New TV Show Review: NBC's Hannibal

I watched the first episode of NBC's Hannibal. I'm going to quickly explain the plot, then do a quick review through screencaps.

The show -or at least the first episode- is about special agent Will Graham. Except he isn't really an agent because he has a mild case of autism, they don't state exactly how severe his autism is, they just slightly mention that he has it. Graham's character doesn't show any development from the flashback at the beginning of the episode and the present day after the intro. He just kind of slides out of and into place again in the FBI without any change. He even wears the same jacket.

The role of Hannibal is iconic enough that it reached a point where it is completely fine for me to see someone other than Anthony Hopkins play him, anyone but Gaspard Ulliel. Gaspard Ulliel is the worst.

As for the show it self, the cinematography is great, and you can see that every frame is thought out and executed well. There is room for improvement in some scenes but I'm optimistic that it will get better as the season progresses.

A couple of the good frames

The special effects in this show are beyond any crime-drama on TV right now, as far as I can tell. The way Graham's beautiful mind sees things in reverse in the crime scene and his terrifyingly vivid dreams are very well made and are beautiful in color and contrast.

crime scene blood "unsplattering" the walls.

Slightly unsettling but very beautifully executed

As far as the other characters go, there are two female characters which are your typical police dramas female characters. One is strong, and bad-ass, and doesn't even care about anything.The other is a soft-spoken academic who may or may not be in love with the lead character.

Can you guess which is which?

There were a couple of scenes that were really good and others that didn't make much sense or fit with the story, but I'm pretty sure this will get better as the series goes on, as do all series.

Also, can I just throw in a pitch here, NBC?
I think it would be really awesome if the transition frames from scene to scene were actually Hannibal cooking or eating. It's creepy and cool. It's perfect.

I thought lungs were more sponge-like

Lecter's basic food groups: tomatoes, lettuce, and human kidneys.

As for some of the scenes I'm dying to comment on, here:

a) this gem of a scene. I think this might be my favorite scene of the entire episode. Graham suspects the girl is dead inside her room and tries to stop the dad from entering. When the dad refuses and enters behind him, he collapses onto himself. Graham holds him up with his arms and continues to stare blankly just behind the man's head. It shows that while he is close and distant from the people's emotions around him, he is willing to be in an uncomfortable position to help others.

b) The scene in the men's room where Graham is like, "waaa I quit" and then the FBI guy comes in and the FBI boss is like "you can't sit with us". I liked i.

c) The fact that Graham rescues stray dogs and keeps them in his house and feeds them and takes care of them. I almost cried. It is so touching.

d) You're swapping evidence for DNA. why isn't your hair covered? I'm sick of this recurring mistake in police dramas.

e) There was this one scene in the autopsy room where the dead girl is lying on a table and Graham concludes from the lab staff's comments that the killer of these girls doesn't keep body parts as trophies, he keeps them as lunch. I bet this was a plot twist for all those 13 year olds who randomly watched this show.

I will not look at this naked dead girl. no sirree.

f) There was this one VERY stupid and unnecessary scene where they call up a technician of some sort to like at the phone wires of a neighborhood and tell them if it was tapped. He flashes his light on the wire, turns around, yells "It's tapped!", and SCENE!

Fun game to play while watching, count how many times Graham pulls this face during an episode.

final rating: 4/5

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Remember when I reviewed Ready Player One and said I was surprised that such a book could live up to its hype. I'm not going to say that about Divergent. Technically I didn't read Divergent, I listened to the audio-book. I'm still counting it as one of my 50 books this year, though.

The book starts out as any young adult book narrated by a 16 year old does, her describing the way she looks. Okay, you are very ordinary looking. There is nothing special about you. You are a goody two-shoes that doesn't seem to quite fit in. Let me guess, you fall in love with a bad boy that falls in love with you back? Let me hold that thought. Then, as any other dystopian book the narrator begins to describe the world she lives in. The thing about this world is that it is a dystopia disguised as a utopia, so there's that point for creativity, or possibly not because Brave New World.

Anyways, the whole world -or possibly just North America- are divided into five factions:
Abnegation: Selfless. Symbol: holding hand
Dauntless: Brave. Symbol: fire
Erudite: Intellectual. Symbol: eye
Amity: Peaceful. Symbol: tree
Candor: Honest. Symbol: scales

When a person becomes 16 they have a choice to make, to stay in the faction they were born into or transfer to a different faction and unless they choose Erudite they stop studying. Okay, education-hating society. Before the transfer ceremony the kids have to take a simulation test that shows which factions they are most suitable for. Although they don't have to choose that faction, if they choose another faction and fail in the initiation phase they will live forever faction-less; poor, jobless, and on the streets.

