from syfy.com
https://www.syfy.com/the-expanse/episodes/season/2/episode/7/the-seventh-man

The Expanse S2 Ep 7:
The Seventh Man
*******

As bloody snowflakes fall, with everyone around her dead, Bobbie Draper is rescued from the massacre on Ganymede by Martian forces.

On Earth, the UN is getting choppy reports of the attack. With UN and MCRN forces both having fired, it's all being treated as a humanitarian crisis. Naturally, the UN council thinks it was a Mars attack, though Avasarala argues for communication and de-escalation. The Secretary General asks her why she never ran for office. Avasarala: "I like getting shit done, and I like having my head attached to my neck."

On Tycho station, where they're taking in refugees from Ganymede, Naomi and Holden look on as Anderson Dawes shows up, loudly proclaiming that all refugees are welcome on Ceres. Holden and Naomi appear to disagree on whether Dawes is a good guy or not.

Draper has been picked up by the MCRN ship Sirocco, under the command of a man named Thorsen. He wants to know what happened on Ganymede. Draper recalls the six UN soldiers running towards them … and then there was a seventh. Draper gets too upset as she recalls the attack and needs to be sedated.

While handing out relief supplies, Amos gets shoved by a kid protecting his mom, and he's thrown for a loop. He visits Cortazar and asks about the brain procedure that removed his empathy. Cortazar thinks Amos should do it; stamp out that last bit of vulnerability (and humanity).

On Tycho, Fred Johnson convenes an OPA conclave. He says Belters must unify in the face of the Earth/Mars conflict. They can finally have a seat at the table if they make themselves instrumental in the peace process. He suggests Anderson Dawes, a born Belter, as their representative. But when Dawes speaks, he pivots away from Fred's ideas. He says Inners will always subjugate Belters in peace.

During the meeting, Holden spoke out in support of Fred. Later, Naomi tells him he should've stayed quiet. She says the sight of Holden and Fred, two Earthers, trying to lead the Belt is a bad look.

Draper's out of sick bay, but she's still being questioned by Thorsen about what she saw. She can't make sense of that seventh man, running behind the other six. She then remembers the drone that flew overhead before the attack. Thorsen clearly wants Draper to say that Earth initiated the attack, and Draper is definitely willing to lay this on Earth's doorstep.

Dawes meets with Naomi and Holden. He tells them that Belters will never unite under Fred Johnson; his days on Tycho are numbered. Dawes also tries to appeal to Naomi's Belter nature to get her on his side.

Draper is visited by a Captain Martens, the ship chaplain. He tells Bobbie he served with her father, then tries to get her to talk about what she saw. She mentions the drone again, but Martens says there is no evidence of any drone.

Dawes continues his sweet-talking tour of Tycho's Belters by sidling up to Drummer, with whom he appears to share a romantic past. He's trying to get her to tell him about this secret weapon that he thinks Fred has.

One more attempt to get Draper to remember. She's hooked up to brain sensors as Thorsen questions her again. This time, Martins observes unseen from another room. Now, Draper remembers that the seventh man was chasing the other six. They were shooting at him. She says the seventh man wasn't wearing a space suit.

Fred comes to Holden and tells him that Cortazar is getting new data streams, meaning that there is more protomolecule out there. Fred wants to get his hands on it so he can hold it as an advantage.

Dawes meets with Diogo in his little dorm room. He flatters Diogo and his Belter nature, so Diogo eagerly spills about the scientist they captured on the research station. Dawes is more than intrigued.

Draper is awarded a purple heart for her bravery, but there's more: Thorsen tells her she needs to go to Earth to testify at the Earth/Mars summit. And he instructs her to say that Mars fired first. And no more talk about that seventh creature either.

Holden investigates a strange noise and sees that Cortazar has been dragged away by Dawes's delegation (including Diogo). Dawes' ship takes off, and Alex and Naomi, who are already on the Roci, give chase.

Alex skillfully shoots out Dawes' thrusters, but Naomi is reluctant to attack a fellow Belter as they prepare to board the ship. Only Dawes isn't there. Diogo walks out as a decoy. Dawes is gone, with Cortazar in tow.

 from Variety.com
https://variety.com/2020/film/reviews/promising-young-woman-review-1203480660/

Promising Young Woman
*******

Carey Mulligan is on a mission of vengeance in Emerald Fennell's arresting, blackly comedic quasi-thriller for the MeToo age.

By Dennis Harvey
Plus Icon


Focus Features


EDITOR’S NOTE: Variety sincerely apologizes to Carey Mulligan and regrets the insensitive language and insinuation in our review of “Promising Young Woman” that minimized her daring performance.

