TV Review - Orange is the New Black Season Four (2016)

Orange is the New Black is one of the flagship shows for Netflix. Along with House of Cards, it's one of the shows that put Netflix on the map for original programming. Also much like House of Cards, Season 3 seemed to have more low points than high points in term of storytelling. Luckily, both shows seemed to have listened to critical response and have pulled in the reins for both shows, making Season 4 of both shows a high point for the respective series.

Orange is the New Black has been an interesting show for me. The premise has kept me hooked since the first episode, but the stories the show chooses to tell have kept me coming back for more. You can tell a lot of interesting stories based on the idea that the location stays the same but the population and situations change, and their is such a variety of people coming through that really you can tell any mix of stories you want that also deal with prison. That's where OitNB really shined through, with their flashback segments, showing you snippets of the different inmates lives before prison, often showing you who they were and what happened to get them into prison. It not only brought depth you otherwise couldn't get for such a robust cast, it also helped flesh out the run-time of each episode, which is crucial in a show where we are working on a limited time frame and stuck in one place.

I think as the show went on past season one, they realized something important about the show, that nearly every other character is more interesting than our main character. The first season works well for Piper, it show cases who she is and what she does and why she was in prison, and how crazy and scary that is for someone like her, who otherwise led a pretty cushy life. But after that...you know who she is, her character is pretty much spent. Using the flashbacks and bringing other storylines to the fore-front, Piper started to become just another part of the ensemble cast and not the main character, which was great because there are so many other interesting people to be following other than Piper. However, into the third season they seemed to be at an odds, where they wanted both for Piper to be the main driving force of the show and also to focus on the other characters. For that, the season ended up lacking. Tackling terrific and horrifying situations and topics and then cutting back to Piper whose ultra-seriousness about her situation undercuts how much serious stuff we're being shown otherwise. A lot of people didn't like how season three ended, I was not in that camp, but I understood the complaints and took it for what it was.

So now we get into Season 4, and it is a wild ride. The very first episode of the season shows you the impact of the Season 3 finale as anything but idyllic and saccharine. The end of season 3 was leading up to what would look like a win for the inmates, which, just writing that out indicates why that can't happen. Our main characters are in prison and they are not going to have a good time. So Season 4 starts off with a bang and things immediately get worse for literally everyone.

One thing I really liked about this season was the expansion into following the guards and Caputo and how the prison affects them as well. You end up feeling bad for the older guards and Caputo, as they struggle with losing their own humanity in the face of the job. Especially Caputo. He was never shown as a particularly good dude throughout the previous seasons, but we were shown that he cares about the inmates and sees them as people. Throughout this season he is challenged nearly every episode with the idea that the company he now works for treats the inmates as a bottom line and not as people. You see him spiral further and further, until he realizes he is at the mercy of this company and he's more just a figurehead than really in power, that he just has to sit and watch humanity being stripped away from his prison and people he's gotten to know. I think Caputo's arc is actually one of the most compelling of the show, someone who was once a sub-villain of the show gets a transition into being a good guy, and it's literally only because in comparison he's a pretty decent guy when you bring in worse people.

I think Season 4 is a great improvement on the last couple seasons. While they still seem to insist on Piper being our main character, I like that they took her down a bunch of pegs in the process. I still was unhappy with how much we're supposed to sympathize with her for some of her decisions this season, but several times I was stuck in a mindset of "she gets what she deserves." The entire premise of this season seems to be that actions lead to consequences, and if you choose the action you don't get to choose the consequence, and Piper's arc this season seems to at times forget that part and want us to feel bad for her. I mean, some bad shit happens to Piper, but what she did was not going to go without consequences and we're supposed to believe that's kind of the point of the show. Other than that though, the story arcs this season were fantastic. Everything with the new guards and new captain, CO Donuts getting a small character arc of his own and all the inmate stories, especially Lolly, Crazy Eyes and Blanca.

