, a man of pure empirical science, must learn to embrace concepts beyond those taught by Western schools of logic. Perhaps it's a bit trite, but it makes for a decent enough dynamic between Strange and his teachers in the monastery. I'll also say that the primary villains in Doctor Strange do show a bit more imagination and depth than most in the MCU. While the villains aren't as unique as, say, Zemo in Civil War, their motivations are a bit more intriguing than the one-dimensional punching bags we've seen in many of the MCU films.

The characters are just compelling enough, without ever being completely magnetic. Strange is a strong enough character that he can carry the movie, but he's a bit too similar to Tony Stark to feel completely fresh. Doctor Strange's mentor, The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) is probably the most intriguing character outside of the title character, but we are only let in on so much. There are a few others who show some potential, but that potential never seems fully tapped or explored.

The MCU movies, even the darkest ones like Captain America: The Winter Soldier, have always included a solid amount of humor. Doctor Strange is no exception. But while I was amused at some of the visual gags and dialogue, this movie is in the middle of pack in terms of just how funny it was, compared to its MCU brethren. Considering just how funny Benedict Cumberbatch can be, especially when playing a supremely intelligent but dry and arrogant asshole as in the BB''s Sherlock series, I was surprised that he wasn't given a sharper script to work with.

Tilda Swinton is a great choice as The Ancient One - the
Sorcerer Supreme of the Mystic Arts. Her ageless look and
unflappable affect is spot-on.

The visuals are yet another mixed bag that fall just on the right side of the line between "OK" and "good". The fighting and action sequences are nothing special, in terms of the actual hand-to-hand combat. It's probably unfortunate that the Russo brothers have spoilt us so much with the previous two Captain America movies, in which the fighting and action sequences are amazing. Compared to those, the fighting in Doctor Strange often seems very humdrum. Fortunately, the overall visuals make up for it. While one could say that the movie borrows a bit too heavily from the visual wizardry of Christopher Nolan's Inception, it does it with enough of its own flourishes to still make it stunning. When the various sorcerers are warping reality and jumping between dimensions, it's simply a treat for the eyes to drink it all in. Probably my favorite sequence is when Doctor Strange is first hurtled through a light-filled, kaleidoscopic, warp-speed tour of the multiverse. I saw this movie in standard format, but I've already planned to see in in 3-D, on an IMAX screen, if only to see that sequence again. It's one of the trippiest film moments I've seen in a while. To be honest, it's the kind of thing I was hoping for more of in the film.

So Doctor Strange is a solid fantasy action flick, when taken on its own. When taken in the context of the 14 MCU movies released to date, I have it in the middle of the pack, behind the strongest films like The Avengers, the Russos' Captain America movies, and a few others.

Spoiler-Laden Section!! Be warned.

I feel the need to comment on some of the specifics.

Firstly, I have to seriously question just how secure Kamar-Taj has been kept when Steven Strange discovers its existence. So he finds out that some random dude went there and got his broken spine healed, and then he just tracks him down to a local basketball court, shooting hoops? Not only that, but the guy gives up the name of the place in the blink of an eye. I would expect the Ancient One and the keepers of such powerful forces to do much better job of keeping the lid on their practices and their location, given just how dangerous their practices are.

Strange's training provides some compelling and entertaining
moments, but I felt like they could have built his progression
a bit more gradually and creatively.

I felt that the pace of the movie was a little herky-jerky at times. I love a good training montage as much as the next person, and this movie could have used a better one. After he is accepted into Kamar-Taj, Strange goes from struggling beginner to baffling mastery in a span of less than 10 minutes of film time. I feel that the writers could have used a little more time to offer some creative views on just how the system of magic works. Magic is, by nature, a story element that is ripe for creativity. Yet Doctor Strange only gives us vague, standard explanations about "harnessing extra-dimensional forces" and little more. Maybe this is something that will be explored in future movies, but I was hoping for more from this one. I think it would have greatly enhanced the movie if maybe 10 more minutes had been dedicated to the details of Strange's learning the specific nature of the mystic arts and slowly building up mastery of them. Tony Stark's gradual construction of the Mark-2 Iron Man suit in the first movie was a blast to watch, and Doctor Strange could have followed a similar path.