Given that the entertainment industry is pretty much the center of the #MeToo universe in terms of generating its most public effects — and, needless to say, causes — probably no Sundance film this year will be as hot a conversation topic as “Promising Young Woman.” Emerald Fennell’s first directorial feature is a female revenge fantasy that hews to some of the tropes in that genre, but also takes considerable joy in upending viewer expectations. Starring Carey Mulligan as a woman on a singular mission, this unclassifiable, somewhat uneven but always compelling mix of thriller, black comedy and a whole lot of whatnot is going to stir a lot of debate in Park City and beyond.


The commercial prospects for this Focus Features release are harder to predict, as what’s actually onscreen is much trickier than the cheerily titillating exploitation-horror suggested by its early slogan (“Take her home and take your chances”) and blood-dripping poster design. “Species,” this is not — nor even an updated “Ms. 45.” A subtler viral campaign playing on themes of sexual predation and cultural blowback might more effectively put “Woman” on the radar of audiences who wouldn’t be lured in by a genre film, or ticked off by a movie that doesn’t really turn out to be one.

Cassie (Mulligan) is a medical school dropout on the brink of 30, still living with her parents (Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown), who works at a coffee shop to her own unconcealed boredom and the perplexity of her manager (Laverne Cox). She has no professional ambitions, no boyfriend, nor any other standard interests. She does, however, have a vocation of sorts, albeit not the kind you’d tell anyone about.

Once a week or so, she dresses to the nines, goes out to a club, and is found passing-out-drunk there by some man who pretends to be “helping” her, but only wants to take advantage of a woman clearly not in full, consensual control. When he inevitably gets very frisky, she suddenly turns out to be the stone-sober deliverer of a message that will make him think hard before ever attempting such predatory hijinks again.

Though it takes some time for the full backstory to emerge, we suss quickly that the reason for Cassie’s bait-and-switch pursuit has to do with the fate of Nina, a childhood friend turned med school classmate. What happened to Nina pains all the more because nothing at all happened to those who did it to her, or who dismissed her accusations afterward. Cassie has reduced her own life to a kind of empty shell in order to devote full focus towards at least making sure a few clouds cross the horizon of those perps, as well as the kind of men who might do something similar to a “promising young woman” like Nina.

Complicating this plan is the resurfacing of Ryan (comedian Bo Burnham, whose directorial feature “Eighth Grade” presented its own queasy take on youthful sexuality), with whom they both studied. Now a pediatric surgeon, he’s maintained an unrequited crush on Cassie, and is so exasperatingly unobjectionable she cannot fully resist the unwanted distraction of his pitched woo.

But he’s also stayed in touch with people who knew Nina, and who seem to have gone merrily on with their successful lives, feeling no guilt whatsoever. While there are speed bumps en route, Cassie is soon renewing her acquaintance with various folk who’ll wish she hadn’t, including characters played by Alison Brie, Connie Britton, Alfred Molina and Christopher Lowell.

An actress (currently playing Camilla Parker Bowles on “The Crown”) and writer (TV’s “Killing Eve,” as well as three novels for younger readers), Fennell works from an arresting script (featured on the Black List in 2018) whose fluctuating levels of irony and dead-seriousness are further complicated — perhaps sometimes just obscured — by her idiosyncratic directorial choices.

“Promising Young Woman” has a lot of stylistic elements that jostle intriguingly, but don’t necessarily cohere as a whole. There’s the surreal ’70s suburban-affluence time capsule of the heroine’s parental home, weird enough to summon the specter of Diane Arbus. There’s the sarcastic comedy riffing of Cassie’s rapport with Ryan (and her boss), as opposed to the sociopathic cool she dons when interacting with less sympathetic (but more naturalistically written and played) figures.

The soundtrack features a parade of deliberately vapid pop tunes by the likes of Paris Hilton and the Spice Girls. Yet Anthony Willis’ original score is puzzlingly conventional and earnest, complete with ominous Dolby thumps every time justice is served. The film really goes out on some limbs it then seems to saw off in the last lap, both tonally and plot-wise. Still, haphazard as “Woman” can seem, it all somehow pulls together at last with a satisfying smack.

Mulligan, a fine actress, seems a bit of an odd choice as this admittedly many-layered apparent femme fatale — Margot Robbie is a producer here, and one can (perhaps too easily) imagine the role might once have been intended for her. Whereas with this star, Cassie wears her pickup-bait gear like bad drag; even her long blonde hair seems a put-on. The flat American accent she delivers in her lowest voice register likewise seems a bit meta, though it’s not quite clear what the quote marks around this performance signify. Still, like everything here, this turn is skillful, entertaining and challenging, even when the eccentric method obscures the precise message. “Promising Young Woman” is often at its most inspired when contradicting itself — one of the grimmest scenes here is accompanied by something utterly incongruous from “The King and I,” and the frisson between image and song is so flummoxing it’s rather brilliant.

