Strawhat's Streaming Shows: True Detective - Down Will Come

  As an eight episode series, not to mention an anthology show at that, True Detective has the hardest job in cable television to tell a story within a very small window of time. The first season did extremely well because of a fast startup and a very solid premise with only two main characters. True Detective's second season had a very rough start, and has the problem of attempting to juggle four main characters (two of which aren't detectives at all) and a storyline that is, unarguably, too complicated for its own good. We're at the middle mark, so something had to give - and boy did it. A climax that was different than anything that came before during the series.

"So... this is the Pokémon you wanted, right?"

Syan Vs Movies: Terminator Genisys

He said he’d be back.  He said “Hasta la vista, baby,” and la vista es ahora, bebe! The Terminator franchise has a new installment and its Genisys has begun in this sequel-reboot. Time-travel shenanigans to the max!     

This is the face the audience makes
when Pops is on the screen

Terminator: Genisys tells us the story of Kyle Reese being sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor, the mother of the leader of the resistance, from being killed by a murderous robot known as a Terminator.  …wait, that sounds super familiar, isn’t that the plot of the original Terminator?  I meant what I said about time-travel shenanigans.  Genisys is a sequel and a reboot simultaneously, showing that each step back in time fractures reality somewhat, creating multiple different timelines.  This explains why Judgment Day has moved from 1997 to 2017, and all sorts of dates in between. 

All About Anime: Ladies Night- The Strongest Rolling Girls In The World

It's another All About Anime and today we are talking about two shows with a primarily female cast.  Both of these are recent additions to anime's illustrious line-up coming out within the last two years.  The pro wrestling anime Wanna Be The Strongest In The World debuted in 2013 in Japan, but came out only recently in English, and the coming-of-age zany action-comedy The Rolling Girls which is brand-new in 2015 in both English and Japanese.  Both feature strong women, hard work, weird jokes, and amazing animation. 

Pop idol by day, pro wrestler by night
"Not the face" has to be in Sakura's contract

Wanna Be The Strongest In The World tells the story of Sakura Hagiwara, a pop music idol who is a member of the group Sweet Diva.  She is their lead star when the group arranges a press event where the idols go to a local women's wrestling promotion Berserk to try out.  While there, one of Sakura's teammates in Sweet Diva speaks disparagingly of wrestling and irks one of the stars of Berserk, Rio.  Rio is angry and prideful, thinking it is disgusting that mere pop idols can assume they can make it in pro wrestling.  She takes the position of the long-term and established veteran who just hasn't made their own title run, but everyone has to go through in order to reach the next level... think Tyler Breeze's position in NXT with boobs and a camel clutch. Sakura steps into the ring to face Rio and it leads her into the world of pro wrestling full-time seeking a chance to be strong. Not just strong, but the Strongest in the World.

Strawhat's Streaming Shows: True Detective Season Two Premiere

  Last year, HBO tried a fun experiment with the cop drama genre. Taking visual cues and thematic elements from movies like Se7en, Nic Pizzolatto both created and wrote the amazing True Detective. It starred Woody Harrelson and Matthew McCognaughey in roles that both defined the show's dualing themes and timelines, while also having a buddy cop drama aesthetic that ascended higher than many like it due to how different the characters where. The nihilistic Rustin "Rust" Cohle and the down-to-Earth Detective Martin Hart. The first season's initial murder mystery took our protagonists on a macabre ride into the occult and religious fanaticism while showing us the vulnerability of our heroes' own mortality. But that was Season One. As it turns out, True Detective, much like American Horror Story, is an anthology; the events and characters from Louisiana no more. It's a new setting, a new crime, and a whole new set of Detectives.

"Hey, my eyes are up here, soldier!"  

Winter Has Come: Mother's Mercy (Game of Thrones Season 5 Finale)

  Seven Hells.

  Just when you think it's safe to go back to Westeros, (Protip: it never is!) Game of Thrones throws a whole bunch of deaths your way. Needless to say, this review will be spoiler ridden (of course) and with lots, and I mean lots, of deaths. While there has been some complaints about the pacing of this season: too slow, Dorne story has been pointless, the Sand Snakes aren't engrossing characters, etc; I would argue that most of those faults were address and somewhat fixed (a bit rushy, but fixed) with "Mother's Mercy."

"I said second exit, Drogon!"

  

The Fastest Man Alive: The Flash Season One Review

"My name is Barry Allen, and I'm the fastest man alive. When I was a child, I saw my mother killed by something impossible. My father went to prison for her murder. Then an accident made me the impossible. To the outside world, I'm just an ordinary forensic scientist, but secretly I use my speed to fight crime and find others like me, and one day I'll find who killed my mother and get justice for my father. I am the Flash."

 

Faster than his MCU counterpart, not to mention still alive.

  To say that the DC Comics "Movie Universe" is a fragmented mess is an understatement of metahuman proportions. Between the Nolan "Batman" films and Snyder's Superman catastrophe "Man of Steel," it seems like DC cannot get the engine running to jump start their cinematic universe properly, the same way Marvel has for almost a decade. By DC's own design, they have stated they do not want to copy the competition and would rather do their own thing. Which is valiant and all, but has left a hole of cohesive continuity in their films that Marvel has excelled at. And then came Arrow. Known as the best (superhero) show on TV in some circles, Arrow started the DC TV Universe the same way Marvel and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to capitalize with the medium for storytelling.

Avocados At Law: Daredevil Season One Review

   On December 31, 2009, The Walt Disney Company purchased Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. At the time, many had feared that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (spearheaded by one Kevin Fiege) would derail into itself and take away the wittiness and bite off the Marvel movies. A similar situation has ensued during the Lucasfilm/Disney deal that has given the House of Mouse (and by extension, Marvel Comics) control over the Star Wars franchise. At the time, and even currently, most Marvel movies are PG-13 fare that skirts into the young adult with some rare glimpses into serious adult entertainment. Around of October of 2013, rumors began swirling that Netflix was going to get first dibs on Daredevil as a series, that would eventually lead to a Defenders mega series (similar to Marvel's Phase One). Fans wondered what tone the show would have, especially after the last portrayal of Daredevil in FOX's Ben Affleck critically panned bomb; and the tepid first season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Enter Netflix's Daredevil:

"Ben who?"