The simulation decides which faction suits the16 year old by elimination. So if you choose to take a course of action, say attack a dog, the amity option would be eliminated and so forth until there is only one option left. The people who realize they are in simulation and can control the outcome are those who can't be filed into a certain result of what faction suits them. Those people are known as Divergent. Can you guess who is divergent. Can you guess?
Also, the character ends many chapters with, "I'm dauntless." "I am divergent" "I am a complete idiot." Please let us come to the realization or the revelation ourselves. We do not want to be spoon-fed the


so-called character development.

If you don't mind predictable twists, cheesy bad tough guy/ good fragile girl romances, and dystopia then this is the book for you. If you are still unsure what this book is about it is basically A Beautiful Disaster in a dystopian world. If you are, however, a person who likes better books than that, then first don't read this books, second, welcome to my blog and can we be friends?

I can see how this book has a sequel, although I will not be reading it. The main story of the book other than the romance is a rebellion and a civil war that only started in the last three chapters of Divergent.

There will be a movie in 2014 starring some people I don't know, it does how ever feature KATE WINSLET as a government villain so yes, I will be watching. Zoe Kravitz is in it too, but I don't like her acting, so. I don't know why I thought Aaron Eckhart was in this. He isn't.

If I were you I'd just skip the book and see the movie if you are a Winslet fan, if not just steer clear.

final rating: 1/5

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 2 Recap

So, the second episode of GoT aired last Sunday. I will not go into full rant about the lack of Stannis in this episode so a quick recap through points:

1-The whole Jojen & Meera introduction was the absolute worst thing since the Baelish/Sansa interaction in the first episode, idiotic and completely wrong. Meera would have never pointed a weapon at Osha, so just stop, HBO. Also, I can't believe the kid who plays Jojen is actually 23! Oh my God, talk about the fountain of youth.

2- Robb Stark continues to be a complete idiot. Talissa is a complete idiot. The only person who isn't an idiot in that camp is Roose Bolton. Probably Karstark, too.

3- Did ANYONE believe the story Catelyn told about Jon and the pox? Very VERY out of character.

4- Arya, Gendry, and Hot Pie being the little awkward children of nothingness they -now- are. I hated that we didn't meet Lem and the Winterfell stables-boy. I hated that the uncovering of Arya's true identity was by The Hound. They took so much away. They couldn't give us the simple pleasure of seeing joy in Arya's face when she sees the stables-boy. Screw you, HBO.

5- Brienne's and Jamie's scenes were a bit of a let-down. I mean, after all the anticipation. The fighting scene was great, though, and the location of the fight and the nature of it. GOD. I'm still expecting better scenes this week, though, and keeping my hopes high.

6- Jon, as usual, was a badass even when he isn't supposed to be one. I loved the Mance/Jon conversation about the wildling tribes and the whole Worg scene. The worg scene was cool beans. Yes, I just said cool beans, it's 1:30 AM, get over it.

7- Sansa and Loras Tyrell = heart break
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT. She sees in him the days of the Hand's tournament, when her dad was still alive and the world was her oyster. She sees her old bubbly little girl self in his eyes. Oh, Sansa.

Tears were shed with/for hers.

8- Sansa/Margery/Lady Olana = OH MY GOD.
The Queen of Thorns is literally the best. Her attitude, her sweet-talking Sansa to reveal the dirt on Joffrey. Freaking Joffrey.

"Get me my cheese!"

9- The whole Margery seducing the king with perverted talk about killing animals with a cross-bow. Kinky. It gives me the creeps.

10- Show us Riverrun already!!

11- Freaking Theon Greyjoy. You know, in the books, he disappears in the third one. I wanted that to translate into the TV series. You don't always get what you want.

12- The kid from Misfits is apparently sent by Asha or whatever her name turned out to be on the show which WHAT IS THAT?! I don't recall this happening in the book, but okay, I like him.

overall rating of the episode: 3/5
overall rating of Sophie Turner as Sansa in this episode: 5/5 





 

Game of Thrones Season 3 Episode 1 Recap

This is not really a recap. I mean it is. Mostly it is just an elaborate rant of why I'm very disappointed in the premiere of season three. If you don't want to be spoiled this is a warning, if you want to be spoiled this is an invitation.