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‘Promising Young Woman’: Film Review

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival, Jan. 25, 2020. Running time: 113 MIN.
Production: A Focus Features release, presented in association with FilmNation Entertainment, of a Luckychap Entertainment production. (Int'l sales: Focus Features, New York City.) Producers: Margot Robbie, Josey McNamara, Tom Ackerley, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell. Executive producers: Carey Mulligan, Glen Basner, Alison Cohen, Milan Popelka. Co-producer: Fiona Walsh Heinz.

Crew: Director, writer: Emerald Fennell. Camera: Benjamin Kracun. Editor: Frederic Thoraval. 

Music: Anthony Willis.

With: Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie, Connie Britton, Adam Brody , Jennifer Coolidge, Laverne Cox, Alfred Molina, Max Greenfield, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chris Lowell, Sam Richardson, Molly Shannon, Clancy Brown, Christopher Lowell, Max Greenfield, Francisca Estevez.

from EW.com
https://ew.com/recap/star-trek-picard-season-1-episode-5/

Star Trek: Picard S1 Ep 5

Star Trek: Picard recap: Playing dress-up for keeps
By Nick Schager
February 20, 2020 at 09:00 AM EST






Picard finds the mystery man he’s been looking for and gets to don an absurd disguise in this week’s installment of Star Trek: Picard (“Stardust City Rag”), which is arguably the most streamlined, and confident, episode to date.


Thirteen years earlier at The Seven Domes on Planet Vergessen, a doctor brutally extracts an eyeball from her Borg captive. This torturous operation is ended by Seven of Nine, who blasts those working at this Borg slaughterhouse. Unfortunately, she’s too late to save her comrade, whom she refers to as her “son,” and then kills in an act of mercy.


Freecloud’s Stardust City is a neo-Vegas, all holographic projections of towering dancing beauties, fighting robots, and gambling iconography. In a swanky lounge, Mr. Vup (Dominic Burgess) — a giant, unfriendly lizard man referred to later as a “sentient reptiloid” — tells crime boss Bjayzl (Necar Zadegan) that Bruce Maddox (John Ales) is in the establishment. Though Bjayzl initially orders Maddox killed, she reconsiders and instead has a chat with the scruffy-bearded doc, whose unkempt appearance and harried demeanor are in keeping with the story he has to tell — namely, that his lab was destroyed by the Tal Shiar, prompting him to flee for his life. Maddox apologetically tells Bjayzl that he won’t be able to repay her loan. Bjayzl has already set a new plan in motion, which begins with poisoning Maddox via booze.

Onboard the La Sirena, Seven finds Picard in a holographic recreation of his chateau den. He states that he admires the goals, courage, and tenacity of the Fenris Rangers, a squad of galactic vigilante do-gooders that Seven joined once the Federation, post-Mars crisis, gave up on aiding planets and people in need. Picard chides Seven for “taking the law into your hands.” However, he can’t argue with her retort: “What law?”

Seven isn’t interested in receiving a lecture about her “judge and jury” conduct since she believes doing nothing and giving up would be far worse. She agrees to be dropped off on Freecloud. Yet upon hearing that Picard is trying to help “someone who has no one else to help her” — and will likely die without his assistance — she signs up for his mission.


CREDIT: TRAE PATTON/CBS


Raffi researches a man named Gabriel Wong (Mason Gooding) and then has a conversation with Rios in which they discuss — more for the benefit of newbie Star Trek viewers than for narrative purposes — the “notorious” Seven, and the fact that Picard used to be a Borg. “This is some strange cargo you brought me this time,” Rios tells Raffi with a smile.

Jurati watches a home movie of herself and Maddox baking cookies, which ends in a kiss — a key revelation about her personal connection to this saga. After the crew dispatch holographic advertisements from Freecloud (Jurati has to virtually knock out a robot pugilist), Raffi announces that she’s found Maddox on an online message board for illicit transactions. Apparently, Bjayzl is looking to broker a deal for Maddox with the Tal Shiar.

Seven informs the crew that Bjayzl butchers ex-Borgs for their implanted parts. She suggests a plan in which the heroes trade her — whom Bjayzl covets more than anyone — for Maddox.

