Peaky Blinders s6

from the Envoy Web: https://theenvoyweb.com/explainers/peaky-blinders-season-6-summary-end/




By Nadeem Abdul
| Last Updated: June 11, 2022

The final season of Peaky Blinders focuses on Thomas Shelby trying to deal with the fact that for the first time he may have met an enemy he cannot defeat. The episodes are now streaming on Netflix.

Plot summary

In the immediate aftermath of the failed assassination attempt, the IRA call up Thomas and inform him that he will depend on them and Oswald Mosley for a little longer. They also drop off the bodies of those that lost their lives because of the attempt.

One of them happens to be Aunt Polly. The Shelby family put her to rest and Michael vows to kill Thomas once and for all because it was his ambition that led to her death. Four years go by before we see the Shelby family once again.

It’s 1933, and the end of the prohibition means that anyone who made their keep bootlegging will be out of work. Tommy goes out to Miquelon Island to make a deal with Michael and his new connections in the Boston Mafia run by his wife’s uncle, Jack Nelson.

He offers to sell them opium and hands them a little sample to confirm the quality. He also informs a contact at the Boston harbour that Michael will be carrying opium and succeeds in sending him to jail upon his return.

Back in Birmingham, Arthur has given in to his addiction and is struggling to get by, leaving Ada to hold things together while Tommy is out of town.

Gina visits Michael in jail and tells him that her uncle is working on his release but he’ll have to hang tight for a bit. They discuss Thoams Shelby’s true intentions behind doing business in Boston.

Tommy then pays a visit to Gina at her house to insist that a deal needs to happen, or else he’ll take his business elsewhere, maybe to the Jews of East Boston.

Lizzie calls up Tommy and tells him that their daughter has come down with a fever and cannot travel like they planned to. When she describes the symptoms, Tommy gets spooked and tells her that he will be returning home on the next steamer.

Tommy visits Michael in prison and tells him that he’s stuck in prison until Jack Nelson concludes his business in London, and has letters and paperwork to prove it. This revelation incenses Michael.

Tommy gets back home and gets Ruby checked by the doctors once more. Lizzie complains that Tommy isn’t present and needs to take a break from the gangster life and be with his family.

Tommy says that he’s got one last plan to take care of and then he’s done. He meets up with Laura McKee of the IRA and tells her that Jack Nelson is coming to the UK and he appears to be a fascist sympathizer who would most likely support their cause.

He’s going to introduce Jack to her as well as Mosely so that they can change the world together. He puts the same idea in front of Mosley and his mistress, Lady Diana Mitford, as part of his grand plan to get out for good.

Meanwhile, Ruby gets sick once again and Tommy is forced to seek out his Esme because he truly believes that his daughter is the victim of a gipsy curse.

The doctors confirm that Ruby is suffering from consumption but Tommy still goes out in search of Esme while Lizzie sits by her daughter’s side. Ada takes control while Tommy is going and attempts to bring some order back into the business.

Arthur is still struggling but a serious conversation with a gentleman while out on a job gives him the reality check that he needed.

Tommy finds Esme who gives him a lead on the curse but by the time he gets back to the hospital, Ruby has already passed and Lizzie is completely broken because Ruby’s father was not by her side.

After putting his daughter to rest, Tommy finds and kills the gipsy that he believed was responsible for the curse. He then gets to work on his master plan and hosts Jack Nelson, Laura McKee, Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford at his home to discuss their next actions.

While they plan on furthering the dream of the fascists in Europe, Thomas wants to expand his business into Boston and secure the financial future of his family.

Tommy gets a letter from his daughter with some urgent news so he meets him the next day. The doctor tells him that his daughter’s illness has spread to him in the form of a tuberculoma and that he has maybe just a year to live.

Tommy sets about getting his affairs in order, he brings his illegitimate son, Duke, into the fold and reaches out to Linda to help get Arthur clean.

