Rick And Morty: Solaricks

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Rick And Morty return with such a low effort whimper that it makes you question why they even returned at all.

Honestly this episode was crap. I was looking forward to the new season starting and was hoping for a return to more breezy one off episodes rather than the heavy cannon focus we got towards the end of last season and boy was I let down.

This episode basically just goes over everything that happened in the season finale again just in case you had forgotten. That is all it does, no new adventure, some lame portal gun shenanigans is stuffed in as a b plot but even that doesn’t go far enough to be interesting. We get the tease of the evil Rick clone that killed our Rick’s wife and kid being out in the open, and the episode suggests that maybe our Rick will kill him but this just peters out into nothing.

In addition to all of those issues the episode is also majorly depressing and not particularly fun to watch in any way. The episode’s dialogue is basically just the characters saying how bad things are now and how they are sorry for letting things get this way which feels more aptly like the writers acknowledging their fault.

Overall, a terrible start to the season.

Pros.

Space Beth returns

Cons.

It is depressing

It just rehashes the last episode’s plot

It feels tired

It starts the season off on a bad note

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House Of The Dragon: Second Of His Name

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The question of who Rhaenyra, played by Milly Alcock, will marry continues to be an issue and Daemon, played by Matt Smith, wins a blood soaked victory.

I truly think that with this episode House Of The Dragon fully manages to live up to the high standard set by the peak of Game Of Thrones. The battle sequence towards the end of the episode with Daemon is truly a majestic feat of television and is as visceral as it is captivating. The episode really comes alive during this part.

I also enjoyed the focus this episode placed on the relationship between Rhaenyra and her father, played by Paddy Considine. I think it is nice to see such a progressive character on Game Of Thrones and it is heartening to see a character within this setting not force their daughter into an unhappy marriage. I think much like the Daemon sequence captures the action of peak GOT, these quieter court scenes also capture the other half of GOT at its best as well.

Overall, a fantastic episode of television, my only complaint is that we couldn’t have had more of it.

Pros.

The Daemon action sequence

The scope and intensity

The quiet court scenes

Putting a focus on the relationship between Rhaenyra and her father

The ending

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The Rings Of Power: My Experience And Why I Won’t Be Reviewing It, Beyond The First Episode

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A new Middle Earth saga begins, one that will leave few happy.

So this will be part review part what went wrong. If you can’t already see, I didn’t enjoy my time with the show.

Let’s get the obvious low hanging fruit out of the way first, yes there is a lot of quiet clear forced diversity in the show, as that seems to be the only thing Hollywood wants to do these days, and yes all of the male characters that Galadriel, played by Morfydd Clark, comes into contact with are weak and stupid and whilst both of these things are mildly annoying I would not say they are the main issue.

I think the thing that made this first episode so hard to watch, indeed I had to watch it in parts because I could only stomach about 20 minutes of it at a time, is the pacing. The pacing is simply awful, not only does very, very little happen but the episodes are on for way too long and drawing out the episodes only further highlights how empty they are.

Honestly, I don’t think this show needed to exist, I think Amazon made it to try and have their own Game Of Thrones after The Wheel Of Time didn’t turn into what they wanted it to be, and I think that is very clear in every frame. For the record I don’t think this show will ever hold a candle to Game Of Thrones unless they make drastic changes to it, which they won’t.

Overall, sadly this show was what a lot of people feared it might be, needless.

Pros.

The visuals are good but you would expect that for the money spent

Clark makes a good Galadriel

Cons.

The forced in identity politics

The pace

The lack of anything really happening

It doesn’t justify its existence

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House Of The Dragon: The Rogue Prince

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Prince Daemon, played by Matt Smith, further builds his power as King Viserys, played by Paddy Considine, is forced to seek out a new wife.

I think this episode builds on the strengths of the last and doubles down on the intrigue. It is still not quite on the level of Game Of Thrones at its peak but it is starting to come into its own for sure.

