Strange Ramblings of an Independent Writer
CBS All Access I know these reviews may seem like a broken record at this point but it has to be said again: I really don’t like the direction the creators decided to go with for Stephen King’s The Stand (2020). Episode Three, titled “Blank Page”, continues the non-linear storytelling that was used in the … Continue reading The Stand (2020) Episode 3 Review
IMDB One of the benefits of my upbringing is that I had a mother who is a nerd. My Mom is a dyed-in-the-wool geek who loves fantasy, comic books, and science fiction. Because of that, I was introduced to these genres at a formative age. One of the first film experiences I can remember was … Continue reading Retrospective Review – “The Terminator”
CBS All Access When I approached the new version of The Stand, I was hopeful. My hopes were quickly dashed in the first episode, which I’ve reviewed here. The second episode, titled “Pocket Savior”, did very little to restore my hope for the series. By choosing to continue the flashback narrative structure, the series keeps … Continue reading The Stand (2020) Episode 2 Review
CBS All Access The Stand is one of Stephen King’s crowning achievements as an author. Combining the King’s love of the supernatural with the terrifying mundanity of a global pandemic, The Stand still has the power to terrify readers, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic showed how precarious society really is to face something like the … Continue reading The Stand (2020) Episode 1 Review
As one of the most prominent characters, Delenn’s arc over the course of the series has gone hand-in-hand with first Jeffrey Sinclair and then John Sheridan. It can be argued that Delenn is the co-lead, since her actions and decisions have long-lasting reverberations. One decision, made back in Season 3’s episode “Severed Dreams”, is finally … Continue reading The Minbari Civil War – Babylon 5 Season 4
The final two episodes of Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners brings the story of David Martinez to a close in spectacularly gory fashion. From the start, this was never going to be a story with a happy ending and Studio Trigger did not shy away from showing just how bad things could get. In the end, we … Continue reading Going Over the Edge – Review of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” Episodes 9 & 10
The life of a Cyberpunk is to live on the edge between crashing into a burning wreck or massive success. In the seventh and eighth episodes of Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, we get to see David Martinez after a jump forward in time. Now a hardened edgerunner in his own right, David is straddling the edge … Continue reading Straddling the Edge – Review of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” Episodes 7 & 8
Nothing lasts forever, especially in a Cyberpunk dystopia like the one found in Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. After spending the first four episodes establishing the world and setting up the crew of cyberpunks, the 5th and 6th episodes of the series begin the rapid decline of the group. The violent nature of edgerunner life cannot be … Continue reading The Wheels Come Off – Review of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” Episodes 5 & 6
When the world continuously takes away your options and shatters your dreams, what choice do you have but to rebel and make your own path? That is the core question at the center of episodes 3 and 4 of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. The callous disregard of Night City, the setting for both the Cyberpunk TTRPG and … Continue reading Learning to Live on the Edge – Review of “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” Episodes 3 & 4
The 4th episode of Amazon Prime’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, titled “The Great Wave”, is not what I would consider a great episode of television. It’s a good episode, in so much as it moves some of the plots forward, but at the halfway point of the season, I was … Continue reading The Board Continues To Be Set – Review of “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” Episode 4 “The Great Wave”