Black Rock Shooter (2010)

Before I get into the plot and my thoughts I just wanted to admit that I had to look at a wiki to figure out who all the characters were since many of them are not really named. Check out the wiki if you are curious to know more about where the idea for this anime came from: (http://blackrockshooter.wikia.com/wiki/Black_Rock_Shooter_Wiki).

The film starts with a battle between two scantily clad girls with swords fighting in a checkered world. The red-eyed girl stabs the blue eyed girl through the stomach and a blue eyed girl, Kuroi Mato, wakes up and heads to school for her first day of junior high. At school she meets and befriends Takanashi Yomi. Over the span of a year they become best friends. As we are getting to know them, there are occasional glimpses of the blue eyed warrior from the intro (who looks like an older version of Mato) battling with a green-eyed scythe-carrying version of Yomi. In their second year, Mato also befriends Yuu, her basketball club’s manager, which causes Yomi to feel neglected and jealous. Yomi then vanishes, which makes the police and her parents think she was kidnapped.

At this point there is a confirmation of the warriors as having a relationship with the normal world when the blue-eyed girl defeats and hugs the green-eyed girl until the latter disintegrates and leaves behind Yomi. At the same time, Mato receives a blank text from Yomi’s phone and decides to go looking for her. Mato is taken into a blue light and meets the blue-eyed girl that looks like her. The Mato-looking girl offers to help her find Yomi and says her name is “Black Rock Shooter” as they merge into one being.

The film ends with an epilogue of Yomi, Mato, and Yuu hanging out and Yomi being friendly with Yuu now acting neglected. Earlier there was also a brief glimpse into an otherworld version of Yuu’s character so there is an implication that Black Rock Shooter would be needed again, but the movie ends before anything happens.

The story becomes clear at the end in the sense that one can assume that the events of Black Rock Shooter’s world interspersed through the story happened after she merged with Mato. What did not really make sense was how real they were. Did Yomi really go missing? Is this some crazy fantasy/sci-fi anime, or were these just metaphors of the character’s mental states? It is hard to tell since the film is short and there are no real clear answers. That may be frustrating for a viewer.

I loved it however. The animation is gorgeous. Except for a few somewhat awkward movements from Mato when we first meet her, it all feels very natural. In the other world, the animation is even better. The battle scenes are inventive and fluid. The backgrounds are fairly simple for the most part during the battles, which make it easy to focus on the characters and their movements. If they had been animated poorly this would be a drawback, but the battle scenes are spectacular so this becomes a benefit. That being said, the animation style is not especially interesting. Cute girls with large weapons and large eyes are fairly standard in anime. Still, if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it well, so the praise is deserved.

The music is not especially remarkable, but it does not detract either. Mostly, I did not notice it, which means I was focused on the story. It also means that with a thin story like this, the music is just not especially memorable.

And the story is thin, but thin with potential rather than overstretched thin. I really wanted to know what happened next. I liked the characters and wanted to see some more junior high drama portrayed as battles with giant weapons. That seems like the best way to hash out problems people have. So is this the best anime I have seen in the last few years? Certainly not. But it was entertaining and I would recommend it to those curious and interested in seeing some good animation.

The Walking Dead - S1 E01 - "Days Gone Bye"

Let’s start things off with a confession: I am not a horror fan. I have not read this comic and I have not consumed much, if any, zombie fiction. So why am I watching this show? Because it’s on AMC. Having seen Mad Men and Breaking Bad, I have fairly high expectations and at least some hope that they will be able to make something interesting that I can enjoy. I was not let down.

We are introduced to our hero and sheriff’s deputy, Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln), walking alone among abandoned cars when he finds a little girl alive. Or at least he thinks she is alive until she turns around and we see her open, Two-Face-like mouth. As she begins stumbling towards Rick, he headshots her.

Going back to the past, we find Rick with his partner, Shane (Jon Bernthal), discussing women troubles when they get a call to assist in a car chase. They manage to get the car off the road with road spikes, and eventually shoot down all of the criminals firing at them, but not before Rick is shot in the side. He is taken to the hospital and awakes an indeterminate amount of time later to find himself alone. The building has no power and he encounters a message scrawled on a door saying “Don’t Open Dead Inside.”

Rick leaves the hospital, still suffering from his not fully healed wound, and finds signs of a battle with tanks and helicopters laying around unattended. He sees his first zombie, although without any legs and eventually winds up at his house looking for his family. Rick is then hit in the head with a shovel by Duane Jones and his father Morgan (Lennie James). They tell him the situation: “walkers” bite people and infect them. The infection starts as a fever that kills the victim and then they are later revived. They have to be shot in the head to be killed. Zombies are drawn to sound, so gunshots are not always the safest option.

Morgan and Duane were heading to Atlanta where there is supposed to be shelter and many people that survived, but Morgan’s wife was infected and he could not bring himself to leave. Rick takes them to sheriff’s headquarters in the town and equips them and himself with weapons. Rick leaves them to find his family in Atlanta since he believes they are alive. As he heads out of town, a group of survivors, of which his wife and son and Shane are a part of, hear him but cannot contact him back. Shane is also seen making out with Rick’s wife.