Season three starts where season two left, with Sam Tarly beyond the wall. I though that was a good enough start, I mean, the prequels in the books tend to be quite ominous and this seemed extremely suitable. What I didn't like was the fact that in season two they threw off the entire white walkers attack on the rangers in the fist of the first men and how the whole raven sending dilemma came about. I guess, for TV factors, they needed to make Sam a big fat fool. Also for TV points, the sentence, "You had only one job". We get it , Weiss, now stop.

CUE NEW THEME SONG.
I personally loved the new theme song. Out of the entire episode my favorite part was the theme song, and that should tell you something. The addition of new locations was just perfect, and is exactly what the audience need due to the oh so many new settings in the story. Also, ASTAPOR.

Bricks and blood built Astapor, brick and blood her people.

 North of the wall, and deep into the wildlings camp, Jon Snow sees his first giant. I loved the giant. How normal it was for the wildlings for a giant  to live amongst them and do some of their work. The camera time of the giant was slightly on the unnecessary longer side but all in all it was well.

I also starred in Les Miserable as Jan Valjan

Rattle-shirt and Ygritte take Jon into Mance's tent. Mance basically tells them both to leave, which they do, albeit Ygritte looked a bit unwilling to go. Mance then goes on to ask Jon why he wants to join him. Jon gives him a half-assed answer about how Lord Commander Mormont knew about Craster sacrificing his sons and how he did nothing about it. Which is total bull crap. In the book, Jon gives a genuine well-thought-of answers to Mance's question. In the novel, Mance knows what Jon looks like because he sneaked into Winterfell to the banquet that was thrown in the honor of king Robert Baratheon coming to the north at the beginning of the series. Jon answers Mance's question about the reason he abandoned the watch by telling him, "All my brothers and sisters were seated at the main table. Did you see where the bastard was sitting?" 

he only got away with his crappy answer because he gave mance this look

Then we get to see Bronn -who is now a ser- frolicking in a brothel because someone has to get some action in this show, doesn't matter who, anyone will be fine. I don't know why but Bronn has been getting on my nerves for the last few episodes of season 2, and anything he does in this season will just make me hate him.
Something Bronn said to Tyrion really caught my attention, when asked by Tyrion if they were friends, he answered, "We are. But I'm a sellsword, I sell my sword, I don't loan it to friends." I think this is as good an indication as any of a future parting of ways.

 I was looking forward to my favorite character's screen time, and I got about 2 minutes of it. I was also very disappointed, but the creators gave me a consolation scene which is fine. Sansa's scene with Shae, Rose, and Peter Baelish. How do I begin talking bout this scene. Okay, first of all let us talk about Sansa and Shae and their little "game". Even though this scene didn't happen in the books, and the whole Shae/Sansa relationship is completely for tv only, I liked it and like the relationship very much. What I don't like is Peter Baelish replacing Dontos in the role of Sansa's escape helper. No. When Sansa learns in the books that Peter is trying to get her out of King's Landing she is instantaneously fearful and cautious, unlike her behavior in this scene.  Sansa is also the only character -aside from Joffery and Danaerys- who got a new plot in the beginning of this season, everyone else just sort of continued old plot lines and stories. She still remains my favorite character in terms of character development. She is growing up, not as fast and dramatic as her sister and brother, but maybe in that aspect she's closer to her most distant brother, Jon Snow.

Queen Margery is finally being portrayed as she is in the books, alongside Ser Loras, who are both getting a lot of screen time this season.  As for Cersei, Tyrion, and Tywin, there is not much change on that front, all are behaving as befits their personalities. Joffery is still an idiot prick, but at least he's getting some development in this episode.

House words: Curly Locks.

Robb & Catelyn continued being their boring selves. I mean, God, grow a bit. You've practically started this whole war, Robb, and you've learned nothing to show for it. Roose Bolton said 2 or 3 badass comments about being the strongest or the best or something and that was it for the North. Oh, but wait, they are in Harrenhal. HARRENHAL. I mean come on, HBO. They were supposed to be in Riverrun from the start, and it has been constantly delayed for nothing. Nothing, I tell you. We also meet Qybrin, who I've learned I've been pronouncing the name of wring this whole time.

essentially, the reversed Snape.

Davos's and Stannis's scenes were much shorter than I expected, but still satisfactory and true to the novels. I think this is probably the only storyline left not meddled with by the tv adaptation.