I did really like the way the Ancient One's death plays out. The questions about her allegiances was set up fairly well, and the serenity around the death scene was a welcome change. Sure, one could say that it was just like Ugue's death in Kung-Fu Panda, but whatever. It was still a nice change from the bloody deaths that most mentors suffer in action movies, without sacrificing the impact that it has on the protagonist.

Strange's defeat of Dormammu was a real saving grace for me. Until then, the plot was following overly familiar lines. Massively powerful creature tries to dominate/destroy the planet. Things are exploding. People are dying. We've seen that plenty of times in other MCU movies. But then Strange gets clever. The use of the forbidden technique of time manipulation to stick Dormammu in a loop was great. And Strange sacrificing himself into the loop, to be killed over and over, is a unique act of heroism. It provided an entertaining series of scenes, as well as a powerful development of the character.

So like nearly everything about the movie, the details were both hit and miss with me, with the hits being a bit stronger than the misses. I like the foundation set up in this movie, and I think the character can become a vehicle for some really creative and wonderful tales. I hope that the writers who handle Strange going forward can tap into the immense potential he has.

Idiot Boxing: Supernatural Series Review

Don't be fooled by the Tiger Beat good looks of the two lead
actors. This show has some actual teeth, and the Winchesters
are tougher, deeper, and more compelling characters than 

you are likely to assume.

We all have our guilty, or at least semi-guilty, pleasures. When it comes to TV and movies, there are always those shows or genres that hold a personal appeal that exceeds their artistic merit. In my case, one of those shows is the long-running CW series, Supernatural. The back-story on my introduction and gradual attraction to the show may offer some explanation for my fandom, and it may even convince a few of you to give the show a chance.

Basically, the show follows Dean and Sam Winchester, a pair of brothers who hunt monsters throughout the United States. Vampires, werewolves, djinn, demons, and all other forms of nasty creatures are their prey. Their fights with the supernatural, with each other, and their brotherly bonding are the root of nearly every story in the show's ongoing run of 11 seasons.

In October of 2008, one of my roommates had been going on an on about the show, which she had been watching for its first three seasons. She was always sure to be home when every new episode aired. One of those October nights, I happened to be idle and watched the episode "Monster Movie" with her. It was hilarious. It showed a cheeky self-awareness and refusal to take itself too seriously, along with plenty of great little nods to classic monster movies of the past. Sure, the star actors and most of the supporting cast were impossibly attractive people, but there was a savvy to the writing and tone that stuck with me.

I continued to watch the rest of that fourth season, and I soon became hooked. Once I got past the glamorous facades of the actors, I saw a show that had really put in considerable thought and creative work. The world of the Winchesters has a wonderful mythology constructed from much of the great lore on supernatural creatures, weaving them together in creative and compelling ways. The writers clearly wanted to go beyond the common tropes of most monsters and their origins, while retaining the appealing elements of the horror genre. This became even clearer once I went back and watched the first three seasons. Taken as a whole, the first five seasons of the show comprise a fantastic story arc with great arch villains, amazingly strong supporting characters, and a masterful blend of tense horror and levity. I've watched those first, wildly entertaining 100-or-so episodes twice now, and I'll certainly do so again in the near future.

Seasons 1 through 5 (2005-2010)

The entire Winchester saga begins when Sam and Dean's mother is killed by a mysterious, yellow-eyed man with strange powers when Sam is a baby and Dean is a mere four-year-old. Their father, a former marine, then dedicates his entire life to tracking down the thing that destroyed their lives. He raises his two boys to track and kill all forms of evil creatures that roam the earth. The pursuit of "Yellow Eyes" continues for another two decades, until Sam and Dean are in their mid-twenties and their father is almost completely off the grid. When Yellow Eyes's trail becomes warm again, the series truly begins.

The frighteningly powerful demon Azazel serves as a great
nemesis for the first few seasons. His machinations pave the
way for none other than Lucifer himself.