Jack Nelson meets with Billy who is their informant within the Shelby family. He tells him to provide information that will help them finish the Shelbys once and for all.

Tommy has plans to build housing for the working class and has been securing land around England to make that happen. He makes a deal with Alfie in exchange for gaining back control in Boston once he takes care of Jack Nelson.

Tommy gets ready to go to Canada and collect his payment for the opium that was shipped to Boston. Lizzie finds out that he slept with Diana and is not at all happy to learn about it. Michael is finally released from prison so that he can kill Thomas Shelby and get his revenge.

If you have any doubts about the ending, here is a detailed breakdown.
Peaky Blinders season 6 ending explained in detail (Episode 6: Lock and Key):
Setting things up for the end

Lizzie chooses to leave Tommy because he’s been so closed off from her and now that he’s slept with Diana, she’s had about enough. He lets Charlie go along with her and tells her that he will set them up somewhere nice so that they can live in peace.

Arthur is waiting for him at his office with his medical reports. He has found out about the tumour and wants to know why Tommy didn’t tell anyone. Tommy says that when the time comes he doesn’t want the people close to him to see him in a state of helplessness.

Tommy meets with Diana and Oswald at the House of Commons. He tells Diana about his housing plan and that he wants to buy off property from her connections who are struggling with their debts. Oswald invites him to their wedding in Germany but he says that he cannot attend because he’ll be in Canada collecting his payment.
Tying up loose ends

Tommy has a meeting with Arthur, Finn, Billy, Isiah and some others to tell them about his trip to Canada. He asks them to go back to his house and strip out anything of value because it is being demolished soon. Arthur says that he will be at the Garrison spending his anniversary with his wife.

Billy shares this information with Gina who relays it to Michael. The plan is confirmed to take out the key members of the Shelby family.

Billy and Finn arrive at the mansion where Isiah and Duke are waiting for them. They reveal that they know Billy is the mole and kill him. They tell Finn that he is banished from the family and he hits back saying that he’ll come for them.

Laura and two others arrive at the Garrison to kill Arthur, but he’s been waiting for them. Along with Charlie and Jeremiah, they fight off their attackers and come out on top.

Tommy is supposed to meet Michael on Miquelon Island for the exchange, but Michael and his associates have a bomb planted in the car for Tommy. Once he arrives, Michael gets him in the car and gets away but the wrong car blows up.

Johnny Dogs shows up and says that he switched the bomb to the other car, after which Tommy kills Michael for his betrayal. Nobody messes with the Peaky Blinders.
A new lease of life

Tommy takes one last look at his mansion before blowing it up. He has a meal set up nearby with his nearest and dearest. He tells them a few words of farewell and gives them advice on how to carry on.

Arthur doesn’t join and leaves word with Linda that he doesn’t do farewells, but that wherever Tommy is going, he’ll meet him there soon.

Ada is suspicious of the tone Tommy is speaking with and questions him further. She wants to know where he is going and for how long but he does not give her an answer.

A month later, Tommy is in the mountains with his carriage and horse, all ready to put a bullet in his head. Right then he is visited by his daughter who tells him that he’s not sick and should live on.

She points out to the fireplace and upon further inspection, Tommy finds a newspaper clipping reporting on Mosley and Diana’s wedding. He sees his doctor among the attendees and immediately a light turns on in his head.

The doctor’s residence was right down the mountain so he visits him. He tells him that he figured out just in time that his doctor was working for the other side and that his enemies decided that the only person who could kill Thomas Shelby was Thomas Shelby himself.

He spares the doctor’s life and rides back to his carriage which has already been burned down. Now that he’s got more time, he needs to take care of a couple of fascists who tried to take him and the Peaky Blinders out of the equation.

The Witcher season 2

(FYI for my previous Witcher reviews, click HERE

From the Envoy Web: https://theenvoyweb.com/explainers/the-witcher-season-2-summary-ending-explained/

The Witcher season 2 summary and ending explained

By Prabal Sharma
December 21, 2021




The Witcher season 2 picks up right after the battle of Sodden that saw Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra) blaze away the Nilfgaardian army with fire magic. The Northern Kingdoms are victorious against the Southern invaders, thanks to the stand taken by the mages.

Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), finally united with Princess Ciri (Freya Allan), searches the battlefield and is informed by Yennefer’s mentor, Tissaia (MyAnna Buring), that she perished in conflict. Heartbroken yet stern, he leads Ciri to the witcher stronghold of Kaer Morhen.

After a deadly detour owing to a creature known as a bruxa, the duo arrives at their destination and Geralt rekindles with his wintering brethren along with his mentor, Vesemir (Kim Bodnia) — the oldest witcher alive.

Meanwhile, Yennefer is alive and taken hostage by the Nilfgaardian mage, Fringilla Vigo (Mimî M. Khayisa), and her remaining army. Before they can go much further, they are kidnapped by the elven king, Filavandrel (Tom Canton) and escorted to a secret dig site.

There, they are introduced to the elves’ new leader and sorceress Francesca Findabair (Mecia Simson). Discovering a secret passageway, she takes her two hostages into a mysterious looking hut where they all have different visions, triggered by a strange witch called the Deathless Mother.

Post the visions, Yennefer awakes in a forest to find out that Francesca, who is pregnant, has allied the elves with Fringilla and Nilfgaard due to what they saw in their respective visions. They plan to head back to Cintra as Yennefer escapes, discovering that she has lost her power. She eventually returns to Aretuza — her former school of magical training — and meets Tissaia.

Back at Kaer Morhen, the witchers come face to face with a nasty shock when one of their own, because of being infected, transforms into a tree-like creature called a leshy. Geralt is forced to kill him and Vesemir vows to understand how a creature can cause mutation in a witcher.

Yennefer doesn’t get the heroes welcome she hoped for as she is suspected of being a spy by the Brotherhood, having spent a month in captivity and suddenly returning. She is tasked with executing Cahir (Eamon Farren), the captured Nilfgaardian army commander, to prove her innocence.

Thinking that she does not need to turn into a killer to prove her loyalty, she frees Cahir and escapes with him on a horse. Elsewhere, Ciri begins to train in combat and Geralt reveals to her that he knew her parents. He also suspects that she may have inherited strong magical powers from her mother.

Geralt invites a friend, mage Triss Merigold (Anna Shaffer) to come to Kaer Morhen and train Ciri to control her magic. They also analyse the leshy and another creature that Geralt recently killed, discovering their connection to monoliths. Ciri admits that she accidentally toppled one using her powers while escaping from Cintra.

This is when Vesemir also discovers that Ciri has Elder blood which was thought to be extinct. Meanwhile, Triss portals Geralt to meet the sorcerer, Istredd (Royce Pierreson), who is also a historian. Elsewhere, Yennefer and Cahir chance upon information that a person named The Sandpiper, who turns out to be the bard Jaskier (Joey Batey), is smuggling elves into Cintra.

They reconcile, and try to reach Cintra but Jaskier is captured. This is where a new antagonist enters the picture, Rience (Chris Fulton), a fire mage recently released from prison and tasked with finding Ciri.

Geralt and Istredd travel to the fallen monolith outside Cintra. They realise that these structures are gateways for monsters to enter their world, when activated. Unfortunately, due to Triss conducting a ritual to find the source of Ciri’s powers at Kaer Morhen, the monolith awakens and a flying monster appears from it.

Geralt portals back to the stronghold and encounters the monster again, this time killing it. He then escorts Ciri to the Temple of Melitele, hoping that she can master her powers. They eventually run into Yennefer there.

Rience ambushes them at the temple, and as Geralt battles him, Yennefer teacher Ciri to summon a portal and they escape. The princess is determined to travel to Cintra and wreck havoc upon the Nilfgaardians as Geralt finally frees Jaskier from prison. Once there, Ciri reads Yennefer’s mind and realises her plan is to release the Deathless Mother.

