Reviews: "Love and Mercy", "The Expanse", "Dowton Abbey", "Galavant"

Cold wintry day...the sky the color of onion skins, with tiny flakes of powder drifting downwards, a thin caking of white on the ground outside my window panes.

1) Just finished watching Love and Mercy - The Brian Wilson Story starring Paul Dano, John Cusack, Elizabeth Banks, and Paul Giametti. Dano did most of the heavy lifting. Overall, it drug and was somewhat disappointing considering the promise of the subject matter - a multi-talented musician who goes slowly insane, and is misdiagnosed and mistreated by a half-brother, who took over his care.
The movie lacked focus, which is the problem with most bio-pics, they want to cover everything instead of focusing on one thing and doing it well. (If you want to see a bio-pick who does it right - go see Steve Jobs - which focuses on a specific time frame and area of the subject's life. Here, they focus on his music, his illness, the abuse he suffered from his family, and the love story with Melinda. Cusack walks through the role as the adult Wilson, somewhat out to sea - with little support from either the director or the script. Elizabeth Banks as Melinda doesn't far much better.
Dano - as young Brian Wilson - has the most to do, and fares the best. Like most musical bio-picks -- it focuses on the creation of the music and the musician's personal life, but struggles striking a good balance between the two, losing a bit of both in the process. I have yet to see a musical bio-pic that worked for me, perhaps the closest was the Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash story "Walk the Line".

2.) Television Reviews

* The Expanse - which is based on a series of space opera novels by J.A Corey, starting with Leviathan Wakes. Isn't quite what I'd hoped for. GRR Martin raved about it a few months ago. But sorry, GRR, "Game of Thrones", it's not. I can't quite decide what went wrong here. Casting? Direction? Script? The focus appears to be mainly on the F/X, but everything else feels sluggish.
I can feel the actors acting. Thomas Jane is phoning in Miller, who was a compelling character in the novels.

By the fifth episode, I find my attention still wandering, when I should be riveted. I wish I could recommend it, but at this stage -- I'd tell you to save your time and go read the books instead.
Or watch reruns of "Defiance" - which sadly is much better.

* Downton Abbey -- I'm actually enjoying this more than I expected. It's the final season of the series, which has been written in its entirety by Julian Fellows -- mainly because when he tried to hire other writers to help out, the voice and tone of the story changed too much or got jarring.
They are doing a good job of depicting how times have changed and the dwindling power of the British aristocracy. After WWI, Britian began to lose some of its power and umph. The power structure began to shift from a privileged few to a working middle class. Downton Abbey is doing a good job of depicting that shift from the perspectives of the inhabitants of an old British estate and it's surrounding lands. In addition it depicts how women's roles have changed, and how they have more freedom. I'm hoping for a happy ending for Lady Edith, Daisy, Mrs. Hughes, Carson, the Cook, and the Bates...I find I don't care one way or the other for Lady Mary.

* Galavant-- Weirdly better than last year. Ribald as ever, but I like the songs a bit better, and the humor. Also Richard and Galavant's bro-romance is rather amusing.

Notable Buffy the Vampire Episodes

Started this in another post...but decided today, on the way to church of all places, to do a complete listing. These are the episodes of the series that I found the most memorable and explain why this series continues to be a favorite. It is notably the only series that I ever got serious enough or rather, obsessive enough about, to join a fandom.

I think the list below may well be the most objective list that I've done regarding the series. Since it's been well on six to seven years since I last watched an episode of Buffy. And like various others on my flist, have drifted a bit away from the fandom. So, I'm more detached, and less emotionally invested in various characters and arcs. For example? I'm no longer a Spike or Spuffy shipper. Don't ship anyone at the moment. Well maybe the Tardis -- because having one's own interstellar time machine is sort of cool.

[ETA: What motivated this list was a list of top 20 Buffy Episodes on Gameraider - which had been linked by petz. Suffice it to say, I really didn't agree with their list.]

The Most Notable Episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

First off, here are one from ten (as grouped together from a previous post, which can be found here, along with a review of The Sherlock Episode - The Abominable Bride.)