Dany's Khalsaar's trip on a ship in the poison water was cut shorter than their trip across the red waste. Thank God for that. If I had to sit through more episodes of Dothraki following Dany to eternal ruin I'd probably stop watching altogether.We get a small glimpse of Astapor and the Unsullied. Missandi translates to Dany a language she already speaks, and we don't get the subtitles of the slave-lord and Missandi's conversation. Dany sees a little dirty girl playing with a wooden ball and being her maternal self follows the child into the city, the child throws the ball at her and tells her to open it, Dany falls with the ball as a hooded figure tries to jump on her only to be stopped by Jorah. The ball opens in two halves to reveal a sort of scorpion creature which the hooded figure soon kills. The child bares her teeth to the the figure, her teeth and gums are a dark night shade of blue, she jumps into the water and then reappears on the wall behind them. "the warlocks!" exclaims Dany to inform the dim witted viewers who still hadn't caught on. The hooded figure then reveals himself to be SER BARRISTAN SELMEY woah what you may think. Well, I'm pissed off by this. First of all this scenes was jumped up about 4 other event in Dany's chapters, it should have been revealed to her as a form of treachery by a new acquaintance. Second of all, I hope the ser Jorah vs Selmey plot line is still in action because otherwise this has taken a great turn for the worst.

this, like that slave's chest, is pointless.

Overall, this episode was just setting the characters back into place and reminding the audience where everything was left off, something -I don't think- the show can afford, time-wise. I'm looking forward to next week's episode but I'm keeping my hopes and expectations at bay. I was -and still am- disappointed with the premiere, but I hope the show will take off after this episode. I was disappointed for the lack of Jaime Lannister screen time, as he is almost but not quite the center of the third book.


Also, check out the web-series School of Thrones on Youtube. It is awesome.

Overall rating of the episode: 1/5 

The Following

It is not secret that Kevin Bacon is the best cliche character player of all times. Maybe not, but he always seems to be playing the extreme cliche of one character but somehow making it work. The role he plays in The Following is just -urgh- so typical. He's an out of business FBI detective who doesn't play by the rules and who is called back after 10 years to catch a serial killer he has put in jail. Oh, wait! he had an affair with the killer's wife? He has never gotten over her? He feels personally guilty and emotionally attached to the outcome f this case? Well, as Stephanie Tanner from Full House would say, "Pin a rose on your nose."

Oh, but it gets better, he is an alcoholic. I know. The good thing they did was add a flaw to the old man so Kevin Bacon doesn't pull a Tom Cruise and start running around after he hit the big Five-O. Ryan Hardy (Bacon's character) has some heart problem after being shot in the chest and he has a pacemaker that keeps his heart beating. I literally have no idea what that is, except the makeup artist did a great job with the healed wound shot. It looked real.

Speaking of how good of a job the makeup artist pulled off with the main character's wounds, look at the amazing job they did with Sarah's -the victim that got away- wounds.

As for the show itself, it starts out with the outline of an action movie starring Liam Neesson or Bruce Willis, and you wonder how this is a TV show and not a movie, then BAM! It's not about the serial killer anymore, it is about a cult he created. I know.

Anyways, the serial killer's escape triggers a set of actions he's planned and devised with a group of his "devoted fans" who paid him frequent visits in prison. Basically, The main serial killer, Joe, worships Poe, and his fans worship him, so, by extent, they worship Poe. I don't know why, put crime dramas love the idea of psychos obsessed with Poe's work. Well, I know why, but still.

I never wanted any of this.

What happens is, the FBI don't know there is a cult or anything, they just think Joe is getting some help from accomplices. There is a help/information public HQ, one woman walks in, says she has information about Joe, takes a seat and waits her turn. While she's waiting she gets a text message that says: "now." She gets up, takes off her shoes, takes an ice pick -or whatever you call it- gets naked, and holds the ice pick to her eye. The FBI turn to see her there and try to calm her down and talk her into reason. She doesn't seem to respond and starts reciting Poe's alleged last words, "Lord help my poor soul" over and over again, pushed the ice pick through her eyes, and drops dead on the floor. Right then the FBI realized the whole cult thing was going on. The fact that she had an Edgar Ellen Poe poem written all over her body might have been a clue.

fun tongue twister: poe poem

The main members of the cult are three young, beautiful, and completely psychotic individuals. Two guys, Jacob & Paul, pretended to be a gay couple for three years to deceive Joe's survivor victim into trusting them until Joe makes his grande escape. The woman, Emma, who has a very choppy pixie cut, has an alias and works as a nanny for Joe's kid and is Jacob's lover. Except wait, are the feelings between Jacob and Paul real? Does Emma truly love Jacob or is she manipulating him? So many high school/ college love triangle drama going on it is not even funny or relevant.

we have no idea why Emma said we HAD to be the gay couple.