Rick heads into Atlanta on horseback as he runs out of gas and hearing a helicopter sound, gets surrounded by a swarm of zombies. He narrowly escapes into a tank. Thinking himself done for he hears a voice on the transmitter in the tank saying “Hey you…dumbass…yeah you in the tank…cozy in there?”

My first impression of the show is that it is pretty gruesome. Flies are everywhere, although luckily there were no maggots. Entrails are shown pretty frequently and blood splatters are common since walkers get shot in the head fairly often (although the blood seems a good small amount unlike the amount you might find in Spartacus for example). Except for the flies, I found everything manageable.

I was a little worried at first because one of Rick’s first lines is “son of a bitch shot me, you believe that?” which sounded very cliché. That was the only thing I could think when I heard him say that, but soon after it stops feeling that way. Maybe I should credit Lennie James for that. Judging by IMDB, it looks like he may only be in the pilot which is a pretty terrible decision as he was great in Jericho and he gave a great performance here as well. I was with him for less than half an hour but I really felt myself caring about him when he was considering whether or not to shoot his zombified wife.

Andrew Lincoln also gave a credible performance. I liked that he first questioned his sanity a little bit and the scene with the little girl zombie in the beginning and the crawling zombie in the middle were well done by him. The pacing and music in the latter were actually fairly phenomenal. After the scene where he shoots the deputy, I thought this was going to go in a typical action/horror direction, but the crawling zombie scene was surprisingly poignant.

Again, except for the flies, a lot of the dead body scenes are actually somewhat, if not beautiful, certainly artistically done. I was especially drawn to the image of the crows/ravens picking at the dead soldier’s body laying across a tank’s main gun, the same tank that Rick hides in at the end. The last scene becomes pretty gruesome with the zombies devouring the horse, but I could not help but get excited when hearing Wang Chung’s “Space Junk” playing. Everything clicked in this pilot.

I cannot say that this will be an especially deep show from the pilot, nor can I say it will not since I have not read the comic and I do not want to spoil myself by reading a summary. But I am excited about the execution. So far, the pacing and music has been splendid, and acting has been very good. Lincoln seems capable at the least, although we have not been introduced to too many other people. There was not too much character dialogue here, the majority of the time being taken up with explaining the events to Rick (and the viewer), and I imagine the next few episodes will probably be heavy on that as well, but again, it was well executed so I did not mind. This was pretty awesome so I am definitely going to keep watching.

Boardwalk Empire - S1 E07 - "Home"

In Chicago, Jimmy meets another war veteran, Richard Harrow, while he is at the doctor’s inquiring into the pain in his leg. This pain is new and suggests to the doctor a mental reason, so he prescribes a personal inventory (psych test) that Jimmy and Richard blow off; (perhaps this and other scenes this episode imply PTSD, but since this is way before official diagnoses of the disorder, and since I am not a psychologist, I would not be able to tell you). Jimmy takes Richard to the brothel he is staying at for some complimentary service, and then later uses him to kill the man who slashed Pearl.

In Atlantic City, Chalky gets offered money from New York (Rothstein) for his services, which Chalky assumes was a test from Nucky. Whether Chalky would have accepted had he known it actually came from an outside source remains to be seen. Louis, Rothstein’s man, is seen with Lucky Luciano as they approach Doyle and the Italians with a plan to set up a competitive business in the city. From this, we find out that it was the Italians that robbed the man from last episode, and while Luciano was not involved, he had a good idea who did it when he was speaking to Nucky about it.

Margaret has befriended the mistress from last episode as well, and gets advice not to get close to Nucky, which she takes and then chooses to ignore as the episode progresses. Through this, we find out that Nucky had an abusive relationship with his father growing up. His father fell and hurt his leg at the beginning of the episode, prompting the Thompson brothers to get him out of the house. Eli, implied to be the favored son, decides to take care of their father, and Nucky gives the house to a friend. When he sees his father in the restored house at the end, Nucky burns it.

On the side of the main stories we also find out Angela Darmody is a lesbian (I was completely wrong two episodes ago when I said she went to see the photographer instead of the photographer’s wife). One of the men that was part of Jimmy’s raid confesses to Agent Van Alden. The Commodore is sick and might be dying. Finally, Lucy watches a movie alone showing that Nucky did not hold to his promise to go with her.

There a lot of interesting parallels in this episode, although I was not sure exactly what to make of them. Jimmy’s leg hurts which leads him to meet Richard Harrow and Nucky’s father’s leg hurts which leads him to leave his home. The two do not seem to really be that similar, but perhaps they are more representative of the way individual pain affects others. That still seems to be a somewhat tenuous link though, and I feel like I am missing something.