For this scheme, Rios dons a fur-shouldered coat, open-necked shirt, gold chains, sunglasses, and a giant wide-brimmed hat decorated with a feather to pose as the confident middleman for the deal. He beams down to the Freecloud nightclub and negotiates with Mr. Vup, who can smell a lie. That would be a problem if not for the fact that Rios has already received a beta-blocker injection that masks any chemical scent indicating deception. Rios tells Mr. Vup that rather than working on behalf of the Tal Shiar, he’s actually been hired by a third party with a different offer for Maddox — namely, Seven.

Wearing an eye patch and sporting a ludicrous French accent for his performance as Seven’s “seller,” Picard beams down with Elnor and a handcuffed Seven, who’s earned the respect of Raffi for trying to aid the downtrodden when no one else would. Raffi, meanwhile, leaves Picard and company for good — or so she thinks — and travels to the Stardust City Reproductive Health Services center. There, she finds her son, Gabriel. Gabriel remains furious about the fact that Raffi prioritized her “crackpot” theory about an “Enclave of Eight” and a conspiracy about the synthetics’ attack on Mars over her family. She defends those convictions but pleads with him to give her another chance, saying she’s cleaned herself up. It doesn’t work, and though Raffi gets to briefly meet her daughter-in-law — who’s pregnant with her granddaughter — her reunion abruptly ends there.


Bjayzl taunts Seven about carving up her comrade, and mocks her for wanting to “save the outcast, rescue the forgotten.” Seven responds by reminding Bjayzl that she was able to escape the villain’s clutches (“I’m the one that got away”). Breaking free from her handcuffs, Seven grabs Bjayzl by the throat. The jig is up, and Picard demands answers from Seven about her relationship to Bjayzl. Seven obliges, recounting Bjayzl’s slaughter of her friend, and Picard proclaims, “Murder is not justice. There is no solace in revenge.”

Rios kills Mr. Vup (who was making a move to attack) and warns Seven that if she assassinates Bjayzl, Picard and Elnor will wind up with a bounty on their heads. Conceding this point, Seven offers Bjayzl her life in exchange for their safe passage back to their ship with Maddox. Bjayzl agrees, and Maddox is taken to the sickbay, where he’s cared for by Jurati.

Picard is happy with Seven’s choice and allows her to take two blasters as she departs La Sirena. On her way out, she asks Picard if, after being brought back from the Borg collective, he feels he’s regained all of his humanity. “No. But we’re both working on it, aren’t we?” he replies, to which she says, “Every damn day of my life.”

Seven beams back to Freecloud, and everyone in the lounge bolts except for Bjayzl, who says Seven is “sentimental” for risking her own life to protect her friends. “Picard still thinks there’s a place in the galaxy for mercy. I didn’t want to disillusion him. Somebody out there ought to have a little hope,” Seven states, before vaporizing Bjayzl and taking on the vanquished enemy’s hostile security forces.

In the sickbay, Maddox confesses to Picard that he knew Dahj was dead as soon as the Tal Shiar raided his laboratory. He informs Picard that Soji is on the Artifact for the same reason her sister was sent to Earth — to uncover the truth about the ban on synthetics. Maddox claims that the ones hiding that truth are also hunting Soji, and he believes those nefarious forces aren’t just the Romulans, but also members of the Federation.

Rios accepts Picard’s request to fly into Romulan space (to visit the Artifact), and then asks him about their “stowaway” Raffi, who’s sulking in her room following her disastrous meeting with Gabriel.

His health improving, Maddox is thrilled to see Jurati and asks her if she got to meet Dahj on Earth, referring to the synthetic (and her sister) as “perfectly imperfect” and crediting Jurati for her essential contribution to their creation. As with Raffi and Gabriel, however, their reunion is an unhappy one, as Jurati murders Maddox while tearfully admitting, “I wish you know what I know. I wish I didn’t know what I know. I wish they hadn’t shown me. I’m so sorry.”

Captain’s Log:

This is the first episode without any action set aboard the Artifact, and the results are propulsive, suggesting that the show is best when focusing on straight-ahead space adventure.
Rios’ undercover outfit is so swanky and so contrary to his usual “broody existentialist spaceman routine” (as Raffi puts it), that it proves one of the series’ highlights.
Though he’s often in the thick of things here, Picard doesn’t actually do much in this episode; it would be nice if, when plans go sidewise, he wasn’t such a passive bystander.

from Vulture.com
https://www.vulture.com/2018/08/the-sinner-recap-season-2-episode-1-part-i.html

The Sinner S2 ep 1

The Sinner Recap: Kid Danger
By Kenny Herzog


Photo: USA Network/Peter Kramer/USA Network

Essentials for family vacation: mode of transport (check), desired destination (check), all members of family unit (check). So far, the Lowrys — if that is in fact their shared surname — have a leg up on, say, the McCallisters of Home Alone fame. But they forgot a couple of key items that would typically make a road trip to Niagara Falls complete: clothes and toiletries for the (presumably) married couple’s preteen son, and in the wife’s (we think) case, any kind of identification so that police can know who she is if she turns up dead in a motel room with rocks covering her ritually closed eyelids.