I think Matt Smith is still the scene stealer, however Milly Alcock’s Princess Rhaenyra is starting to also approach his level. The dual dragon stand off that happened towards the episode was really tense and impressive, I think the scene worked without the dragons even needing to fight: the scale and VFX on display really landed.

I also liked that the final moments of the episode introduced us to a new big bad for the series, whether they are only a minor season villain or something bigger remains to be seen, however, it does now allow the story to have more to drive towards. Hopefully this new villain can be developed further in the coming episodes.

Overall, a strong second episode that keeps the promise alive.

Pros.

Dare I allow myself to hope again?

The Dragonstone sequence

The new villain introduction

Smith and Alcock continue to be stand outs

Cons.

Some of the King’s Landing scenes were a little too slow paced.

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She Hulk: What The Hell Is This? Is It An Advert?

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Megan Thee Stallion shows up and She-Hulk, played by Tatiana Maslany, twerks.

I will review this episode in two parts, the first part will focus on the good and the second on the bad. The bad here is fairly extreme but I like Wong, played by Benedict Wong, so there is some good here.

In the Abomination, played by Tim Roth, storyline we get a fun cameo from everyone’s favourite Sorcerer Supreme and it is played up enough that every second we get with him is pure gold. The comedy in this part of the episode also really landed for me.

That said onto some of the worse stuff I have seen from Marvel possibly to date. Everyone hates the Simpsons episode Lisa Goes Gaga because all it exists to do is blow smoke up the guest stars rear end and say how great they are, clearly the She-Hulk team aren’t familiar with this as they do exactly the same thing here. Not only is the Megan Thee Stallion subplot not at all funny in any way but it gets really repetitive with how many times they have to say her name over and over again as though they are trying to force us to think it is a big deal. Moreover, I know a lot of people complain that the MCU has gotten too silly and want things to return to a more serious tone, however, normally I don’t mind the humour of the MCU, but I would say this show is pushing it too far. The post credits twerking scene is something that has no business in the MCU it feels like something you might see from a tie-in advert but not a scene from a film or TV show, in addition it is also all kinds of cringe.

I really do think She-Hulk as a show needs to get its tone right because right now it is all over the place and feels like a bad parody.

Overall, other than Wong this episode was made entirely to suck up to the guest star.

Pros.

Wong

A few funny jokes

Cons.

Everything to do with Megan Thee Stallion

The twerking scene

It feels like bad parody at times

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American Horror Stories: Bloody Mary

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of girls summon Bloody Mary, played by Dominique Jackson.

Whilst this premise is incredibly generic I actually ended up enjoying this episode.

The two main things I think this episode does well is firstly that it is actually scary, and does have a number of good scares peppered in throughout and secondly that by flipping the standard Bloody Mary myth and instead changing it to a title that is past on and that has roots in slavery really opened it up for innovation and a new direction. For once American Horror Stories felt fresh.

However, it is not all roses as none of the performances were very good and the episode was incredibly predictable in terms of plot, you knew straight away where it was going and it basically went there with the only mild twist being that rather than being killed the lead becomes the new Bloody Mary.

Overall, I think American Horror Stories should aim to be like this more, to take chances and fully commit to the horror element of the shows title.

Pros.

A fresh take on an old myth

It has some good scares

The ending

Cons.

It is predictable

The performances

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American Horror Stories: Milkmaids

1/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A town in frontier era America descends into cannibalism.

In my previous review of last weeks episode of American Horror Stories I said that Drive was the worst episode of season two of the show but oh how wrong I was.

So most importantly this is in no way scary. What is scary is how long it goes on for. The various plot threads they have going on in this episode clash so badly together that by the end you are confused at to what you just watched.

The cannibalism feels incredibly forced in, as though they wanted to make an episode about the plight of women and LGBTQI+ characters in the early days of America and then were like ‘oh damn this is supposed to be a horror show, I guess we better put something scary in’, it feels like an afterthought.

