Physical: Series Overview

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Sheila Rubin, Rose Byrne, is a deeply unhappy house wife in a terrible marriage. However, through the power of Eighties aerobics she reclaims control over her life.

This one is hard to get through at times, the personal tension and the cringe can get to such a point where you will want to turn it off, and though that seems like a natural response to what you see stick with it. Trust me its good.

There is something oddly satisfying about watching Sheila both win and lose in near equal measure on a weekly basis. There is no denying that she is not a likeable character, but was she ever meant to be? I viewed this as a dark comedy going in, so when Sheila does something bad to her friends or how she uses people I view it in almost an anti-hero way. Even though she is arguably a bad person you still want her to win in the end.

The series runs the gambit from darkly hilarious to heart-breaking, it is not afraid to get dark and often does. I enjoyed seeing the series trying to tackle issues of body dysmorphia, and unhappy marriages, I thought the series made a lot of good points and I would like to see where these issues move to in season two.

Overall, though some moments may be hard to watch it is well worth sticking with.

Pros.

The soundtrack

Byrne

Sheila’s arc

The ending

Cons.

It can be hard to watch at times

If you enjoyed this review, then please head over to my Patreon to support me, I offer personalized shoutouts, one on one Q and As, the ability for you to pick what I review next and full access to my Patreon exclusive game reviews. Check it out!

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Reservation Dogs: Fckin Rez Dogs

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

We are introduced to the Rez Dogs and get to explore their world as they try and save up enough money to move to California.

I had the wrong expectations about this show going in, I was expecting a breezy half hour comedy but there is actually far more sadness, drama and depth than I was expecting. If I had to classify this show I would call it a dramady yes there are some comedic elements, but I felt myself being concerned for the kids and their well being more so than laughing. There were a number of scenes that were actually quite heart-wrenching to watch.

So far, I think all of the actors are doing a good job. I think the dichotomy of trying to explore these characters as both heroes and villains is interesting as we see the impact the character’s actions have on the lives of those around them in a negative way. I like the moral complexity and I think it leads to the characters being stronger as a result.

I am intrigued to see where the gang war story line goes, and whether it will lead to a change in their perspective about living on the reservation or just make them want to leave more. I hope the series doesn’t find a way to unify the two groups as the warring gangs storyline is good for creating tension across the series.

Overall, fun but not what I was expecting and often more affecting than funny.

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Rick and Morty: Rickternal Friendship Of The Spotless Mort

4.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

We finally get an episode of Rick and Morty that builds on the ending of last season and feels like a true continuation. In this week’s episode Rick ventures into Bird Person’s mind to bring him back to the world of the living.

I feel like this should have been the first episode of the season. Now it feels like the seven other episodes we have had before this were just meaningless filler, and this is the true continuation of last season. In terms of episode placement, the creators definitely shot themselves in the foot with this one.

I like that this episode is entirely Rick centric, Morty is off doing something with the family, and he doesn’t even get a B plot. The idea of Rick having friends is one that the series has flirted with but never really committed to on a big scale, the only exception to that is with Bird Person. It was nice to have an episode that was entirely about their early years and friendship- or even perhaps more than friendship at least on Rick’s side.

I think the reason this is such a good episode is because it takes a break from randomness and sperm jokes and instead just focuses on the characters and tries to analyse them as people. There is a lot of cannon here, around Rick’s early years, his time as a galactic freedom fighter, and his friends. It answers a lot of questions that fans have been asking for years about the show, but also gives us a lot more questions to replace them. There is a throwaway line about Beth being dead for example, that will need addressing at some point. Moreover, Bird Person’s daughter needs to be freed. I would like the next episode to directly follow on from this and give us more cannon, but I know it won’t. I know I am too greedy.

Overall, this and the Mr Nimbus episode show that the series still shines when it wants to, when it isn’t distracted by a teenage sense of humour focusing on giant incest babies or space sperm.

Pros.

Rick’s history

His complicated friendship with Bird Person

A lot of new questions to be explored

Removing Morty and the family from the equations

Cons.

Seeing a good episode like this makes some of the other offering this season look incredibly lazy by comparison.

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

The Bad Batch: Return To Kamino Finale Part One

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Batch head back to Kamino to save Hunter and whilst there have to atone for the sins of their past.

I have thought for a long time the Batch needed to face a reckoning for what they did to Crosshair and this episode finally delivers on it. They talk a lot throughout the show about loyalty, but they left Crosshair behind, even when they realised that he was being mind controlled by the inhibitor chip they still didn’t act, they needed to be asked why they behaved like that and they are here. However, the answers we get are fairly weak, they left him behind because he started shooting at them, even though he was mind controlled……. Or so they think.

I thought the twist of the episode that Crosshair was in fact never mind controlled and had his inhibitor chip removed years ago, raises a lot of interesting questions. Furthermore, it adds to the shades of grey for the series, as Crosshair even says something to the extent of we are soldiers, so he had no issue switching sides and carrying on. It makes the Batch question there own morality, and interestingly for us it recontextualises the show.