On the other hand, Nucky’s toaster gift to his dad is a much clearer reference to Jimmy giving his wife a vacuum. Both men do not understand the people they are trying to give gifts to, and both men try to fix things with gifts and money rather than actions. In Nucky’s case, the lack of effort is justified since his father is a terrible person. In Jimmy’s case, it is not really justified. Perhaps if he had spent time getting to know his wife, he might realize that she did not love him, and he might even be clued in to the fact that she was not straight.

This last point relates very well to what is probably the theme of the episode stated by Richard Harrow: “It occurred to me the basis of fiction is that people have some sort of connection with each other, but they don’t.” Jimmy’s connection to Angela is his son, but he does not even send money for the boy’s care. Nucky has a blood relationship to his father and vice versa, but his father abused him as a child and Nucky burns their family home out of spite. I think the point of the message though is that we try to form these connections but inevitably fail. Mr. Harrow does not seem to take his own advice as he tags along with Jimmy, and so Jimmy uses him to murder someone. Whether or not Jimmy and Richard’s relationship stays friendly and positive remains to be seen, but if that quote is going to be a theme of the series, I would not bet on it.

One other thing that did not quite make sense to me was the scene of the murder of Pearl’s attacker. The audience knows who shot the man almost immediately, and any doubt they may have had is gone when they see the bullet hole beneath the man’s eye, yet we are still shown the scene of Richard packing up his gun and leaving as music from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde plays. Perhaps this was the only for them to make a transition to Lucy, but the scene still felt odd. Was I supposed to connect Richard with Jekyll and Hyde? That does not seem likely as the man seems more troubled than possessing a split personality.

Either I am very dense, or this episode felt very clunky to me. Perhaps this is better. If the metaphors and parallels are too clean then the show would probably get unrealistic. Still, I felt that some things were off this episode. I enjoyed it, and I find that I really like the storytelling aspect to the show; it makes everything feel older, as if your grandfather were telling you a story. But something did not quite click with me this time.

Boardwalk Empire - S1 E06 - "Family Limitation"

If I were to give a theme to this episode, it would have to be humiliation. Characters are humiliated by friends, family, and enemies in this entire episode in revealing ways and fascinating ways as we will see.

In Chicago, Jimmy convinces Johnny Torrio to stay in Greek Town so they set up a meet with Sheridan, leader of the Irish. Jimmy and Al Capone then murder all of the rival gangsters in the meeting place. Torrio and the rest celebrate the successful operation which was Jimmy’s idea. We also find out earlier that Capone’s son is deaf.

Rothstein shows Lucky Luciano that he knows exactly what he is doing and whom (Gillian), and reminds him that he has a mission to find Jimmy. Meanwhile, some young Italians attack one of Nucky’s men and Nucky things Luciano is involved, which puts them at odds (something that will probably be expanded on down the line).

Agent Van Alden gets a surprise visit from his boss who decides that Agent Alden has not done enough work. Van Alden then punishes himself for his impure thoughts towards Margaret Schroeder. Margaret quits her job after a confrontation with Lucy, and she moves into a new place provided by Nucky, playing the part of his mistress after some advice from the Temperance movement leader. Nucky, on the other hand, is still sleeping with Lucy and any number of other random women on the side it seems. He also gets a visit from the politician from Jersey to try to secure a highway being built to run through Atlantic City and not Jersey with ambiguous results.

Although Luciano gets humiliated by Nucky and Van Alden gets humiliated by his boss, those characters react in fairly expected ways. Luciano gets angry but decides it is not worth it, while Agent Alden is the good soldier and swallows his pride. Capone and Margaret on the other hand really make this episode feel momentous (even though it seems that very little actually happened).

There is a beautiful scene between Margaret and Lucy in the French clothes shop that mirrors a scene from earlier this season. Last time, Lucy tried to humiliate Margaret by having the latter dress the naked body of the former as a form of aggressive dominance. This time, Lucy asks that Margaret get naked and wear the clothes and it backfires. Lucy criticizes Margaret’s body, making it clear that she thinks she can win Nucky’s affection purely on a physical basis. Margaret counters by attacking Lucy’s intelligence. “You don’t know much” Lucy says before Margaret begins her story, but though the moral of mountain man with the chicken should be obvious, Lucy still has to have it explained to her: she just is not interesting enough to hold Nucky’s attention forever.

Another aspect of this scene comes up in terms of class differences. When Lucy says the above quote, she is also attacking Margaret through her upbringing. Whether Lucy comes from money or she has just gotten used to a better lifestyle, she clearly knows her away around a French shop for instance while Margaret does not. Margaret is an example of the classic American ideal: hard work and intelligence should win out over money. To go this far would not be particularly original but it was handled gracefully by the actors and the script.

The episode, however, then does a brilliant subversion by showing that Margaret has become in a way exactly what she was criticizing Lucy for. Her old neighbor attacks her when speaking with Agent Alden and describes her as a rich type, a social mover in the most negative sense possible. Margaret does not hear this, but has to come face to face with this when she meets her new neighbor and realizes that Nucky might only be keeping her as a type of trophy, a “concubine”. This is a type of internal humiliation that she has difficulty brushing off the way that she brushed off the external humiliation of Lucy.