The succeeding five seasons build amazingly well. While many episodes are given over to the Winchester boys hunting down baddies taken from urban legend, popular folktales, and various other dark places in world mythology, the greater story for the first three seasons is the pursuit of Yellow Eyes, whose true identity is eventually revealed as the demon Azazel. As the chase grows more intense, the mythology of the Supernatural universe deepens and expands to include demons, angels, and more than a few figures from Judeo-Christian mythology. The fourth and fifth season build perfectly towards a grand confrontation with none other than Lucifer himself, though not exactly in the way that you may expect.

One great strength of these initial seasons was the supporting cast of characters. Aside from Sam and Dean, we have their father John, who is a fascinating enigma of intensity and grit. Companions like Bobby, Jo and her mother Ellen, and Rufus are all extremely tough and welcome additions. The standout for me was Gordon, the intense hunter who derives a disturbing amount of pleasure from dispatching monsters. Gordon is one of many well-rounded characters whose appearances are strong enough and rare enough that their presence is always a treat during these early seasons.

The main story-line is the stuff of strong, fun, fantasy adventure writing. It borrows a bit from the irreverent sensibilities of British and Irish comic book writers like Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis (creator of Preacher), while adding welcome doses of goofy humor. The more comedic moments would often come in the form of two or three episodes each season in which the Winchesters were confronted with a particularly ridiculous adversary. Amazingly, co-star Jensen Ackles proves to be an excellent all-around actor, including comedically.

Whatever other missteps the series may have taken after these first five seasons, this initial run was outstanding television.

Seasons 6 through 9 (2010-2014)

When I learned that the show's creator and runner, Eric Kripke, had originally planned for the series to only run for 5 seasons, I was skeptical when a sixth was announced. Kripke had essentially left the show as its runner after the fifth season, so its heart and soul was elsewhere. The four seasons following were a mixed bag:

Sam, Dean, and a few other Winchesters. This little crew and
their pursuit of "Alpha" monsters helped make the 6th season
a better one that I had expected.

Season 6 was actually surprisingly strong. The focus on angels intensifies, which I've never found the most engaging facet to the Supernatural world. Still, the primary story is that of Sam's return from Lucifer's prison, and is certainly compelling. In order not to go insane from the experience, a wall has been put into Sam's mind which has also cut him off from his soul. This sets up a dynamic with Dean that keeps their evolution as brothers an intriguing part of the season. The angel Castiel and the demon Crowley become larger presences, which is still very welcome at this point. The season finale is on an epic scale, with Castiel absorbing obscene amounts of power from Purgatory, resulting in his believing that he is now God. This certainly kept my attention heading into...

The hacker Charlie, played by geek-goddess Felicia Day. She
was one of several characters who appeared in season 7 who
seemed to illustrate a lame attempt to appeal to the Big Bang

Theory fan-base of nerds.

Season 7 was, in my opinion, easily the weakest season to date. The main story is that of the Leviathan, a pack of horribly ravenous and tremendously powerful monsters accidentally set loose from Purgatory onto Earth. The setup was fairly interesting, but the story unfolds in the form of the rather silly premise of the Leviathan fattening up the populace with fast food into order to devour it. It works on a social satire level, but it doesn't mesh with the tone of previous, stronger seasons. The supporting cast takes an obvious step back at this point. Wonderfully strong characters like Joe, Ellen, and Gordon are dead, only to be replaced by the goofy Garth, the geeky hacker Charlie, and the paperweight high school nerd Kevin. All of these are almost purely comical and relatively thin characters whom I found more annoying than interesting. While there were certainly some strong and funny episodes, this was the only season which I had to convince myself to see through to the end. I wasn't terribly hopeful for season 8.