Iceman from X-Men is actually a junior FBI agent on the team and his role is very basic and so-so, yet he pulls it off and delivers a semi-good performance. Another member of the team I'm really not digging is agent Deborah Parker, head of cult & religion division in the FBI and head of this investigation. I really don't like the whole put-a-woman-as-head-of-an-investigation-so-we-don't-seem-sexist theme that is going on with crime and law dramas. It needs to stop.

A recurring them in psycho characters on TV is that they are all poetic artists, which is dumb, because it is turning into a cliche and it lost its theatrical effect.

They own multiple creepy Poe masks? I don't know. Their walls have drawings? BINGO

I'm still not fully sold on the show just based on the story itself and some of the cast options, but the way the episodes are executed is brilliant. The theme of each episode carries on in the dialogue, the plot twists, and most importantly the soundtrack. The soundtrack of this show is spot on, not only for each episode, but for each scene as well. I will risk sounding like an idiot if and after the show fails, but the soundtrack could almost be as good as Breaking Bad's. Yeah, I went there.

My favorite scene so far is the scene at the end of the first episode, when Ryan (Kevin Bacon) confronts Joe at prison and discovers that Joe is planning a sequel to his criminal story. The background music is just epic, a hard rock cover of Sweet Dreams Are Made of This. The moment Joe confesses to setting up Ryan to be the main character of his next "criminal adventures" you hear the classic lyrics: "some of them want to use you, some of them want to be used by you." Genius.

My favorite character so far is Claire Matthews, Joe's ex-wife, and Ryan's ex-lover, and Joey's mom. Her storyline is character driven, complex, and relate-able. My least favorite character is probably Joe or Deborah, I'm not really sure at this point.


final rating: 5/5 (2 points solely for the soundtrack)

Versatile Blogger Award

Two days ago, my friend Alaa nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I don't actually know what that ensues, but I'm very honored.

I don't know 15 bloggers. I really don't. So, first 15 people to read this are my nominations for most versatile bloggers. Can I nominate the person who nominated me?

As for the second part, here are 7 things you probably don't want to know about me:

1. My favorite books growing up were the ones that included old wizards and high mountains to climb.
2. My favorite cereal is Special K Oats & Honey.
3. My super secret fantasy is one day discovering that I'm a long lost Indian princess.
4. My favorite hobbit is Bilbo.
5. I'm 18 years old.
6. I once slept for 16 hours straight. That remains my record this far in life.
7. If I could have dinner with any person alive or dead I'd choose Oscar Wilde.

Shit My Dad Says

Couple weeks back, or maybe just one I don't even know, I read Justin Halpern's ultra short book, Shit My Dad Says. It was funny, short, and as the the front cover blurb says: "Ridiculously hilarious."

The book has full anecdotes in a short two-to-three pages chapters and several short snippets (basically tweets form the twitter account that launched everything) titled on the subject between the anecdote chapters. Did that make sense?

see what I'm talking about?

The book is -as said before- very short and will take about an hour or so to read. That being said it is a really great book. It delivers n everything it promises it would. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to start reading biographies or nonfiction in general. I will also be definitely be looking for I Suck at Girls, the second book by Justin Halpern.

final rating: 5/5

I really don't see how this idea could generate any more money, to be completely honest. Apparently, some tv network thought otherwise, because this happened:

Now, I never say bad things about old people cause that's disrespectful and my mother taught me better, but William Shatner -and Goldie Hawn but that's another story- is the exception to that rule. I hated him in everything he's ever been in. Anyways, although the show is based on -and I'm using that term lightly here- the book, it bares close to no resemblance whatsoever to what the story is actually about. I mean, they made the dad and the mom divorced, something that can never happen in real life, at least not according to the book. That alone took a lot from the character of the father. The second thing was that they made the father an ex-navy which is plain out idiotic.

When I downloaded the first episode of the show I honestly thought it will take place in the author's childhood, this is just sloppy TV work. The brother and his wife are obnoxious. The playback laughter is just too much, the jokes are not even funny. Bottom line is I hated the show and given the choice I'd rather sit through a football game than watch it.

final rating: -5/5