Another thing I really appreciated this season were the flashbacks. By Season 3, it felt a little like the flashbacks had kind of taken over for new content in the show, as a way to get you to care about any character. I enjoyed it, but it seemed like we were getting the setup for every character as we went. This season, the flashbacks were mostly just for fleshing out character backgrounds and not why the inmates were in prison (except for a couple in particular) and just showing us more about them and why they act the way they do and what their old lives were like. The thing I really liked this season though was how they handled what I will refer to as the "Walking Dead" situation. And by that I mean, much like in The Walking Dead property, it's an ensemble show about normal people being put into extraordinary, impossible situations. A situation like the zombie apocalypse or prison can't be escaped in the narrative of the show, that part can never change. So you have to rely on good storytelling and the ability to add and remove characters at times that you both see coming and don't see coming. The hang up that The Walking Dead seems to have is that they want to remove people in a shocking manner often, to keep people on their toes, but it's mostly without a good reason. Characters that have been smart their entire run will be dumb for an episode and die in that one because they were dumb. It stops being shocking in the benefit of the show, and instead feels like an exercise in drumming up ratings. Orange is the New Black handles that same kind of impossible scenario well this season. We lose one character that we saw coming the whole time, and that story arc gets to play out through the season, and we get a shocking death as well that you would never suspect to have happened. But unlike The Walking Dead, it's not completely out of character for the death to happen, they make the death happen in a way that's totally plausible, not out character for the way the person acted, and still end with a shocking death that no one would have saw prior to that scene, and for that I must commend them. Unlike The Walking Dead, you truly do not know who is safe and for how long inside Litchfield.

As strong as it was story wise, there were still some characters and stories I didn't enjoy that much. I mentioned the problems with Piper's story, and almost up there for me is the second half of Alex's story. It starts off strong, but then once the main problem is taken care of, they just put Alex back to being this mopey, stand-offish character that ends up being nearly insufferable. It would be one thing if they actually focused on her for something, but the show never does. It's just that Alex has her own problems that she's dealing with somewhere in the background of every other episode, so you never get much more than just some moping and brooding instead of any resolution with her.

Overall, I really liked where the show ended. It resolved several storylines, shocked with the way it handled the death of certain characters, and left it on a reasonable cliffhanger for the next season. The creative team pulled in the reins and worked on what made the show spark in the first place and tweaked parts that didn't work. If you liked the previous seasons, I cannot recommend season 4 highly enough.

Movie Review - The Nice Guys (2016)

I had been itching to see The Nice Guys since I saw the trailer in front of The Hateful Eight, so at 5 months, it's been a long time coming. While I've been aware of Writer/Director Shane Black for a long time, having written 80's Action Comedy staples Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout and Last Action Hero, I really came to know him for his directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a movie I absolutely adore. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang really pulled back the curtain on Black as a creative mind, showing us a lot of what he likes to write and direct, which amounts to Noir-styled buddy-cop detective movies with a dark and irreverent sense of humor. He followed it up with an entry into the Marvel universe, Iron Man 3, a film that Disney-fy's Black's sensibilities, but keeps them true at the core of the film. With The Nice Guys, Black has put out another foray into the Noir-styled buddy-cop detective movie with a streak of irreverent humor, this time with the style twist of it being set in the late 70's in L.A.

So without mincing words, I totally loved this movie. I'm sure some people will find flaws with it, but as a creative entity, Shane Black is a man who I share many similarities with. I'm inherently drawn to what this guy likes to make. The Nice Guys does an excellent job of matching and inter-playing beats. What I mean by that is that generally the action and comedy go very well hand in hand, without overpowering each other, as well as putting comedy in the action scenes, and putting action in the comedic scenes. You never go too long in the movie without getting an action beat or a comedy beat without getting the other, which really helps keep you invested.

Crowe and Gosling do a great job and have fantastic chemistry together, and both of them play common trope detectives that you would find in a typical Noir. I think a special shout-out has to go to Angourie Rice, who plays Gosling's daughter. She does an excellent job of not only acting her age, but also acting like someone stuck in the situation she is in. She doesn't steal the show, I think Gosling is doing that throughout the movie, but she keeps up with adults and has fun interplay with both of them.

I think the only real gripe I had with the film is that it runs a little long, clocking in at just under two hours. It feels like our detectives start just two-threads too far behind where they need to go, meaning I think they have to connect just one or two clues too many to piece everything together. This means that when it comes time to wrap-up the movie, they still have a couple things they have to tie up before the story can resolve itself. Like I said before, I absolutely loved the movie and it is incredibly watchable, but if they had just somehow got the jump on the first couple clues and cut the run time by about 15 minutes it would have been just the amount of tightness needed to take this from a good movie to a great movie.