I do think the worst thing about this episode much like the rest of the series is Omega, whether it is her having a tantrum about going and rescuing Hunter, as if his friends did not want to go and get him back, or her turning on all the battle droids to try and help which instead almost ended up killing the Batch. Moreover, they try and write some drama into her arc in this episode by having it be emotionally hard for Omega to return to Kamino, but you just don’t care because the series has failed in its efforts to make you care about her character, as I have previously said a Grogu she is not.

Overall, a strong penultimate episode that sets up a big finally, ruined only slightly by Omega once again.

Pros.

Crosshair

The Batch finally facing some accountability

The ending

The twist

Cons.

Omega

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

What If: Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

An Elseworlds tale that answers the question what if Peggy Carter got the Super Soldier Serum rather than Steve Rogers.

Personally I am loving how political phase four of the MCU is getting, with this first episode, Black Widow and Falcon And The Winter Soldier, all addressing worldly issues I feel the MCU is finally in a place where it can start making statements. This episode goes hard on how Peggy up until this point has been shut out and overlooked because of her gender, I like that by doing this and then having her become Captain Carter it allows the character to feel far more like a feminist icon. I enjoyed seeing how she played off the other male characters after she had the serum, especially when she said to the, deeply sexist, general character that he was ‘lucky to even be in the room’, that was a cheer worthy moment for me.

I liked how this episode gave us moments that would already be familiar to us as MCU fans but put a twist on them, we get to see Bucky not fall off the train, no one getting frozen in ice and Steve Rogers becoming a totally different superhero. I thought this was fascinating and by far the biggest selling point of the show, as the idea of what if this changed is always one that keeps you coming back.

I enjoyed what this episode did with Peggy and Steve, showing the romance more from her point of view. I thought it was just as sweet and as heart-breaking as it was the first time we saw it in The First Avenger, hopefully Captain Carter will get to go back in time and get her dance with her sweet heart just like Steve Rogers did in the main timeline- just hopefully with a few more adventures before that for us all to enjoy.

My only issue with the episode and it is only a minor thing is that Chris Evans is not back to voice Steve Rogers. It is strange as almost everyone else is back Hayley Atwell is back as Peggy, Dominic Cooper is back as Howard Stark even Toby Jones is back as Zola, so it seems like a pretty big deal that Evans isn’t back in the role. Maybe they couldn’t afford him, maybe he didn’t want to come back but to me it felt a little jarring to hear someone else voicing the character. Hopefully I won’t have the same issue when we get to the Iron Man episode.

Overall, a really strong starting episode that introduced us perfectly to Captain Carter hopefully we get to see tons more from her in the years to come.

Pros.

Captain Carter

Getting political

The monster at the end

The same but different

Cons.

Not getting Evan’s back

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

iCarly: iTake A Girl’s Trip

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Carly, Miranda Cosgrove, and Freddie, Nathan Kress, head out on a girls trip that quickly becomes more intimate than either were expecting.

This might be my favourite episode of the revival series so far. I certainly found it to be the funniest, with the episode making me laugh consistently throughout: at both A and B plots.

Moreover, I liked the dynamic between Carly and Freddie in this week’s episode, I thought the two actors played the scenes well and had a strong back and forth together. I think the show is heading in the direction of them getting together, and I am becoming more and more okay with that and if anything this episode suggests that they would actually make not only a good couple, but an interesting one to watch as well.

Furthermore, the series finally seems to know how to use Harper, Laci Mosley, after a long time of giving her nothing much to do. I enjoyed the jealousy angle they had with her character this week when her best friend/cousin becomes romantically involved with Spencer, Jerry Trainor. I think the dynamic between Harper and Spencer has been used already quite a lot by the show but even so there is still a lot of ground to cover and more depth to explore.

Overall, this is probably the best episode of the revival so far, it is fun to watch and funny.

Pros.

Carly and Freddie

Finally giving Harper something to do

It is funny

There are a number of sweet moments

Cons.

We need deeper exploration of the Spencer Harper dynamic beyond surface level competitiveness

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

American Horror Stories: BA’AL

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A woman finally gets pregnant after months of trying, however, once she has the baby things start to unravel as she begins to worry about otherworldly forces trying to take her baby away.

So this is basically just Rosemary’s Baby with a few tweaks. Rather than have a demon be the literal father of the child they have it be a fertility totem, though she does have a demon baby at the end of the episode. Moreover, rather than have those around her be part of some sinister demonic cult they are now instead trying to gaslight her into signing away all her money to her husband, those two things aside this is almost a carbon copy with a slightly different ending.

I like Billie Lourd and think that she has a lot to offer the right project, however, this isn’t it. Her talents go mostly wasted for a large part of the episode and when she finally gets to have some fun the episode soon ends, which is sad as that is when it is at its best. I thought the final scene when Lourd’s character had managed to control the demon and was using it to get her pregnant was hilarious and easily the best scene of the episode, sadly the rest wasn’t of the same quality.