She has an outburst that alerts the soldiers. Fortunately Geralt arrives in time to take care of them. He tasks Jaskier to take Ciri back to Kaer Morhen as Yennefer and Geralt prepare to confront the Deathless Mother. Elsewhere, Francesca gives birth to the first elf in centuries but the baby is mysteriously assassinated.

This murder peaks the negativity which the Deathless Mother needs to feed on and she is revealed to be the demon Voleth Meir — the monster responsible for killing the first witcher, who is now able to escape from her prison and possess Ciri.

What transpires when Voleth Meir makes its way back to Kaer Morhen inside Ciri?

If you still have doubts about the final episode of The Witcher season 2, here is a detailed breakdown.

Carnage at Kaer Morhen

Ciri, possessed by the demon, starts killing witchers in their sleep at the stronghold. She then discovers a monolith within the structure and summons monsters directly into Kaer Morhen.

Yennefer and Jaskier try to find a way to expel Voleth Meir from Ciri as Geralt and Vesemir try to contain her. Meanwhile, the remaining witchers battle the influx of creatures.

Yennefer realises her mistake and apologises to Ciri, offering her body to the demon instead. Voleth Meir is expelled from Ciri’s body and possesses Yennefer.

The Wild Hunt

Ciri portals herself, Geralt and Yennefer to a mysterious world where the demon is forced to leave her new host. Hoping the battle is won, the trio is confronted by The Wild Hunt.

This group of skeletal mythical beings travels through worlds terrorising people but they covet Ciri’s Elder blood and her powers to control gateways between realms. Their leader announces that she belong with them but before the hunt can capture Ciri, she teleports them back to Kaer Morhen.

Yennefer discovers that she has regained her magical powers as Geralt speaks to Vesemir about Ciri’s safety. He confirms that they cannot stay at the stronghold any longer owing to many factions and leaders marking Ciri for capture or death.

This is confirmed as back at Aretuza, the Northern Kings and the Brotherhood put out a bounty on Ciri and her protectors.

Emhyr

Enraged at her baby’s death, Francesca starts killing human babies in Redania. Meanwhile, Cahir back with Fringilla reveals to her that Nilfgaard’s emperor, Emhyr aka the White Flame, is set to visit Cintra.

However, Fringilla senses her hold on Nilfgaard loosening so she eliminates her objectors and threatens Cahir to vouch for her. Istredd, meanwhile, reveals the nature of Ciri’s Elder blood to Francesca who realises that she is the elves’ final hope.

This is when Emhyr arrives and is revealed to be none other than Ciri’s father, Duny (Bart Edwards), the man Geralt had saved years ago from Ciri’s grandmother.

He admits that he had Francesca’s child murdered and orders his soldiers to arrest Cahir and Fringilla.

 X-Men (2021) #1-6: Fearless

   I'll tell you what - if there's one thing I know in comics, it's that Gerry Duggan won't steer you wrong. I remember in his long run on Deadpool a few years back, just not liking where he was going. But in a very rare turn of events, he brought me back around and has solidly kept me in the Duggan-fan-camp ever since.
   So what do we have here? It's X-Men #1, volume 1467. It's tough to keep up with them but you can take one thing to heart. This is still the Jonathan Hickman-era X-Men, rife with as much Krakoa as you can get your hands on. If you liked what he was doing a few years ago, with the nuevo Professor X and good-Magneto, you're in luck. 
   This time, it's classic members Cyclops, Jean Gray, Sunfire, and Rogue - plus Polaris, newcomer Synch and the overplayed Laura Kinney version of Wolverine. Nobody is reinventing the wheel but these stories are pretty rad. In the first 6 books, they fight the Reavers, the High Evolutionary, some spooky Halloween inspired baddies and even Ben Urich from the Daily Bugle. And honestly, I think that's the best part.

Love what they're doing and where they're going. Yeah, it's another volume of X-Men but with writing and art like this, I'll take it all day.