The Nice Guys is a movie I will buy when it comes out, and I would turn on whenever I'm not sure what to watch when I don't know what else to watch. Not every movie has to be Citizen Kane, but it doesn't have to be mindless drivel either. The Nice Guys is a movie that is an excellent exercise in genre work that delivers a fun and interesting story with characters you just want to spend time watching, which is why I really hope this movie ends up doing well enough to warrant a sequel. I would be there on opening night for a sequel, that's for damn sure.


Check out the trailer below, and if that seems like a fun time, that's because it is. Go see it.

Movie Review - Captain America: Civil War

So this is about a week late, but I saw Captain America: Civil War and I loved it. After a bit of  a rocky Phase II for Marvel, Civil War starts off Phase III with pretty much everything we were missing from Avengers: Age of Ultron and builds upon that in many satisfying ways.

I'm not going to talk spoilers here so this will be a more general review, but let's just say I really enjoyed the plot of this movie. Before seeing Civil War, I insist that you have seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and Avengers: Age of Ultron. While it isn't a direct copy of the comic from which the name comes, the writers give a good interpretation that fits the Marvel Cinematic Universe way more than the comic storyline would have. So in the movie, The Avengers are pretty much running missions without an organization, acting on their own, and in the first encounter we see in the film, Scarlet Witch happens to make a choice while using her powers that saves everyone directly next to her from getting blown up, but instead a section of a building gets blown up. This starts the main plot of the movie, as the government insists this kind of thing cannot happen and wants all the heroes to sign this agreement that says they'd operate on the decision of the U.N. alone and not by themselves. This sets up a divide between our heroes, as Tony Stark is at the forefront of signing this agreement, and Captain America is on the opposing side, insisting on being able to freely act as he sees fit.

Both Iron Man and Captain America have good, valid points Although I do feel like since it's a Captain America movie they spend a little more time showing you Captain America's stance, but they do give Iron Man time to explain his side as well. Along with this main plot line we have several others, but the other big one has to do with Bucky and what should be done with him. Protected because he was brainwashed as The Winter Soldier, or kept as a prisoner because while he was The Winter Soldier he did many, many bad things. These two story lines are excellently divisive. Both have arguments that you feel like you can agree with, especially as the movie goes on.

The action choreography, the superhero team up fights, and even the dialog in general is a step-up from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Now while I don't hate Age of Ultron, it drops the ball several times in order to set-up some other movie, this one especially. While Age of Ultron ultimately ends up trying to serve too many masters instead of accomplishing anything on it's own, Civil War sets out to tell it's own story, and while it does take time to set up other movies in the universe, it is first and foremost telling the story contained within, which I think is it's greatest achievement. Everyone gets something to do in this movie. Some smaller than others, but still, everyone has something to do, big or ant-sized.

Before I wrap it up here, I gotta totally admit that as much as I enjoy the main characters of this movie, it's the set-up of Black Panther and Spider-Man and how they exist in this universe that really stole the show for me. Black Panther is a lot of fun, and they set him up to be the badass that he should be, and make him an integral part of the future of the cinematic universe. This Spider-Man is seriously the best representation of Spidey that we've gotten in movie form. I love Spider-Man 2, and there are things to like about both Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man, but neither of them get the character as right as this movie does. Civil War is an incredibly enjoyable movie in it's own right, but what it did best for me was actively make me excited for Black Panther's and Spider-Man's movies that come out in the next couple years.

I actively enjoyed Civil War, and I am going to be seeing it at least one more time in theaters, something I can't say I've done with an MCU movie since Guardians of the Galaxy. I just cannot wait until a home video release to see it again, I need to see this on the big screen, and so should you!

TV Review - Bosch Season 2

So if you haven't checked out Amazon's original video content, you've been missing out on some good TV. It's not as vast as Netflix's array, but with Amazon recently opening up their video service to subscription instead of just an add-on to Amazon Prime, I think it's only going to get better and better. I have so much faith in them because of a couple shows, but mostly the one I'm praising today, Bosch.

I was intrigued by the pilot when it originally aired through Amazon's Pilot Program (they put out a bunch of pilots and the subscribers vote for which ones they should make into shows) in 2014, and had totally forgot about it when the first season went up last year. I might have mentioned it here once or twice in some way or another, but one of my favorite things to consume is good detective work. Anything that showcases a detective working a case, starting from the bare facts to solving the crime captures my imagination in a way many things don't. My favorite movie is Brick, and my favorite TV show is The Wire. If you have a solid piece of content with a detective solving a case from just the bare facts to figuring out who did it, I'm your guy.