This is when Dorchester, New York, detective Harry Ambrose and his colleague, Keller Police Department detective Heather Novack (who, we also learn, is the lesbian daughter of his childhood friend Jack, played by Tracy Letts), realize something’s not quite right with their suspect’s perfect confession. To this point in The Sinner’s season-two premiere, which picks up shortly after Harry’s wild ride vindicating accused murderess Cora Tannetti (Jessica Biel, staying behind the camera for this second installment in the anthology), things had been fairly plain, if disturbing: 13-year-old Julian (an impressive Elisha Henig, fresh off a memorable turn in Mr. Robot) poisoned his bickering parents to death by offering them a steaming hot mug of deadly jimson weed passed off as licorice tea, laid out their bodies in some ceremonial fashion and then ran off barefoot into the woods and pissed himself.

But once Harry and Heather (H and H forever), and to a lesser extent Heather’s resentful junior Officer Brickowski, a.k.a. Brick, put it together that this was no ordinary nuclear trio off to sightsee on the Canadian border — and that their Pennsylvania plates belie the fact that they were actually coming down from further north — it’s on.

If you’re not acquainted with The Sinner and don’t want to backtrack, here’s what it appears is important to know from season one: Harry’s separated from his wife Fay, occasionally sees his grandson Eli, and has a dark history with fetishistic sexual liaisons and other personal pastimes that are perfectly legal but leave him a little worse for wear. Also, weird shit goes down in upstate New York. Some handy exposition, helped by hints of flashbacks, deepens Harry’s backstory to illustrate that his mom was severely troubled and possibly burned down their house, and that he’s super-leery about staying too long in his hometown of Keller — despite Heather’s smoke signal for help with the Lowry case — because it’s as good as haunted with unsettled conflicts that stretch back as far as 19th-century Evangelical hollering and early Mormon ideology. Phew.

And yes, The Sinner messes with your head like a good horror movie by introducing stock characters and conflicts that cover over cruel intentions and strange associations. It’s like Get Out happening on Hap and Leonard in the Hudson Valley, and it’s irresistible.

The questions crackle in “Part I,” and it’s dreadful to wonder what exactly happened between Harry and Jack that, 15 years after Jack’s wife’s funeral — the last time Harry was in Keller — they could nearly come to blows over whether Harry should pay for his meal at Jack’s restaurant, the Cobble Stone. And whose side is Brick on, and can he be trusted? Are those visions Julian endures of a stalking, hooded figure from a recurring nightmare in which he’s the victim, or a foreshadowing of his alter ego, Shadow Julian, coming out to play?

Vera (Carrie Coon, who also happens to be Letts’s wife in real life, in a nice casting coup) might have something to say about all that. We meet her in Julian’s recent memories, as he drifts off into introspection while being bullied by other kids at his temporary foster home. Julian is scribbling artfully and intently on white paper on the floor while Vera, even-keeled but cold and clear, encourages her young patient (again, we think) to conjure and confront his shadow self and accept and even embrace the bad deeds he’s committed while under a certain kind of spell. While Harry and Heather chase down leads before filing charges, Vera storms the Keller jail, insisting to see Julian and asserting that she’s his mother. And like that, Vera becomes a question herself.

To review, we have two dead adults in a motel room two-plus hours away from their destination of Niagara Falls; one young boy who may or may not be their son but who definitely poisoned them but may, like Cora in the previous story, not be entirely responsible for his actions; one grizzled detective begrudgingly investigating said crime and forced to awaken, possibly, his own shadow self by shacking up in the town that made him; a green detective eager for Harry’s help but maybe unaware that he and her dad have some unfinished business (we can guess Harry had some kind of fling with Heather’s mom, but who knows?); and an enigmatic woman who could be Julian’s mother, therapist, enabler, or some kind of spiritual disciple of The Brood’s Dr. Raglan. Are you not entertained?!

Season one wrapped up in cockamamie fashion, but there’s reason to keep the faith this show has learned from its growing pains and given its new story substance from beginning to end. The more seasoned cast, who certainly weren’t obliged to take the roles after reading the scripts, testifies to that, but The Sinner was on solid ground to start. Now it’s just a matter of figuring out what’s beneath that soil.

Apart From All That

• What kind of kid watches the NASDAQ ticker raptly?

• For whatever it’s worth, IMDb lists Julian’s last name as Walker and his mother’s (or at least the woman he kills who we assume is his mother) as McTeer.

