Category: Television

Rick and Morty, season 1

rick and morty 1

This Adult Swim show has quickly become a pop culture phenomenon and I give it credit, this show is one of those rare times the show deserves a lot of the praise. Rick Sanchez is a crude genius, a mad scientist, and a raging depressed alcoholic living with his estranged daughter, horse vet Beth and her lame ass husband Gerry with there two kids Summer and Morty. Poor whiny, simple Morty keeps getting dragged into these strange adventures involving monsters, aliens, and freaky science. And these are crazy ass adventures whether there’s a love potion that turns people into fleshy abominations, incepting the school principle and encountering a deformed guy in a green Xmas sweater with swords for fingers and a affinity for the word “bitch”, and a monotone bird person (literally that’s the guy’s name, bird person). Besides a crap ton of crass dark humor and cool trippy designs, their are a lot of deep questions to be asked and I have to admit, I found myself really thinking hours after watching the episodes. There is a lot of cleaver messages and surprisingly deep characters. I binged the first season overnight and couldn’t get enough. It’s a quick watch but well worth it and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-man: the animated series

spiderman animated series

In the 90’s we got a tri-fecta of awesome cartoon superheroes with Batman: the animated series and X-Men the animated series , concluding with Spider-man’s turn. The show told the tales of Peter Parker taking on villains like Shocker, Scorpion, Rhino, Doc Ock, as well as favorites Green Goblin and Venom as well as a huge host of others. What made this show really cool was how much of Marvel it opened up to a lot of us as kids with appearances from Blade, Daredevil, Punisher, Dr. Strange, War Machine, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, and the damn X men just to name a few. Like X men, there are a lot of sagas that are pretty well done but one huge flaw I have is this show is safe as hell. There isn’t any real violence or grit but it’s still enjoyable and worth checking it out. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Is there a best Star Trek Series?

entertpirse

After doing all the Star Trek movies a long time ago, I considered reviewing all the t.v. series, which hey I suppose if you guys want I can still work on. But the real question is, is there a universally best?  My father for example would swear up and down the original series was the way to go. Don’t worry, i’m not here to bash any of them. I loved them all, except the new discovery which I haven’t seen because I refuse to subscribe to another service and I hate the idea of  simply stealing it.

The original series is just that, the original. It was a bit rough at times. Plenty of over acting the special effects were primitive, but for its time it was pretty damn original. The next generation however has everything the original did, but did it better and by many is considered the best of the t.v. shows.

Deep Space Nine however took us off the enterprise and on to the space station of, you guessed it, Deep Space Nine This one actually took a different approach where the story was less from episode to episode and had a more traditional approach with an over all story. DS9 also took place at the same time as TNG, in fact many of the characters make cameos in both shows and O’Brien and worf actually become permanent parts of DS9.

Next we have Voyager which honestly was pretty much Lost in Space. Do to some jack ass species of alien the ship gets ripped to the opposite side of the galaxy and they journey home. While doing this they will run into new species, some hostile some friendly, and discover new things about the Borg.

Last but not least we have Enterprise. This show is about the early days of Earth exploration, before the Federation even existed. This show was quite interesting but for many reasons never seemed to take off.

But was there an objectively best? I don’t think so. I truly think it comes down to the old fashioned age argument. Older people love the original because they saw it first and it was new. Others in between saw it in reruns but fell in love with TNG, others may love the over all stories of DS9 and Voyager. But at the end of the day it comes down to people loving the world itself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Godzilla: Monster planet

godzilla monster planet

Full Disclaimer: unlike many of my friends, I’m not a avid Godzilla fan nor a particular fan of Kaiju in general. Not to say I don’t mind the promise of giant monster crashing and thrashing through the civilization we busted our asses o build- if you had my job, you would find yourself wishing a radioactive iguana would tear through your workplace to break the monotony of the day.

Humanity has been brought to the brink of extinction and is forced to live in space, isolated, losing oxygen, supplies, and hope. But Why? What caused our ultimate downfall? Godzilla. What’s left of the human race is desperate to find another habitable world to no avail. Suddenly Earth becomes the only option, despite the unkillable beast. 1000’s of years passed and the environment and it’s creatures have changed, but the king of the monsters still lives. In the end, it’s up to an enraged major and a vast quantity of Earth’s last military to make a final stand against the insurmountable…

I have to say I wasn’t really a fan of this episode, and at 90 minutes it is a episode. Minor spoiler, there is generously 15 minutes of Godzilla in the whole thing but a hell of a lot of people telling you how either OP he is or how much they hate him. The animation quality varies. Sometimes good, sometimes strange. Like something about the way Godzilla is animated feels wrong or out of place. The rest of the time feels like a somewhat generic space plot. The action is kinda neat but I couldn’t help but think of Attack on Titan at times. For the casual fan, I can’t really recommend it honestly. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

5 of my favorite super teams

jla

You ever get a rush watching a climatic battle full of your favorite costumed badasses throw down against a huge army or indestructible foe? Well, like millions of other nerds, I do too. So here’s my list in order of my favorite super teams in order starting with

5. JLA- one of the classics and very first it’s hard not to get excited seeing Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Aquaman, and Green Lantern getting together to kick some ass.

f4 4 4. Fantastic 4- Marvel’s first family and explorers into the strange and cosmic, despite the swarm of crappy movies, I always got love for Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing.

classic xmen 3. X Men- The Students of Xavier’s School helped start my descent into my love of Marvel. There has been tons of X Men over the years, so many I couldn’t list (near the next film I’ll get deeper into my favorites.) but they are awesome.

