dimanche 3 janvier 2016
samedi 2 janvier 2016
Ash vs Evil Dead: Season 1 Finale Review
"That lady has my book and she has my Pablo!"
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Well, despite having a few tonal issues during its first season run, Ash vs Evil Dead knocked it out of the park with its season finale, "The Dark One." A truly glorious gore-fest filled with horror and hilarity.
While it was frustrating to get so little information about Lucy Lawless' Ruby throughout the season, the show more than made up for their cursory treatment of her here as "Tricky Little Bitch" Ruby (who I assume...never really existed and was possessed the entire time by this ancient force?) and Ash had some tremendous scenes together. A couple of great showdowns, culminating with Ash...bowing out of the battle. Yup, good ol' Ash quit. Oh, he made a concerted effort to stop her. And he even refused her "Jacksonville" deal the first time she brought it up, but in the end - to save Kelly and Pablo - he called a truce.
Because, well, there's a Season 2 coming. So the Evil Dead in Ash vs Evil Dead has to stick around somehow. And it nicely fit Ash's character (which was really strong here in the final two episodes of the season) to take the easy(ish) way out. And to try and convince himself that Ruby is doing something good by becoming the one dark lord in charge of all dark forces. In fact, I really liked that he was offered this deal twice and got to refuse it during the first go round. Because it showed him being courageous enough to want to try and stop the evil. He just...couldn't. He hit a dead end as far as his care for his Ghostbeaters team was concerned.
And now, I guess...they all have to drive to Jacksonville? What a bum deal! I thought they'd just get magically transported there. Anyhow, the Ghostbeaters live on and Ruby gets to, I dunno, do something. It's wasn't entirely clear, though I suppose it all stood its ground well enough for the Evil Dead franchise. Pablo somehow became the Necronomicon and barfed up demon children (one of whom got into a very fun fight with Ash) all so that Ruby could "Godfather" the demons. Even though she's the one who wrote the book in the first place. And somehow didn't do any of this back then. Again, it's hazy. But in the end, it's not that important.
Better to focus on here was just how wonderfully bats*** this finale was. Kelly battling the bleeding cabin. Poor Heather - (aka "Other Girl") - getting eviscerated by the cabin. First with the bugs crawling on her, then the nails to the face and feet, and then just getting ripped apart and shot out the front door. Yup, if all our main heroes were going to make it through the night, then someone needed to get sacrificed. And that someone was Heather, who'd already gotten pretty beat up last week.
Blood flowed quite freely in "The Dark One." Oh yes. Especially when Ash took his chainsaw to Amanda's gut. Bruce Campbell, while doing pre-premiere press for the show, had remarked about shooting one scene where the blood pour almost choked him. I can only guess it was either the car scene in the second episode or this one here, because this chainsawing was very gross and awesome.
Written by showrunner Craig DiGregorio, "The Dark One" was satisfyingly violent and funny in all the right places. Ash shoe-polishing his hair, yelling "Not in the face!" as Ruby took a dagger to his cheek, Kelly punting Heather's dead talking head - there was some really good stuff here. And, Easter Egg-wise, seeing Evil Dead II's Jake's bones and overalls down in the basement was a nice touch.
The Verdict
"The Dark One" delivered the Lucy Lawless/Bruce Campbell showdown we were waiting for (with more to come next year, I assume!) while also giving us a great grab-bag of gore and guffaws. A very strong, violent, funny finish for the first season of the show. For the third episode in a row to take place in the cabin it really felt vital and exciting.
Editors' Choice
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Sherlock: "The Abominable Bride" Review
Holmes and Watson embark on a Victorian adventure.
WARNING: AS SHERLOCK HAS ALRWADY SCREENED IN THE UK, ABOMINABLE BRIDE SPOILERS FOLLOW...
"Is this silly enough for you?" asks one character during The Abominable Bride. "Gothic enough? Mad enough?" Well yes to all of those, but unfortunately it wasn't quite good enough either, especially when compared to the previous nine episodes of Sherlock, most of which worked better than this ingenious but ultimately flawed experiment.