• The murder happened on June 8, 2018, for those keeping track.

• That song Julian and “mom” sing is Burl Ives’s “Down in the Valley.”

• Nothing like a classic shower-curtain-ripped-from-its-rings finale for poor Adam.

• What does Jeanie the waitress know? Or Gene the neighbor?

• Is that a knowing gag that Harry might know the Hendersons?

• Speaking of Hap and Leonard (and Hell on Wheels), glad to see Dohn Norwood back as Harry’s partner.

• Interesting that there was some muttering on the radio about the Lehigh Valley, and Adam was from Allentown.

• Putnam and Garrison were nice Hudson Valley–area shoutouts.

• That Keller PD chief is fishy. As is that lone sedan in the lot when Julian got his “tea.”

• Explosions, eh?

• Adam and “mom” were into analytical psychology and astrology, and Julian claims “they had to go back to the beginning.” Hmmm.

from Ready Steady Cut:
https://readysteadycut.com/2019/04/11/netflix-recap-black-summer-episode-1-human-flow/

Black Summer S1 Ep 1: Human Flow

‘Black Summer’ Episode 1 – “Human Flow” | Netflix TV RecapNew lows
April 11, 2019
Daniel Hart




Episode 1, “Human Flow”, offers nothing new in the zombie genre, but it’s still a credible start to the Netflix series.

This recap of Black Summer Episode 1, “Human Flow” contains spoilers. You can read the review of season 1 by clicking these words.

Before I begin my hopefully pleasant journey of covering each episode of Black Summer, it’s worth pointing out that I haven’t watched Z Nation, but I’ve been led to believe that although this a spin-off earlier in the timeline, there is no character crossover, so I think I am safe. This is the first time I’ve been exposed to this zombie universe. Episode 1, “Human Flow”, feels familiar; if you’ve watched other zombie materials, then nothing witnessed here will be a shock.

Still, watching a Netflix Original zombie series does not sound like a bad idea; Black Summer Episode 1, “Human Flow”, splits up the first chapter by breaking down each character. The audience is introduced to Rose (Jaime King), who is the main lead in the story. When the sirens stop ringing, she rushes her daughter and husband out of the house to go to a checkpoint. Her daughter gets on the truck, but her husband is sweating profusely, triggering suspicion.

Like all zombie stories, someone is always trying to hide an infection, and the truck drives off with Rose’s daughter. Eventually, her husband turns into a zombie, chasing her out of a house, and someone who seems to be a soldier shoots him down. Rose embraces him, asking for help.

The second character, Ryan, appears to be dazed by the events of the apocalypse. Noises keep zoning in and out, and when he tries to tend to a woman on the floor, an Asian woman grabs him speaking in her language but seems to be begging him to run away. Ryan is flagrantly traumatized and lost by the events unfolding.

The third character, Barbara, is ready to drive towards her destination but is then stopped by a man, who convinces her that he is a good person and that he would like to join her on the way to the stadium; as a viewer, you can tell this man was playing a manipulative role. As soon as he gets into the driving seat, he aggressively asks her to leave the vehicle, threatening to punch her, but another random person throws him out of the car.

The fourth character, Lance, is with who I assume to be his girlfriend, and as they are talking a truck randomly runs her over. He starts trying to help her as she coughs up blood. He barely takes a second to make a decision and runs off, leaving her to die on the ground. This is the same woman left on the ground who Ryan tried to help. She quickly turns into a zombie, and “Human Flow” gives us an idea of what type of infection we are dealing with

The fifth and final character, Spears, is under house arrest with a couple of soldiers. He starts teasing one of them on guard duty and then convinces him that he needs the toilet. In the bathroom he viciously assaults the soldiers, smashing his head against the sink. He steals the soldiers uniform, and you realize that this is the same man that helped Rose at the start of Episode 1 and his real name is not Spears.

Episode 1 “Human Flow”, finishes with all characters running through the checkpoint together to embark on their new journey of survival. This is not a bad opening episode of Black Summer, but we’ve seen it all before.

From Den of Geek
https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/black-sails-vi-review/
Black Sails: VI review

Black Sails S1 Ep 6
*******

Black Sails episode 6 is dark and tense. Where are the fun pirates?
By TS Rhodes|March 2, 2014|



This week’s Black Sails is, dark, introspective and tense. Not really how I like my pirate adventures. I hope others like it better. If we’re lucky, all this will pay off big. We’ve only got two more shows in the season.

The situation on the Walrus and the Andromache continues to confuse me. How and why the Andromache’s crew managed to get all their cannons away from the gun ports (I assume they weren’t just hauling cannons around as cargo) and tucked into an impenetrable bunker, along with 38 slaves, I just don’t understand.