Teen Titans 2. Teen Titans- I can’t lie, this is strictly on the list because of how much I loved the early 2000’s series but damn near 20 years later the friendship between Robin, Cyborg, Starfire, Raven, and Beastboy stuck with me and that says volumes.

gotg 1. Guardians of the galaxy- I got introduced to the comics a year before the movie came out and fell in love with these flawed but cool characters. Starlord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket Raccon, and Groot with awesome guest Guardians throughout make them my favorite.

May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Drawn Together

drawn together

There are some things that once seen, cannot be unseen: this is one of the few times it’s a compliment. Many don’t remember Drawn Together, but those that watched it remember it DAMN well. Not everyday you see a Veggie-Tale go postal, a superhero and a pig wash a homeless guys balls, or the most feared creature in our live action universe: live action squirrel with incredibly huge balls! That kind of crazy shit.

Drawn Together is a animated reality show about animated characters living in a house. Captain Hero, Foxy Luv, Toot, Spanky Ham, Xander, Waldor Sockbat, and Ling-ling are representations of characters we all grew up with which leads to some insanely outrageous moments during it’s three seasons. And I warn you now, if you aren’t into raunchy comedy, skip this like swimming in a pool of plague bodies. Over a decade after it aired, it holds up well but I do recommend watching it unedited. I highly recommend this show for it’s great premise, funny characters, and unforgettable moments. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

X-men: Evolution

xmen evolution

A very underappreciated show from my childhood that blends teen drama with superheroes, X-Men: Evolution was a short lived show that changed my life and helped me see things. Not only do we get to see our favorites like Wolvy, Cyclops, Storm, and Beast, but we get many other favorites throughout like Nightcrawler, Kitty Pryde, Spyke, and a huge host of others as well as villians like Magneto, Mystique, Sabretooth, and Apocalypse at the very end. While the show doesn’t reach as far out into the lore like it’s 90’s counterpart did, it dwells on the lives and depth of its characters just as much. There are more characters that are more flushed out than others and because of the early 2000’s timing, it can’t come as close to the dark subject matter as the 90’s cartoon could get away with. I did find myself attached to it’s characters though.and there is some cool action throughout. In the end, it is worth checking out. Best wishes an may the gaming gods bring you glory.

X-Men the animated series

xmen animated

Only in comparison to Batman’s animated series, there was X-Men’s and Spider-man’s. The 90’s X-men series recounted some of the mutants most coolest adventures whether fighting the Murlocks or The Brotherhood of Mutants or the planet shattering Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix sagas. We get to join our favorites like Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Gambit, Beast, Jean Grey, and Professor X and many others throughout the series. It is a pretty dark show and there is a lot of social commentary for the older folks like myself. A small problem I have with the layout is there is A LOT of cliffhangers and you find yourself getting slightly annoyed by the sometimes lengthy arcs; it’s not really a show you you can often sit down, watch a episode or two, and be satisfied. I feel more comic book fans will enjoy the series more than the casual viewer but for the hardcore X Men fans, this is for you. On a final note, the opening theme is addictive as hell. May the gaming gods bring you glory and best wishes.

Batman: Sub Zero

batman subzero

Subzero is a movie based around the animated series. Victor Fries loved his wife Nora with all his heart and was devastated when she became inflicted with a terminal illness; until he could find a cure, he froze her in suspended animation. After a tragic turn of events, Victor was mutated by his own cryogenic science and became Mr Freeze. With time ticking, he has a final option to save Nora but there seems to be only one match for her: Barbara Gordon. Kidnapping Barbara, Batgirl, it’s up to Batman and Robin to rescue her before Freeze may end up killing Barbara. I always loved Mr Freeze so I was glad he got an appropriate movie (we all know about the other Mr Freeze film). If you loved the animated series, you’ll love this movie. It does feel like a long episode but still has great performances and some sweet action. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: the animated series

batman animated

“I am vengeance. I am the night. I AM BATMAN!”- Kevin Conroy, portraying Batman and delivering the greatest I am speech of all time. Any 90’s nerd knows the classic opening noir with Danny Elfman’s perfect score and feels a chill when we catch that iconic image of Batman before the show begins. With four seasons, and four animated movies, Batman was edgy and dark as hell for a kid’s show. With dark, complex adult plots and extremely well acted characters the show didn’t pull punches. Whether it was the tragic two part Two-Face origin episode, or the creepy ass Mad Hatter episode to flushing out the epic story of Ras Al Ghul, we got to see the darker side of Batman’s lore come out. Not to say the show was all doom and gloom. Robin added some levity without being annoying or dragging the show down as much as Joker and Harley frequently brought on laughs without taking away from there menace. Kevin Conroy delivers a masterful voice performance as Bruce Wayne and Batman while Mark Hamill is iconic as Joker but there is too many great performances to name. I will say the suddenly artistic reset in season 4 may jar many fans, especially Joker’s appearance which is the worst of that seasons redesigns but the stories and voices remain just as good. In the end, I highly recommend the show to pretty much anyone. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.