( Notable Episodes 1-10 )

11. Selfless (S7) --- Anya has become a vengeance demon again, but she's having difficulty with the gig. Before, she could justify it. Now, she finds herself feeling sympathy for her targets, and well the whole demon thing has lost its appeal. The episode delves into who we are, the dance of light and darkness inside, and the degree to which our choices define us. In addition - it comments on vengeance, justice, and to a degree redeemption. Does killing our enemy solve the problem? Can we heal with hate and violence? No, we really can't -- as Xander begins to realize. He who up to this point was all about killing the demons, begins to realize demons aren't what they appear to be.
Anya like Spike trades roles, defining herself by how others see her or their proscribed roles. "Spouse, Scorned Wife, Vengeance Demon, Mrs. Xander Harris, Xander's Girl-Friend..." but who is Anya?

12.The Zeppo (S3), Superstar (S4), and Storyteller(S7) -- These three episodes, while not amongst my favorites, from an objective stance are rather brilliant meta-narratives on the nerdy writer of the verse. The nerdy writer who fantasizes about being a hero and writes himself into the story, but turns out to be an observer, on the sidelines. At the same time -- it's an interesting commentary on the side-kick, or character who has no powers...and is jealous of the hero. Taken from three different perspectives, Xander (the sidekick), Jonathan ( the nerdy fanboy, damsel, who resents not being a hero) and finally Andrew (the fanboy observer, who sees everything as little more than a game or fantasy.) Each episode asks what is real, and has an unreliable narrator at its core. In Xander's episode - he's the hero, and Buffy and Angel are sappy heroes going through the same old silly crap.
The episode feels at times like a parody of itself. Same with Superstar -except it goes further, satirizing both the genre and the fans who worship it, then Storyteller, goes a bit further, satirizing the writers who make it up...

13. Bad Girls/Consequences/Enemies (S3) -- the problem with serials is there really aren't any stand-alone episodes. It's not like Twilight Zone, where you can do a list of best episodes separate from the rest. Each episode in a serial builds on the last one. To fully appreciate these episodes, you really have to see all three of them, one right after the other. Bad Girls delves into how one handles power and the desire to do whatever you want. Consequences is well the consequences of doing just that. And Enemies...is how do you come back from it, if at all? And to what degree can we really trust someone who has broken our trust and gone down that road? The desire to forgive and forget is key, but so is remorse and the desire to change. What these episodes do is take what appears on the surface to be an accident, and watch it derail through cover-up into a serious crime resulting in one of the characters surrending to the dark side of her soul -- and attempting to take everyone with her.
In between, it has some interesting gender flipping moments regarding sexual violence and power.

14. Passion (S2) - Angelus decides to take out two birds with one stone. He goes after tech-witch, Jenny Calendar, who is attempting to bring back his soul. And in a horrifying sequence, snaps her neck. Signifying to the audience that he has gone full-blown dark side. Then, he artfully places her in Giles bed, plays a record, sets up a romantic venue of roses, and wine...and hangs back in the shadows to see what transpires. The voice over is pure gothic poetry...that coments on and to a degree satirizes the romantic vampire trope, made so popular with Anne Rice. It underlines the dark side of love - obsessive, lustful, without brakes, devouring.

15, Bargaining I & II (S6) - After Buffy has died, the world goes crazy. And her friends decide to bring her back, to save her from hell, or so they believe. This episode doesn't make a lot of sense without watching the Gift first. What's interesting about the episode and why it is notable is the commentary to 9/11 which occurred not long before it. Buffy stands at the top of decaying tower, the world burning below her and wonders if it makes sense to stay. The world is filled with dread. It burns. Is there any hope? Hope arrives in the form of her sister, Dawn, whom she'd previously sacrificed her life for...and Dawn reminds her of her own words at the end of the Gift, the it's not supposed to be easy -- but if she isn't alive, how can it be better? The episode perfectly captures the insane emotional angst that I felt during 9/11 - where the world suddenly appears to go insane.