Furthermore, I have no idea why everyone is just standing around. I can think of 10 ways into the “bunker,” and I’m no pirate captain. Flint’s inaction does give Mr. Scot a chance to make an interesting new friend, and permits the viewers to learn a little of the philosophy of slavery. But letting the slave uprising kill the Andromache’s crew, while Flint stands by, unable to remember that the deck is made of wood and he can cut a hole through it, is highly unsatisfying.

What’s Mr. Scott going to do now?

I’d really like to see the Scarborough, too. Flint’s got this huge ship,(look at eh size of it next to the Andromeche!) and extra cannons, and his crew is still terrified. Why is Flint putting the guns in the hold? If the Scarborough is so close, why doesn’t he set them up and use them? I’ll admit, the Scarborough must have an amazingly competent crew. They found Flint in the ocean at night, and managed some very impressive long-range shooting.

Flint’s apparent treachery with Billy Bones doesn’t sit well with me, either. Treasure Island fans know that Billy can’t be dead… He needs to be alive 20 years from now, to die in the Benbow Inn so that Jim Hawkins can find Flint’s old treasure map in his sea chest. (Sorry for the spoiler. I’m assuming all pirate fans have seen at least one Treasure Island movie.)

Anne Bonny’s decision to finally free Max is a relief, but I see a lot of other options for Anne. The writers seem to think that killing someone might be a problem. But dueling was perfectly legal, and socially approved. If Anne’s as good with her swords as they’ve portrayed her, she ought to call Hamund out and kill him. It would be hard for the other men, leaderless, to complain.

Instead, it’s all sneaking around in the dark and quiet conversations. Silver is the man who gets to shine now. He’s the most “true” character in this for me. He’s always working an angle, to two, or three. Eleanor Guthrie may think she’s forcing Silver to help Anne, but he’s working the long game, and I wager he’ll come out of this in a very nice position indeed.

I always want to see more of Anne. She stays true to character throughout. I love that she wants nothing to do with Max after saving her. But we don’t even get to see the ambush.

Anne’s closing conversation with Jack is one link in the chain that binds them together. But they seem so bloodless. All we have had until now is her line in the first show, “Let’s fuck.” Can we see some heat between these two? Why is Jack so very stuck on her?


Historically, Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham were two people who never let anyone tell them what to do. They were so alike, their love was inevitable. The historic Jack was tough an fearless, maybe too fearless. Jack took control of Vane’s Ranger when Vane was afraid to attack a very large and well-armed French ship. The crew voted Vane out and Rackham in, and marooned Vane on an island.


Clearly the characters in this show aren’t those people. But I’d like to see a little more of who they are. A more mismatched pair could hardly be imagined, Anne a scowling ruffian, Jack an intellectual with delicate sensibilities. Come on, Starz, give us this story.

Instead, we get more of Miranda Barlow’s background. What she tells Pastor Lambrick of her previous life unfolds more intriguing twists and turns. Even though she’s so proper, Miranda is a very sexy woman. Her coupling with Lambrick is one of the more erotic moments on the show so far.

Is she telling the truth about Flint’s plans? Has Flint told Billy the truth? Or is it all just one nest of lies, with some other, completely unseen goal at the end of it? Why do I think Flint’s motivation is going to be the big “reveal” coming up?

Four good endings here. Max alone in the dark at the whorehouse. Anne and Jack. And the pirate burial (glad to see that. So often dead pirates just vanish. Merchant captains sometimes just threw bodies overboard. A proper ritual was one of the many things pirates were fighting for.)

And Vane meeting his friend. Blackbeard? Sure looks like it, and we know that Blackbeard exists in this world, he was mentioned in the first episode. So are they dragging this legend in? The historic Blackbeard and the historic Vane sailed together. But I don’t think it’s that simple here.


Whatever it is, I’m coming back for more.

From AVClub.com
https://www.avclub.com/american-gods-struggles-to-recapture-some-of-that-seaso-1846060476

American gods S3 Ep 2:
Serious Moonlight
*******

American Gods struggles to recapture some of that season one magic in “Serious Moonlight”


Ani Bundel
1/17/21 8:05PM


Ricky Whittle stars in American GodsPhoto: Starz


“Half the art of war is knowing when to switch sides.”

American Gods returns to the moonlight, the serious moonlight. But no one is offering to put on their red shoes and dance the blues. Instead, “Serious Moonlight” opens in Wisconsin in 1690. It’s a slaughter race, and the Nordic settlers are winning out against the Native Americans, despite the latter crying out to their gods for help.