However, season 8 rebounded fairly well, thanks mostly to strong main plots. One is Dean's initial escape from Purgatory, where he was stranded at the end of season 7. He managed it only with the help of a vampire named Benny, who escaped with Dean. Benny was a strong enough character to carry much of the first half of this season. The second half was built upon the Winchesters' attempt to permanently seal the gates of Hell via an ancient ritual. Helping them is knowledge they gain from finding a headquarters of a secret society known as the Men of Letters - scholars and fighters who were equal parts occult librarians and monster hunters. Sam is tagged to endure three trials, in order to enact the ritual. However, the plan is turned on its head when a new player in the game - God's scribe, Metatron - usurps the spell and uses it to kick all of the angels out of heaven, as revenge for his being exiled millenia prior. This season still had a few too many appearances by Garth, Charlie, and other characters who I find too light and goofy. Despite this, it was very nice to see that the show-runners could rediscover some of the intensity and epic plotting that marked the earliest seasons.

The scribe of God, Metatron. Like Crowley, he is a character
who is interesting and amusing in his first season or so, but
whose "sinister but funny" act I find a bit tired from overuse.

The ninth season of Supernatural is on par with seasons 6 and 8 - solid, but not quite reaching the heights of the series' peak in seasons 3 through 5. The two main villains are considerable - Metatron, who has become the de facto ruler of heaven after expelling all angels; and Abaddon, a "Knight of Hell," who is an immensely powerful demon with her sights set on destroying Crowley and usurping his place as King of Hell. Abaddon is a great villain with a vicious streak on the level of Lilith and Eve in earlier seasons. This season also adds the Biblical Cain to the mix, played with imposing intesity by Timothy Omundson. By the end of this season, I had grown weary of Castiel and Crowley. The two have been a great part of this show, but their acts are a tad tired, and neither one has progressed much in the last several seasons. Neither one is particularly frightening or endearing anymore, despite the fact that actors Misha Collins and Mark A. Sheppard bring their A-games every time.

At this point, I hadn't been going out of my way to watch episodes as they originally aired. In fact, for seasons 9 and 10, I simply waited for them to show up on Netflix. Which is how I watched last season, the 10th...

Season 10 (2014-2015)

Much to my surprise, this was the best season of the series since its "Golden Age" of seasons 2 through 5.

It was almost as if someone looked over the previous four uneven seasons and made a point of retaining the strengths, scrapping the weaknesses, and even undoing a past mistake or two. The result was a season that gives me very good reason to dive into the current season, the show's eleventh.

Briefly introduced in season 9, Cain (seen here, helping Dean 

with his collar) is a welcome returning character. His 

presence as a villain is one of the strongest and most menacing 

since the seasons featuring Azazel and Lucifer. I actually 

felt he was underutilized.

The season starts with Dean gallivanting around with King of Hell, Crowley. Dean has been made a demon, in order to counteract the Mark of Cain inflicted upon him. Dean's struggle against the Mark's will towards violence is a major conflict in this season, and it allows some further evolution and exploration of Dean and Sam's relationships with each other and those close to them. There is also a solid plot-line involving the powerful and shadowy Stein family, who emerges around the midway point in the season. These lines converge in a strong finale which sees the return of one of the best and most awesomely powerful entities in the show's history.

As with the best seasons of Supernatural, the show takes the characters to some very dark places within their own minds and souls. Whereas they have taken some safe routes in more recent seasons, season 10 allows some rather awful things happen to the Winchesters and some regular supporting characters. The most redeeming story-line for me was the return of Charlie, the cutesy hacker character whom I had previously found a nuisance. In this season, however, she returns with a "dark" doppelganger in a solid story. Even more, she meets a surprisingly brutal fate at the hands of the Stein family towards the season's end. This all hearkened back to earlier, better seasons in the show's history, when the stakes felt higher.

My only semi-major issue with this season is with one of its primary villains, the witch Rowena. Her strident, sing-song voice often oversells her ridiculously obvious attempts at cunning manipulation. While her scene-chewing approach makes for some comedic camp, it undercuts any possibility of her ever seeming truly and completely as sly or dangerous as we are meant to believe her to be.

Season 10 reinvigorated my interest in the Supernatural series. I have begun catching up on the latest season - the show's eleventh - and it started strong. I don't know if it will ever recapture the magic of its earliest seasons, but I still enjoy the ride.