The show has been one of the BBC's great success stories of the last few years. Taking Arthur Conan Doyle's detective tales and giving them ingenious modern-day spins; creators/writers Mark Gatiss and Steven Mofatt crafted shows that were less television episodes and more self-contained movies. And Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman were perfectly cast as Holmes and Watson, making their dynamic duo one of the small screen's most winning double acts.
So this one-off special - which screened in UK cinemas as well as on TV - took something of a chance by messing with that formula, the story unfolding in Victorian London. And it wasn't an entirely successful one, the setting marvellous, the performances solid, and the jokes good, but the story itself convoluted and at times a little too silly.
The episode started out as what appeared to be a soft reboot, re-introducing and re-establishing the characters in speedy fashion, with Watson injured in the Afghan War, meeting and moving in with Holmes, and the pair soon solving crimes for a living. The setting also allowed the writers to put right the wrongs done to Conan Doyle's words to make them contemporary, so our heroes wear their traditional Victorian get-up, Holmes summons people by telegram rather than text, and Watson is back to writing their adventures for the Strand magazine rather than his blog.
Trouble reared its head in terms of the story proper, however. Gatiss and Moffat took a mention of "the case of Ricoletti of the club foot and his abominable wife" from The Adventure of the Musgrave Ritual and turned it into a mystery of their own, one that will apparently push Holmes to "mental and physical extremes." But it had several false starts, with Mary, Lestrade and a worried wife all asking Sherlock for help before the mystery kicked in, making the first half of the episode somewhat exposition-heavy. And when the story did get going, those aforementioned extremes never really seemed to be reached.
That's because once Holmes and Watson were investigating the case of a murderous ghost, the true intentions of the episode were revealed. For this wasn't a standalone period piece, but rather an investigation playing out in Holmes' mind in the present, as he endeavoured to figure out how Moriarty could be back from the dead.
It was an ingenious conceit, and one that allowed Cumberbatch's Sherlock to again face-off with Andrew Scott's Moriarty in a pair of scintillating scenes. But it meant that the stakes were pretty low, and made the solving of the case of the bride somewhat irrelevant and something of an anti-climax.
Their were terrific moments along the way. This was perhaps the most frightening Sherlock thus far, with the white-faced, red-lipped bride genuinely terrifying, particularly when hunting her prey in a foggy maze. The insights into Holmes' drug addiction were both tragic and enlightening. And by allowing us to enter Sherlock's mind palace, we were able to finally watch Holmes and Moriarty go toe-to-toe at the Reichenbach Falls.
But it felt more like an amusing departure rather than anything more substantial or cohesive, and it was a relief to be back with present-day Sherlock at the film's end, ready for his story proper to continue when the show returns in 2017.
The Verdict
This was a bold and brave way to mix up the Sherlock formula that might have been a little too ingenious for its own good. The period stuff was great, but when it started crossing over with present-day Sherlock the episode didn't really work.
Editors' Choice
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vendredi 1 janvier 2016
The Big Games, Movies and TV Shows of 2016
The UK podcast crew pick the releases that they are most excited about.
With 2015 drawing to a close, the IGN UK podcast team are taking a look ahead to 2016 to preview the games we’ll be playing and the movies and TV shows we’ll be watching.
First up Rory sets his sights on the likes of Firewatch, No Man's Sky, Allison Road and the Zelda, Dead Island and Final Fantasy sequels.
Gav takes on tele, his picks including The X-Files reboot, the Wolf Creek spin-off and the Westworld adaptation as well as the small-screen superhero exploits of Heroes Reborn, Legends of Tomorrow and those Marvel Netflix shows.
Finally Chris talks movies, with Independence Day, Star Trek and Bourne all getting sequels, and Warcraft and Assassin’s Creed suggesting that we might see our first great video game movie. Plus, we’ll get our first Star Wars standalone movie in the shape of Rogue One, and lots and lots and lots of superhero flicks.
So strap yourselves in for this feast of 2016-focussed fun.
IGN UK Podcast #312: Preview of the Big Games, Movies and TV Shows of 2016
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