It’s the second episode in a row where the series attempts to recapture the openers from season one—in this case, Mr. Nancy’s famous slave ship scene. On the one hand, the slaughter race is a brutal scene, reminding viewers of the history of white men coming to these lands and Whiskey Jack’s (as Wisakedjak is known in the book) understandable hatred of Odin. But it also highlights how much of that has been muted, like a shadow of its former self. (Moreover, for those who have been paying attention, it’s a profoundly uncomfortable reminder of Orlando Jones’ claims he was fired from the show because the seething rage of Mr. Anansi’s speeches “send the wrong message.” Does the series view the genocide of the native populations somehow as easier on white sensibilities than to remind us what we did to Black people?)


Speaking of Shadow(s), poor “Mike” is in a miserable place out here in Lakeside. Despite the pasties (I do love a good pasty), the town is deeply creepy. And not just because “Ms. Property Manager,” Marguerite Olsen (Lela Loren), is a white lady who is all too comfortable putting a shotgun to the back of a Black man’s head and never bothering to apologize for it. (Please note that at no time in this episode does she apologize, even when she admits it was shitty behavior towards the end of the hour.) The apartment she’s “managing” is miserable, with the heat turned off, because she can’t be bothered to flip a breaker for her new tenant, while hanging a sign on the fireplace that says “Do Not Use.”

Moreover, when the show addresses the racial elephant in the room, it’s weaksauce compared to what came before. Having a teen who Shadow’s never met attempt to fist bump him to “show he’s down” makes for a nicely uncomfortable moment between him and the well-meaning sheriff, Chad Mulligan (Eric Johnson). But then the series just moves on, preferring us to focus on Chad and Ann Marie (Julia Sweeney) dropping large circular hints that this is a small town where they all worship a certain All-Father.

As for The All-Father, it would be the week I had an emergency dental appointment where Odin’s road trip brings forth Tyr the War God-turned-Dentist (Denis O’Hare). (There’s lots of blood split in his dental chair.) Tyr is merely a step on the road to eventually meeting Demeter anyway, who replaces Easter in the Old God lineup. But his scene is also useful to let us know that despite every bus canceling last week, it’s time to make like the Blue Brothers and head to Chicago.

Tyr and Odin aren’t the only ones making the road trip. Both Salim (Omid Abtahi) and Mr. Ibis (Demore Barnes) head to the Windy City, as all the Old Gods gather for the funeral of Zorya Vechernyaya (Cloris Leachman), the Evening Star and Odin’s former lover. Salim is still mourning the Jinn, and attends hoping he’ll turn up. (He does not.) Shadow also gets an invite, though not from host Czernobog (Peter Stormare), but Zorya Polunochnaya (Erika Kaar), the Midnight Star, reminding him to bring the silver coin she drew from the moon and gave to him for luck. Odin’s not invited, but when has that ever stopped him?

Odin at least talks his way into staying and partying the night away, until he has Czernobog pledging to join his fight. Shadow merely gets more riddles for turning up to see Zorya Polunochnaya, though he admits seeing her put the moon back in the sky was worth the price of all it took to get there.

And it did take a lot, including renting Marguerite’s bright purple old beater that once belonged to “Sandy.” Shadow also hit a deer on the way, though he got the windshield and the frame fixed before heading back. But the real cost shows up when he returns, as Lakeside has turned on him for leaving. Teenager Alison (Andi Hubick), who was making eyes at Shadow earlier in the episode, has disappeared, and Marguerite is all too ready to go full Karen and point the sheriff at Shadow’s mysterious car fixes as proof he murdered her.

But by the end of the episode, it seems like Lakeside (and probably Odin) is relenting. Chad announces Shadow’s story checks out, and the townsfolk once again accept him. Now to find out what’s going on with the moon.

Stray Observations:
With no real plot advancement for the New Gods, both Ms. World and Technology Boy are conspicuously absent this week.
The series reveals Bilquis’ patron is the head of an IT company, William Hunting Sanders (Gil Bellows), before having her swallow him in the show’s most conspicuous rerun yet.
That being said, a “pregnancy” storyline would at least give Bilquis something different to do. (If that’s where they are going.)

The White Buffalo is back in new visions for Shadow, stemming back to his childhood. I’m here for that, as long as it goes somewhere.
It’s not clear if the figure at the end trying to warn Shadow is a Peacock Angel, the Melek Taus of the Yazidi creation stories, but I’m hoping so.
My gods, Ian McShane is having SO MUCH FUN with this season so far. Even if the plot muddles along going nowhere, it’s worth tuning in to see him partying it up.
Can we get a full track list of S.Olsen’s Temp Mix, a la Guardians Of The Galaxy? Please and thanks.