Finally, more of a throw away point, but there is a line in this episode that feels really clunky and out of place. When Lourd’s character is searching for a way to rid herself of the demon she talks to a young woman who claims to be into magic and know a thing or two, she doesn’t and is trying to gaslight the lead, and when she starts discussing the various grimoires she has she comments how they are all written by ‘old white men’. Now why is this line needed? What social cause does is serve? Surely the answer to both of these questions is that it is not, and it does not, there is no point in hating on works of art or literature or whatever because the person who wrote it is not the same race as you or the same gender as you, it seems incredibly limiting to be this way. I would guess the line was just to stir the pot, but it really ends up derailing that scene.

Overall, a lazy episode that is a bit too familiar.

Pros.

Lourd is trying but they give her nothing to work with

It is watchable

Cons.

It is overly familiar

The ‘old white men’ line

The twist reveal

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

Rick And Morty: Gotron Jerrysis Rickvangelion

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Rick replaces Morty with Summer who decides to keep enabling her Grandfather’s bad behaviour as a means of connecting with him and getting approval. Meanwhile the family all become pilots of an interlocking space robot- think Voltron.

This is easily the worst episode of season five so far for a number of different reasons. Worst is the fact that this episode is very reference heavy, as have been several episodes this season, which quickly becomes an issue if you are not aware of what the show is spoofing, which was the fate that befell me. The problem with these kind of episodes is that they feel lazy, rather than come up with a fresh concept or gimmick, they just take preestablished films/cartoons/tv shows etc and make fun of them: which requires far less effort.

Moreover, I have been hoping for some kind of reference back to the cannon or to earlier seasons for this year’s whole run, and we finally got it in a big way here. Except, not quite. Rather than bring back an important or impactful storyline from seasons gone by, like Space Beth just off the top of my head, they instead decide to bring back the giant incest baby from a few episodes prior- because that’s a character we need more of right? Honestly, the giant incest baby character was just a throwaway joke in that episode and bringing it back here does not make it anymore impactful, rather it just feels like the writers were looking for an easy way to tie in previous episodes.

I also found the constant narration to be grating.

Overall, one of the worst episodes of the show to date, please don’t bring giant incest baby back again.

Pros.

It is watchable

There are a couple of funny lines

Cons.

The narration

Bringing back giant incest baby

Another lazy spoof episode

Most of the jokes don’t land

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

American Horror Stories: The Naughty List

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of Youtube influencers, who are almost certainly supposed to be stand-ins for Team 10/ The Paul Brothers, find themselves on the wrong side of a demented mall Santa Claus who hunts them down after they publicly embarrass him.

So……….. What to say about this episode? Well it certainly wasn’t the strong episode of either this series or AHS in general and is in fact probably one of the worst. The gimmick of this episode, ‘man aren’t influencers annoying’, is funny and mildly interesting for all of a few minutes and then it starts to become grating.

Moreover, the episode spends far, far too much time dealing with the Youtube drama before the killer even shows up to hunt them down, essentially about a quarter of this episode is pointless filler where you get to see the guys worry over losing followers as a result of their bad behaviour- who cares?

Furthermore, when the always excellent Danny Trejo shows up to kill them it has no impact, this is because the characters are so deeply unlikeable that you don’t care if they get killed, in fact a part of you is probably gleeful about it after they have stolen so much of your time.

The worst thing about this episode is the fact that it is Trejo’s introduction to the series and the universe. Trejo is always great, and he is a personal favourite of mine, what’s sad is that this will be the episode of AHS he is remembered for, if the series was going to use him they should have given him so much more to work with and do. Ultimately they waste him and his talent and that is the biggest crime of this episode.

Overall, we get it influencers are annoying.

Pros.

Trejo

The gore

Cons.

They waste Trejo and give him nothing to do

The gimmick quickly becomes played out

It is annoying

It has some of the worst dialogue I have ever heard

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer

The Bad Batch: War Mantle

3.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Batch go on a rescue mission, to horrific results.

This was a sad episode on multiple fronts, but also one that feels like it has real stakes.

My first thought after finishing the episode is that it is good they finally have Hunter and Crosshair in the same location with no way out. The confrontation between the two characters has been needed for some time, it feels very much that since the first episode the Batch has pretty much turned their backs on their former brother, even when they realised that he was being mind controlled: as such there always needed to be an explanation for why Hunter and co acted this way- and it looks like we will get it next episode.

Moreover, the Clone rebellions are starting to feel more and more like something we will see on the show, as we are now being shown the Empire phasing out its Clone forces in favor of Storm Troopers. I am excited by this prospect and would like to see what is going to happen to all the captive clones, will the Empire wipe them out, will they escape, will they start a doomed rebellion: these are all questions that the series could and should answer.

I thought for the most part the story of this episode was tight and interesting however I could have done without the cut back to Omega and Wrecker where she complains that she is worried about the other members of the group and he makes a joke. This scene does nothing for the episode, but kill time, the joke is not needed and undoes the well built up tension and Omega once again adds nothing to the episode. I feel like unless the writers have some big endgame for her character she should just be written off as clearly they are struggling on a weekly basis to find things for her to do.

Overall, a strong episode with good tension and an intriguing ending.

Pros.

The ending

Setting up the Clone Rebellions

Where will the series go from here?

The tension

Cons.

The Omega cut away

The slow start, with the first five minutes being dull

https://www.patreon.com/AnotherMillennialReviewer