Sadly they also bring in Seth Gabel to play the antagonist of the episode, Gabel was fantastic in the TV series Salem and all throughout the episode I couldn’t help but compare the two and it really wasn’t favourable for American Horror Stories. Gabel tries his best here but really isn’t given enough to work with.

Overall, it felt like I was watching some terrible low budget larping production organised by goth teens.

Pros.

It is over quickly

Cons.

Gabel is wasted

The cannibalism feels forced in

The ending

It isn’t remotely scary

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She-Hulk: Superhuman Law

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Jennifer Walters, played by Tatiana Maslany, is fired from her job after getting into a superhuman show down in the courtroom and must now look for other work.

I enjoyed this episode a lot more than the first and thought that it was a noticeable improvement. I thought the comedy landed a lot more and made me laugh a few times and I also like that they are quite clearly setting up the Planet Hulk and World War Hulk comics storylines, as we see Banner, played by Mark Ruffalo leave on a space ship in the episode. I also thought bringing back Tim Roth’s villain character from The Incredible Hulk was a smart move especially because it puts Jen in a morally questionable spot and also develops out the character more beyond just being a mindless evil Hulk creature.

However, this episode still has some noticeable issues. The worst of these is how this episode just moves on from the Titania, played by Jameela Jamil, introduction last week and doesn’t even bother to bring her character up again which gives that final interaction in the first episode an air of pointlessness and I think that whole sequence was a poor fit. Moreover, the lines at the start of the episode in the bar when Jen says how much she doesn’t want to be a superhero and how bad her super hero name is are irritating, worse yet is the line about billionaires and orphans which feels like they are dumping on what has gone before which isn’t a winning strategy.

Overall, certainly better but the writing still needs a lot of work.

Pros.

The humour is starting to land more

World War Hulk

Bringing back Tim Roth

Cons.

The early bar scene

Ignoring Titania

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American Horror Stories: Drive

2/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A young woman , played by Bella Thorne, believes herself to be the target of a serial killer after she is chased by a manic driver.

This episode was lazy, they rip off the classic urban legend of the murderer in the backseat and think that by calling it out they somehow make up for it, which is simply untrue. I suppose I should give them some credit they do flip it so that the killer is actually the driver and the person in the backseat a victim, but even this feels contrived and lazy.

The story seems to go out of its way to spoil the twist, and when we finally learn that a bored and disinterested Bella Thorne is the murderer we are left going ‘well obviously’ rather than feeling anything even remotely akin to shock.

I would also question in what way this is supposed to be scary, it feels far too tongue in cheek, especially the ending and makes me question whether they even got the brief.

Overall, the worst episode of the second season of American Horror Stories so far.

Pros.

It is watchable

It is unintentionally funny at times

Cons.

Throne

The episode ruins the twist midway in

It isn’t scary

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Only Murders In The Building: I Know Who Did It

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The trio reveal who the killer is.

I worried last week that the show would swerve away from having Cinda, played by Tina Fey, be the main villain of the series, and then this episode proved that worry to be founded by having it be her assistant instead. I think this reveal was way less satisfying and felt quite anti-climactic.

Moreover, another thing I didn’t like about this episode, which has also been at the borders of this whole second season more broadly is a sense of smugness. I know the show has been nominated for a number of awards and has quite a devoted fanbase, but the series seems to be a little too into itself now, giving far too many knowing looks to the audience.

I will give the episode some praise for bringing back Cara Delevingne’s character, even if she is still being incredibly under used, I think Delevingne’s new arrival is probably the best thing about what is otherwise a very mixed season.

Overall, a decent end, but one that highlights the shows key issues, it’s long in the tooth continuation onwards, and its smugness.

Pros.

Bringing back Delevingne

It was watchable

A few funny moments

Cons.

The smugness

It ignored the best possible villain

It like the rest of the season was badly paced

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