We get something similar in Chicago with Al Capone. In previous episodes we got the prankster and a little of the psycho in Capone, while also making it clear that he is not particularly bright. This episode established that he has a lot of heart and charisma. Capone did not have to talk to Jimmy about his son and he did not have to bring him steaks (especially after Jimmy humiliated him with the World War I joke), but he did anyway. You could argue that he just does not want to mess with a guy Torrio likes, but it seemed deeper than that; it seemed like Capone looks up to Jimmy, both for being in the war (I looked this up online so don’t hold me to this but Al Capone was not in the war) and for being educated. Capone makes fun of Jimmy by calling him Princeton but I think on some level he is envious. What is charming about the gangster is that he is not envious in a negative way, but in a positive way, as if he is thinking “I get to hang out with this great guy!” Although I certainly was interested in Al Capone in previous episodes this season, it was only in this episode that I really started to like him and feel for him. When he was making fun of Jimmy at the party, Jimmy reacts coldly and attacks Capone in a deeper way, but rather than react in kind Capone just wants to cement their friendship. It was just a surprisingly touching scene from a character that I expected to be more bloodthirsty.

I know I have not been criticizing this show that much and have been focusing on the positive aspects more often than not. Certainly the show is not perfect (an earlier scene from a previous episode with the awesome Michael K. Williams felt flat to me and seemed poorly written which is just one of many). I just wanted to say that the characters here have just won me over. In previous episodes they just seemed more forgettable and the writing was slightly poorer but the 1920s held my interest. At this point many of the characters have become fascinating in their own right, beyond their unique setting, and I feel that as that is the part that draws my attention the most, that is the part that I choose to comment on. I was worried with the pilot that the conflicts the show produced would not be able to draw me in as well, but the conflicts have been slow in coming while building character to audience correspondence which I think is working admirably, even with the sometimes weak writing. Overall, I am really happy with this direction (The Event take notice).

The Event – S1 E06 – “Loyalty”

We finally get a little back story into Simon and then he goes and (presumably) gets himself killed. I’m sure next episode we’ll find out that inhumans are exceptionally hardy or he managed to get inside a pocket of safety or something. I mean, he is a main character so I doubt they would just kill him like that, but I guess there is always the chance.

Anyways, in 1954 Simon fell in love with a human girl, but had to leave her to go do something with Thomas. He meets her again ten years prior to the main story as an old lady and reconfirms his love to her, even though she is an old lady. In the present, Simon’s cover is blown when he helps Sophia escape by stealing from the CIA to confuse their tracking of her. Sophia escapes with Thomas as they black hole the building they were in. Simon decides to help out the agents that might be in the building.

Meanwhile, Sean and Leila decide to track down information about her parents by themselves and leave Agent Collier behind with Carter, one of the villains. Carter told Leila that her family was chosen because her dad was involved somehow. They go back to her house and find a folder just as a crazy reporter gets there and starts telling them about the inhumans.

This was an interesting episode in that it got a lot of things right and a lot of things so terribly wrong which I guess averages out to mediocre. The Simon storyline was great. A lot of these characters have no back story and it is difficult at times to really care about them. Did I care when Simon got crushed by the building? No, but the story did help in me being interested in the character at all, so I thought this was a step in the right direction. Not that it was not obvious that this situation would happen to some of the inhuman; after all, their DNA is only 1 or 2 % different from ours so while certainly a different species, they might be able to procreate with us. Even though it was expected, the story line was a welcome addition that did not have anything to do with huge explosions, although it was remarkably short. On a better show we might have half an episode, or snippets across the season shown that would introduce us to Violet and get us to care about Simon. But this is the Event, which means we get something like 5 to 10 minute scenes in one episode, and that is all that is allowed for Violet.

On the inhuman side of things we find out that Sophia can speak an Asian language, which I cannot tell apart so I am not going to guess at. Now presuming that she did not study languages in prison, this only leads me further to believe that they are from another dimension with very similar characteristics to our own. The alien thing I think is just there to throw us off the scent, and I am not buying it. Of course I will look like a fool if they really are from Andromeda or something, but I will take that risk.

So now let’s go to what was horribly wrong with this episode: Paula Malcomson as crazy reporter. Never mind the fact that I am so tired of the crazy-conspiracy-theorist-that-is-not-actually-crazy-but-knows-the-truth Hollywood cliché, but it just feels like such a waste of Paula Malcomson. I have seen her in a few other shows (notably Deadwood and Caprica), and I know how this one is going to force her into acting the cliché out, and I am not happy about this. On some level I can see how Sean and Leila need to be brought into the main storyline so all of these people can be brought together at the end of the season for some cool “event”, but this still feels like a really lame way to do this. Why could they not have just read the stupid folder and left Malcomson to be someone else, perhaps someone badass? Why the stupid conspiracy theory crap? I guess because it is easy and we wouldn’t want our writers or audience to struggle with compelling dialogue and interesting characters. Yay for mediocrity!