For my last X-Men review, click HERE for more mutant superheroics!

All Quiet On The Western Front (2022)

from the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/movies/all-quiet-on-the-western-front-review.html


By Ben Kenigsberg
Oct. 27, 2022

In his auteurist film history “The American Cinema” (1968), the critic Andrew Sarris compared similar scenes in two World War I films, King Vidor’s “The Big Parade” (1925) and Lewis Milestone’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” (1930), the first screen adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel. Vidor, Sarris felt, had a more satisfying approach to showing two soldiers from opposite sides in a shell hole, one dying. Vidor emphasized the faces of his characters, Sarris wrote, rather than pictorialism and spectacle.

The first sequence of Edward Berger’s new German-language adaptation of Remarque’s novel announces about as loudly as possible that it’s on the side of pictorialism and spectacle. It opens with a landscape: a quiet wood and mountains, seemingly at sunrise. A fox sucks from its mother’s teat. A Terrence Malick-like shot looks upward at impossibly high and peaceful treetops.

Berger then cuts to an aerial view of drifting smoke, which clears to reveal an array of corpses. A barrage of bullets suddenly pierces the near-still composition, and the camera turns to show the full extent of the carnage and the muck. This is war as a violation of nature. And that’s even before Berger trails a scared soldier named Heinrich (Jakob Schmidt), who charges ahead in a pair of unbroken shots — take that, “1917” — only to die offscreen. In a device that owes something to the red coat in “Schindler’s List,” Heinrich’s uniform will be stripped from his body, cleansed, stitched up, shipped to Northern Germany and eventually reused by Remarque’s protagonist, Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), who notices someone else’s name on the label.

Does this version of a literary classic go hard or what? In truth, opting for pure bombast — a pounding, repeated three-note riff by Volker Bertelmann, who did the score, never fails to quicken the pulse — isn’t necessarily an ineffective way of translating Remarque’s plain-spoken prose. Berger has more tools at his disposal than Milestone did with the challenges of the early sound era, yet those advantages somehow make this update less impressive: The magnification in scale and dexterity lends itself to showing off. Still, the movie aims to pummel you with ceaseless brutality, and it’s hard not to be rattled by that.

This “Western Front” places its faith in big set pieces and powerful images. Even the scope has been widened. Berger cuts between Paul’s experiences in the trenches and cease-fire talks between Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl), who chaired Germany’s armistice commission, and Marshal Ferdinand Foch of France (Thibault De Montalembert). The 72-hour deadline that Foch gives Erzberger to sign adds an element of ticking-clock suspense to the overall narrative, albeit by departing from Remarque’s first-person point of view..

The fates of the author’s soldiers are also tweaked. But there are moments here that resonate. When Paul trudges through the trench and collects dog tags from his fallen comrades, he finds a friend’s distinctive eyeglasses in the mud. Rats scurry to avoid the earthquake of approaching tanks. Paul, his face caked in dirt, tries to silence the dying gulps of the French soldier he has stabbed, in this movie’s counterpart to the Vidor-Milestone scene. Tjaden (Edin Hasanovic) jabs at his neck after realizing he’ll have to live as an amputee.

The closest thing the movie has to affecting character work comes in the relationship between Paul and Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch), who enjoy one last mission to steal food from a farm during the final hours of the war — when neither the violence nor Berger plans to relent.

 Amazing Spider-Man (2018) #70-74: Sinister War

   Finally, the Kindred saga comes to a close. After teasing it for 3 years, we finally find out the answer - sorta. Though to follow it completely, Marvel once again tricks you into having to buy another 2-3 related books (which after reading, were completely unnecessary). We thought all along that this Kindred fellow was former Spidey frenemy Harry Osborn. His presence materialized thanks to his father Norman using his soul as a bartering chip. Turns out it was his infant stillborn twin siblings..? I guess? And then it turns out somehow it's Mephisto who's pulling the strings thanks to some uncooperative punishment for Doctor Strange? I dunno. It gets a little confusing.