While I admit that Bosch doesn't play out much differently than an episode of CSI or NCIS, it's the delivery that sets it apart. The world of Detective Harry Bosch is shown as this pulpy, noir-tinged crime center, where our lovable tough guy ace detective is showing us the seedy underbelly of LA. It's not new, none of it is, but it's delivered in this absolute, confident manner. A kind of manner you can really only have if your source material spans something as concrete as 20 novels, as Harry Bosch has. So when I went into the first season, I was immediately hooked.

A show that from minute one of episode one knows exactly what it's doing and where it's going is amazing in this day and age, and this is exactly what you get. Since the source material is derived from books and it's a TV show, the episodes are perfectly serialized like a book. Each one gives you a payoff for the one before it while setting up the next episode, often leading you to a cliffhanger. In the first season, I absolutely loved the confidence the show had with the story it was telling, as well as how the story played out. It felt like this complete experience. And then a year later, the second season came out.

I immensely enjoyed Season Two of Bosch, and honestly it's because it's very much like Season One. And I don't mean that as an insult. Often with TV shows, the seasons will vary in quality in the beginning and the end, as they struggle to find their voice while the show is airing. Often you'll see a show start a little rocky but with promise, get really awesome for two-to-four seasons, and then falter as they struggle with the moral quandary of designing the show to go on forever and ever, and somehow finding a way to end the show in a satisfying manner. This isn't even a problem just limited to broadcast television, as Netflix has been struggling with this since the beginning of House of Cards and to an even larger degree Orange is the New Black. Both of which are "adaptations" of books themselves, but have struggled to find exactly what is appealing from the source material and delivering that to the audience. With Season Two of Bosch, I think the apparent quality of it is really a testament to the creators, as their vision is so strong of what they want the show to be that they nailed it not once, but now twice on delivering the exact visual medium of what those books should be.

Now, I haven't read a single Michael Connelly book let alone one of the twenty Harry Bosch novels (believe me I will)  but I could swear up and down watching Season One and now Two that they were perfect adaptations of the books they were from. Except Season Two actually draws inspiration from three different books, but it is so seamless in the show I never would have suspected it. Much like Season One, Season Two is a slow burn, but I never found myself anything less than enthralled with the characters. It is such an enjoyable world for me to be in that I have no problem with the way the story is told, especially as a narrative it is perfectly paced episode to episode. If there was one complaint I had about Season Two, it would be without giving anything away, the way the plot connects the dots in the case. In Season One I really liked the way the plot connected the dots for Harry Bosch and thought it made a lot of sense for the world we were in. In Season Two the plot connects the dots for Harry in an equally similar manner. I still really enjoyed it, and as a stand alone season it would have worked for me just fine, but having the case start coming together in such a similar fashion feels a little too convenient when something similar came in the previous season.

I feel a little odd discussing so little about the actual material of the show, but I genuinely feel that it is so well told that I don't want to unveil anything before the show does if you were to watch it. Is this the Citizen Cane of detective stories? No. Is this on the same level as my favorite police procedural, The Wire? No it is not. But what this is is a perfect recreation of what it's like to read a well crafted detective story. The characters and performances are solid. Titus Welliver delivers this fantastic performance as the Noir detective. Wire Alumni Lance Reddick delivers an expected fantastic performance as the Deputy Chief. I think the only actor that waivers for me is the girl who plays Bosch's daughter, and I don't really blame her for it. When the majority of the cast consists of fantastic character actors, it can be difficult to just be average. The story is enthralling and the show is shot excellently. While it's not pushing any storytelling boundaries, it is decidedly so, in a way where the creators feel the material can speak for itself without trying anything flashy.

Plain and to the point, it's excellent television if you like detective procedurals. Have you enjoyed CSI, NCIS or Law and Order? Bosch is the older, more refined version of those shows. If you have seen any of those shows, nothing here will be surprising about the characters or the story, but it's a masterclass in displaying how the story should be told. No filler, no wavering, just pure pulpy entertainment about a dude solving crimes and the problems he struggles with.