Boardwalk Empire - S1 E05 - "Nights in Ballygran"

Before we get to Nucky, let’s go over the other players briefly. Jimmy is helping Pearl out after her attack by bringing her oranges and laudanum. Johnny Torrio tells him that he has to kick her out within a few days since she cannot earn money for him anymore. Realizing this, she kills herself by the end of the episode, and Jimmy goes to an opium den. Arnold Rothstein talks to his lawyer about the 1919 World Series. Gillian talks to Jimmy’s common-law wife Angela about taking care of her son while she lives life a little bit. Angela rejects the offer, but goes to see the photographer which we can assume means she was in fact sleeping with him.

St. Patrick’s Day is a big day for Nucky and Atlantic City, so he spends most of the episode dealing with that. A group of little people that have to play the leprechauns ask for a raise from Nucky, who gives it to them. Eli tries to give a speech at a dinner the night before the holiday, but instead rouses Irish born versus Irish-American debates, until Nucky settles the argument. Margaret rejoins the temperance league and leads Van Alden to break up the dinner by arresting one of Nucky’s employees. The episodes ends with Nucky going to Margaret’s and initiating sex with her.

The first thing that struck me as I was watching this episode was the difference in money between then and today. The little people want a raise from 5 to 10 dollars each and Nucky bargains it down to 7, which means he thinks the 5 dollars is too expensive. Torrio tells Jimmy that for Pearl to stay where she is, Jimmy would have to pay 100 dollars a day, which surprises Jimmy. So 10 dollars for a few hours work is considered good money, while 7 dollars is at least sufficient. Meanwhile, 100 dollars a day, assuming an 8 to 12 hour day, is very good money not only for a prostitute, but in general. This is not extremely important in terms of the episode, but I personally found it interesting to think about just in terms of how much inflation has changed what we think of as a good salary.

The main plot of the episode deals with Margaret and Nucky’s relationship (for which Lucy is surprisingly absent). I was surprised at how soon Margaret goes after Nucky. Last episode we saw her stealing from her job due to jealousy, and I was glad that she stopped being this perfect woman, while this week we saw just how far her jealousy would take her. She rejoins the temperance league just to mess with Nucky, as we know she really has no problems with alcohol once her alcoholic husband is gone. If she was actually against alcohol and not trying to hurt Nucky, she would have told Van Alden about Nucky’s birthday party, but she does not want him arrested.

Nucky at first ignores her as he already has a woman and views Margaret as a complicating factor in his life. Lucy is fairly easy to please, while Margaret is a more intelligent woman, and with two kids, will probably demand more from Nucky. Thus, he takes the pragmatic view of things and decides that she is not worth the trouble she will cause. Margaret ruins his dinner and then gets his man arrested, proving to him that she is more trouble jealous than taken. That last scene where he goes to her house becomes complicated. Does Nucky have feelings for Margaret? His birthday party would suggest so by him dancing with her, but his rejection of her this episode seems to imply that he only went to her place to keep her pacified so she does not cause him undue trouble.

I found this interesting because either way, Margaret gets what she wants and very quickly. She never asked Nucky to take care of her husband, she never asked for money, and she never asked for a job, all of which she gets due to Nucky’s kindness. But now she was asking for Nucky himself, and when he essentially says no, she starts hurting him until he gives in. The shift in her character was wonderful and all credit has to go Kelly Macdonald who plays the character’s malevolence beautifully.

Steve Buscemi as well in that last scene was great. He was very subdued and his exact feelings and machinations are not exactly clear, which I think was a great portrayal of the pragmatic Nucky dealing with feelings of the heart. It is also a great contrast with Eli talking about how he one day wants to learn to lie as well as Nucky does, which makes me wonder how much of Nucky’s relationship with Margaret is going to be a lie, and what lies is going to have to tell to Lucy or to others about his new relationship. For that matter, what about Agent Van Alden and his interest in Margaret? Things to think about in the coming weeks.

The Event – S1 E05 – “Casualties of War"

Let’s discuss the Sean story first. Leila realizes she is being played and Sean also realizes that he is walking into a trap. He manages to convince Vichy to help him (the logic of which I will discuss below), and so almost everyone at the police station is dead. Vichy lies to her superiors, and her partner is captured by Sean’s team which now includes Leila.

Meanwhile, the President decides to renegotiate the terms and threatens to kill all of the prisoners if Thomas does not give them the antidote for the passengers. We find out Thomas was part of the Manhattan project through a flashback, and despite his resolve when talking about it with Simon, he does give up the antidote. The only condition was that Sophia be freed, and she is with the President having the intention of using her to track down Thomas.

A lot of good signs and a lot of bad tendencies were displayed in this episode. Let’s discuss the good first. For once, I was happy that the President acted like what I imagine a real President would act like. He did not give in to the terrorist and he made a morally odious decision and then stuck with it, despite perhaps having a crisis of conscious. Vichy as our villain representative killed some more people as well. Why are these good signs? Well it means the show is not taking the easy way out. Again, I have not seen 24 so it is difficult to compare, but I am satisfied in terms of action, even if it is all pretty illogical. If I am going to be consuming less than ideal television, I would at least like it to be consistently hardcore, instead of moralizing to me all the time.