16. Restless (S4) --- a surreal, somewhat avant guard episode, that delves deeply into the four prinicipal characters identies. Exploring each character's deepest fear in depth - and in a way exploring our own as well. The slayer - the original slayer - jumps from each character's dream slaying them through their fear. For Xander - the heart of the group -- it's his fear of romantic love, of giving his heart to another, without becoming his parents in the process. For Willow -the spirit of the group- it's her fear of being herself, of who she is...and how she appears to others.
For Giles (the brains or head) -- it's the fear of making the wrong decisions, or not thinking it through or getting it right. And for Buffy, the hands, its the fear of the power that resides inside her, the darkness it represents and being defined soley by it. Through his examination of each characters emotional and psychological issues - the writer gives his audience a road-map of sorts to the series as a whole, where he plans on going with it, and the themes he wishes to explore. He also does an intricate meta-narrative on the series and the genre.

17. Something Blue (S4) & Tabula Rasa (S6) - a comedic tour de force, that also serves as foreshadowing on each character's emotional arc. A precurser to Restless. Buffy goes nuts over Spike -- but it's all sexual and not quite real. Giles is blind to everyone's issues, too focused on his own. Xander attracts demons, for fear of being one himself. And Willow wrecks vengeance on those she loves most out of grief.Tabula Rasa (S6) - another comedic tour de force, but this time the identity of the characters is examined through a momentary loss of memory. They gravitate towards those who they've been most attached to of late, yet their pairings don't quite work and seem awkward. It too makes fun of itself and its genre.

18. Crush (S5) and Smashed (S6) - In Crush - Spike goes out of his way to win Buffy, by doing all the wrong things. And up pops Drusilla - who offers him a chance to go back to his old ways. He's stuck between three women, Buffy, Harmony and Dru...and all three get the better of him. Even though it appears at first that he has the upper hand. Smashed - notable for how the episode culminated. The heroine has violent, hot, sex with the villain. Or the presumed villain. The ambiguous Spike --- who can turn on a dime. Up until this point, it hadn't been done or not in series like Buffy. Also, notable for the ambiguity of the Spike character. Spike finds out his chip isn't working - so he tries to talk himself into eating a girl in an alleyway, being a vampire again. It doesn't work. His chip, it turns out, just doesn't work on Buffy. And Buffy is struggling with her attraction to Spike, who represents death, bliss, a return to the grave from which she came. When he confronts her - offers her a chance to dance with death - she takes him up on it - and brings the building down. I examines sex and lust and love as addictions...a way of escaping oneself and one's own reality.

19. Normal Again(S6) and The Wish(S3) -- two episodes that explore another reality, and to a degree reality itself as a construct. In the Wish Anya, grants Cordelia's ill-advised wish that Buffy never came to Sunnydale, believing her life would be so much better if Buffy weren't in it. Too bad she doesn't last more than five minutes in a Buffyless world. She's killed immediately. And we get to see dark versions of all of our heroes, from Xander to Buffy herself. Normal Again - Buffy is infected by a demon with a hallucinetory poison, which makes her believe that she's actually inside an insane asylum and this is all in her head. A make believe world that she has created. It's difficult to know which world is real, the world where she slays vampires, or the one in which she is committed to an asylum? And it also comments on the character's own self-absorption - and how one can feel as if the entire world rests on their shoulders.

20. Prophecy Girl(S1) and The Gift(S5) -- in both these episodes the heroine dies. And in both it is prophesized. In the first episode, Prophecy Girl, she drowns, after the Master (Vampire) sucks her blood. With it strengthening him, he breaks his bounds and goes after the town. Xander revives her, with Angel's reluctant assistance -- and together they take on the villains with great success. Notable for small touches her and there, and the flip in genre tropes. The Gift - Buffy actually dies saving the world. As her sister's blood opens the gates of hell, she leaps into them, her own blood, and her own death sealing them, as her friends mourn her loss. The metaphor of the death of childhood is underlined in both or innocence lost.

Okay those are mine, off the top of my head. Or basically the episodes I remember after six or seven years. What are yours?