   In the end, we see Mysterio is back and he kidnaps MJ though it totally is irrelevant to the story. His reanimated siblings end up killing the cloned Harry and yada yada yada, Spider-Man is free to swing through the city with Mary Jane in his arms. I guess all is right in the world? Now maybe can we get to some less confusing arcs? This whole long, drawn out thing was a doozie.

To see my last Amazing Spider-Man reviews, click HERE

Black Sails S4

from We Got This Covered: https://wegotthiscovered.com/tv/black-sails-season-4-review/


Edward Love 

Jan 21, 2017 10:30 am

On the surface, Black Sails is about pirates and plunder, but really it’s about politics. In a global society obsessed with the silver-tongued manipulators of public office, it’s fitting that today’s pirate show takes our favorite swashbuckling rum-swiggers and turns them into dour bureaucrats immersed in a game of political chess. The final season aims for a dramatic tale of collusion and infighting (cut from the same cloth as shows like Game of Thrones and Vikings, only with less precision), but the first two episodes lay the groundwork in tedious strokes.

Captain Flint and Long John Silver are the prized assets on display and the famous names connecting Black Sails to Robert Stephenson’s Treasure Island (we are in prequel territory, here). But a story of collusion and treachery needs an ensemble cast to keep the game afloat, and Flint and Silver are separated early on, giving the writers a chance to re-introduce the show’s secondary – and less interesting – characters.

Madi is back, as is Billy Bones, a one-time boatswain on Flint’s ship. Both have a bone to pick with the captain. Meanwhile, Silver is in need of his sharp tongue to keep his head, while pirate sympathizer-turned-slayer Eleanor is snuggling up to British captain Woodes Rogers.

Rogers is desperate to stick it to the pirates and is turning Nassau into a stronghold. That displeases Eleanor’s former lover, Max, who is troubled by his reign. The notorious Blackbeard watches from afar – played here by a stoic Ray Stevenson – as he guns for Eleanor’s head.

You can almost see each card being carefully produced and laid on the table, but it makes for pedestrian viewing. There’s just so much lifeless dialogue padding every move. Great dialogue crackles on the screen as much as any explosion. It can take the form of verbal jousting (like a good Tarantino flick) or high-octane energy (a la Sorkin). Black Sails is lifeless by comparison; a succession of scenes shot from a medium angle depicting our pirates standing around doing nothing (literally, nothing) as they slowly explain what’s going to happen next.

Black Sails borrows from the tell – not show – school of writing. Next to the effortless television you can find idly scrolling channels today, it’s surprisingly leaden-footed in its approach to drama. There are few innovations at work. Just a camera, actors and a script that needs reciting.

Thankfully, the action scenes are a saving grace. Gunshots splinter the air, swords butt heads and there’s a kinetic vigor sorely missing elsewhere. It looks pretty too, with fantastic special effects and rousing high-angle shots of the pirate ships at sea. Yet season 4 is never better than when it’s on the ground, rubbing shoulders with the sand and sea, gulls circling. In these moments, you can almost taste the salt in the air.

And yet, the very next moment you’re wrenched back inside a dimly-lit room to listen to another character spouting exposition. At the very least, Black Sails would benefit from more back-and-forth intensity between its characters, but no, every actor is given the floor to delicately deliver their lines in a reverent hush. What is it with this lot?

Since we lost shaggy-haired Vane at the end of season 3, there’s a missing dose of grit in season 4. Blackbeard could bring that to the table, but he’s underused in the early going and too preoccupied with his own games anyway. Black Sails plays more like a courtroom drama than a jaunt on the high seas. It’s maddeningly earnest, stripped bare of personality and stuffed with dialogue that falls flat. It’s all very well laying out your cards, but less useful if the table has gone to sleep.

I grew up devouring stories about these bandits on the high seas, but Black Sails, at this stage, bears no resemblance to the exciting adventures I remember.