Now let us discuss the bad. I never want to hear “you listen to me you son of a bitch” ever again. I do not know if this is a common thing for people to say in real life or not, but it is the go to phrase for phone conversations in TV and movies. It has gotten to the point where there was actually a look of disgust on my face as I was watching this when I heard that line. Luckily, Thomas kept right on talking over the Martinez’s line, probably because he was so bored of it too. It’s just a symptom of lazy writing, of which there is a lot.

See, they could not Leila escape for real last episode because it seems to easy, and because the villains have to actually seem capable. Which means they put themselves in a pickle this episode by having an impossible situation before Sean and female FBI. What is their solution? Sean threatens Vichy into helping him by using her son for…something. He threatens to release pictures of him on the net, which is absolutely possible, but accomplishes nothing. I highly doubt in the 5 years that Vichy has worked with whatever branch of the government she works for that they have not checked out her family more than once and noticed that she suddenly had a child living there. But even if they did not, why the hell would she care about the child at this point? The boy’s family is dead so no one is looking for him, and Vichy’s superiors have a lot more pressing issues to worry about at the moment, and hell they might even think the kid is her mom’s. Really, there was no reason for Vichy not to shoot Sean except for the fact that it served the plot.

The other Vichy correlation here is about her saving the baby and whether that makes her a good character or not. Please do not make her a good character. This is a request, a request which will go unheard, but still, I just want some consistency. Her saving a baby does not make her into a morally ambiguous characters. Many, many evil people do not want to kill babies because they are adorable. Please keep her evil. That is all I have to say about that.

For the most part I was okay with the inhuman storyline this episode. I did not find it crazy that Thomas would give in since the prisoners are fewer and more important to him than 200 or so random passengers are to the President (now if Thomas had infected Martinez’s son…). That was all fine. What was not fine was the First Lady. First of all, I was more curious that criticizing, but does the First Lady have as much security clearance as the President? Because she found out about these things awfully fast, and I find it odd that something which was not shared with past Presidents would be so quickly shared with his wife. I am not that familiar with this in real life though, so I will let that slide. What I really hated was the moralizing. When she accused him of turning into Blake Sterling I thought to myself, “the only logical and politically realistic character on the show? Sounds good to me.” The executions made perfect sense to me. It was absolutely the right move, and we absolutely have to maintain the notion of not negotiating with terrorists, which is what Thomas is. Whether or not the prisoners deserve to be freed is a separate issue (and they do not, if only because they do represent a security risk). I understand that perhaps to show how important of a decision this is, we need someone like his wife there to question it, but it still felt pretty stupid to me. Could she really not understand his thought process there?

Regardless, the illogic of the episode was not that bad, and I was distracted positively by the questions that arose from the idea of the inhumans. They seem to speak our language (unless it is done for our benefit), the use the concept of years fairly familiarly (although this could be because of living on Earth for so long), they recognize our old and new technology, they wear similar clothes, and they look like us. More and more I think they must be extra-dimensional. Nothing else really explains it. Essentially, their side has advanced farther than our side. It is as simple as that, and they conducted some sort of experiment and got stuck on our side. I imagine their “ship”, however it looks like, has the ability to travel between worlds, and all the uses of “extra-terrestrial” are there to throw us off and think of aliens.

The other interesting line was Thomas’s “they’re all gonna die anyway.” This could mean any number of things, such as short human life span (relatively), a future we do not know about, a general pronouncement on mortality, or an after effect of the warp hole. The last provides the best basis for why Thomas cannot just take the prisoners out of the jail, since doing so will probably kill them in the process. Of course, that being a logical reason for the mess they are in means it is probably not the reason. But I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Boardwalk Empire - S1 E04 - "Anastasia"

I waited so long to watch this week’s episode of Boardwalk Empire because I have been busy and this show is something I really look forward to; I wanted to tackle it with a fresh mind. That having been said, let us go through this week’s happenings.

We begin this week with Jimmy in Chicago hanging out with Al Capone and sleeping with a prostitute from Wisconsin. Jimmy helps out Capone with his dealings in trying to take over Greek Town for Johnny Torrio now that Colosimo is dead. The current gangster in charge is Sheridan and though he pretends to be ok with the new leadership, he is just biding his time, as evidenced by his goons attacking the Wisconsin girl, Pearl.

Back East, Nucky is preparing for his surprise party and using the party as a means to bribe some government officials and let them know what they owe him. He makes Senator Edge know for certain that he needs money for roads so that Atlantic City and the surrounding County can benefit from better traffic.

Eli arrests a KKK leader (Grand Cyclops) for the possible lynching of Chalky’s man in the previous episode. Chalky tortures him and is assured that the KKK had nothing to do with it, and we get confirmation near the end of the episode that it was indeed Doyle and his Italian money lenders who did it. They also plan to rob Nucky so that Doyle can pay them back for the money he owes.

Along with last week’s episode, I feel like this show has finally hit its stride. It no longer has even slight moments of awkwardness and all of the happenings seem to be occurring at a moderate but eventful pace. We get a better characterization of Jimmy when we compare him with Al Capone. Capone is classic gangster muscle, he does not think much, he is somewhat of a prankster, and he knows how to push people. He correctly read that Sheridan would back off because he knows the muscle he has and the muscle Sheridan has. On the other hand, he incorrectly reads defiance as compliance from Sheridan and he underestimates his opponent, something that Jimmy does not do. Jimmy plays it cool and polite, the way that Nucky might play it. Clearly Jimmy has learned a lot from Nucky, and he seems to want to emulate him, especially considering that his impulsiveness caused him to be kicked out of Atlantic City. He does not want to be Al Capone, even if Capone gets results.

Nucky is portrayed as ever the pragmatist. He is not really offended by the officer’s racism when he tells him to leave his sight but by his stupidity, and Eli understands this. I have to say I am glad that Eli stands up to Nucky and that he is not a stupid relative that Nucky put in the sheriff position as a form of nepotism. There was not really a point in earlier episodes that would suggest that Eli is stupid, but from the scene in this episode when they are discussing Chalky and Nucky’s relationship, it is clear that Eli understands Chalky’s importance, even if he does not understand how fragile the relationship might be.

From out of nowhere, Gillian has become a fascinating character in pretty much this episode alone. Credit must be given to actress Gretchen Mol for a captivating performance as she manipulates Lucky Luciano throughout. First she responds to his bravado by putting him down a peg, and showing him that she is not impressed or intimidated by the gangster type. Then she takes control of the relationship by making the first move. She is listed as a guest character in the credits, but I do hope they do not kill her or have her only stay for the first season, if only because her strength is unique as a female character on this show (it is the 1920s after all).

Finally, Margaret becomes much more interesting this episode as they throw away the notion that she is the perfect. For a while now my hesitation with Margaret has been that that she is too good, too nice, too smart, too everything. She seemed like something of a wish fulfillment that the other female characters did not. This episode ends with her stealing from her employer, an act that could get her fired despite Nucky’s help. This is important in so far as it is an utterly selfish act driven by her disappointment in the Anastasia story being fraudulent and from her jealous of Lucy. We get a very clear indication that this is the match that is going to happen this season, and if it does not I will be sorely disappointed. Nucky clearly respects Margaret’s intellect, and she is attractive, although a different type of attractive than Lucy. It is also interesting that in the background we see the Commodore stand up and take notice of Nucky dancing with Margaret, which I can only take to assume that now the Commodore is fascinated in a girl that has fascinated Nucky. I very much want to see a scene with the Commodore asking Margaret about the League of Nations since I am sure that she will have an answer for him.

The only other thing that really struck me about the episode (besides Nucky watching the glass cloudy up which I could not for certain figure out what it meant) was Nucky practicing for his surprise party. That was hilarious; especially when he did at the party for real. I thoroughly enjoyed that scene. Very well played Steve Buscemi.

The Event – S1 E04 – “A Matter of Life and Death”

Ratcheting up the darkness in the newest The Event episode. On the presidential side we finally see Martinez interacting with his wife Christina while also talking to Sophia, and we get a snazzy refugee metaphor for the situation (this dinner meeting happening a year ago). In the present, the president finally gets Sophia to tell him something about the inhuman on the outside. She tells Martinez his name, Thomas, and that he is a man who will do whatever it takes, which in this case has the woken up and amnesia induced passengers to start bleeding out of their noses.

On Sean’s side of the story, he and Agent Collier flee and take down the fake agent pursuing them. They think they have tracked down Vichy in Texas. Instead they find her mom and her son. The mom spills that Vichy might be in Colorado, so the duo head there. At the same time Leila gets tricked into thinking she has escaped her captors through the use of blanks and a conveniently placed piece of broken glass. She calls Sean to get him to pick her up, which was what the villains had in mind so that they could lure him in and kill him. Also, we see a flashback of Sean and Leila having thanksgiving for the first time with the Buchanan family (5 years prior) and get a story from Sean about his alcoholic father which may or may not be true.

This was great. I like that the fake FBI villain has no problems killing people like the guy in the first two minutes in the garage (although on the other hand, why was that guy even there? He couldn’t hear the gun shots?). Still, I like that they are continuing portraying these people as ruthless. I still think the entire thing is kind of ridiculous. I mean if they have infiltrated the government to the extent that they have these agents everywhere, or if they can just create really good fakes, then one would think they could be a little more patient and not have to shoot up an entire FBI office just to get Sean Walker. After all, they went through that ridiculous plan to fake Vichy being shot just so that Leila would call Sean (even though they could have had her call him from the beginning). Really, the plan is not bad, it just seems ridiculous in so far as they have time and money to waste and being patient would probably just make killing him easier.

Relating to the villains, this episode we are more in depth introduced to Vice President Jarvis who seems to be a sketchy figure. And with the conjecture from last episode that Vichy might be working for the NSA, it is perfectly plausible that he might be leading some sort of secret task force that she is a part of. I cannot say I recognized the other voice on the line that Vichy was talking with, but it sounded old enough that it just might have been the VP. It might not, but I do not think anyone should be surprised if it does happen to be him. If it turns out to be Sterling though, I have to say I will be shocked, if only because so far he has played the good if morally ambiguous advisor so well.

As far as the inhumans go this week, all we get is what happens to the passengers. All of them bleeding at the exact same time makes me think even more that we are either dealing with trans-dimensional travelers or people from the future since the bleeding implies either a biological or nano machine attack, possible both (biomechanical in nature). I guess there are other possibilities that are unknown to us, some sort of alien technology, but the mitochondrial reference that the doctor was talking about implied a biological attack of some sort, and the timing was too good for it not to be. The only thing that threw me off was Sophia talking about her people and the people in our country. It really made me think that they cannot be from the future, but must be inter-dimensional travelers, somewhere along the lines of Fringe, but really I am just guessing at this point.

Finally, let’s talk about what did not work. The real problem with this show is that for the moment (and for the foreseeable future) all of these people are caricatures not characters. The scene with the agent crying was fine in the sense that that might be a realistic reaction from someone seeing their coworkers gunned down, but we don’t actually know her nor really care about her yet. This is because she is still a caricature of an enforcement official. The same thing is true for Vichy and the president and everyone really except Sean. Finding out Vichy has a child still does not explain her motivations and so I cannot really care about her. The president has not done anything really individual yet, so finding out how he met his wife does not really interest me. I have to say that I think this is because the show moves too fast for me to care. Having action sequences is great in so far as I actually like this show despite its poor plot, but it also means that I cannot get myself to care about the characters. Lost did this well by having quiet moments in its flashbacks and in its present day. Lost had plenty of action, but the reason we got to know and care about the characters were because of those quiet moments of dialogue or inaction.

Sean has become a character, but only because we have spent the most time with him, and he is important for the villains to kill for some reason, and we also know he is a smart hacker. He is not really a caricature because he does not fall into any one stereotype or model very neatly, but he is not really a character yet either because I honestly do not care about him either. He is at least interesting though, unlike most of the rest of the cast.

Boardwalk Empire - S1 E03 - "Broadway Limited"

Dark days ahead on Boardwalk Empire. Rothstein’s sister-in-law's nephew survives for a time and names Jimmy as one of his attackers to Van Alden which he overheard from Capone. He dies and someone from the Feds gives the info to Rothstein asks Luciano find out who the second attacker was and to take care of Jimmy. Because of this, Nucky has Jimmy leave Atlantic City. We also finally get to see Van Alden at home with his wife.

Nucky gets Margaret a job at a French clothing store, and she is very unprepared. She meets and is embarrassed by Nucky’s mistress, Lucy, who seems to be jealous of the attention Margaret is getting. Lucy also seems to be trying to get a more permanent relationship with Nucky by talking about having a child.

We are finally officially introduced to Chalky White this episode, the Michael Kenneth Williams character, as he becomes the replacement for Nucky’s local alcohol business. One of his men is hanged outside of his place, and though not stated or implied, in my mind Doyle is the primary suspect as he is having money issues with lenders.

This was a very strong episode. We see the cracks forming in the relationships between the characters. Eli is a little jealous of the attention Jimmy gets from Nucky and he is unhappy being treated like an idiot. Jimmy and his wife are uncomfortable around each other because each of them has different expectations and because they are unused to spending time together. They only knew each other for a short time before he went away, but there is hope in that relationship as she starts using the vacuum once he leaves (implying she is not unthankful even if he is not the man she wants in her life). Nucky seems to be growing bored with Lucy or at least with her desire for intimacy. When the entertainer was singing about liking the dumb girls, Nucky did not look entertained in the least. More likely than not, he does not like the dumb girls, and Margaret, although possibly a charity case like Lucy said, is intelligent and attractive which Nucky has definitely noticed and Lucy is starting to suspect as well. Finally, Nucky and Chalky may have problems as well since Nucky depends on the black vote for elections and racial issues are bound to come up when he hires a black man to work his illegal liquor business both from white competitors and white prohibitionists.

Most of these things are issues Nucky has to deal with as they are cracks forming in the relationships he has with people. Prohibition has complicated things a lot for him. For one thing, election rigging is relatively simple compared with the FBI attention that Prohibition brings with it. For another, Jimmy may have been right in that first episode when he questioned Nucky’s willingness to be a gangster. Corrupt officials are relatively benign compared to the gangster. Certainly Nucky is hardy and willing to kill to get what needs done, but big money like alcohol creates for a much more intense form of competition with people like Rothstein than whoever his political opponent would be. And there is no way to charm away a Rothstein like Nucky might the populace.

On the law enforcement side, the brief look into Van Alden’s family life paints him as the workaholic, the perfect tool to crush Nucky and the rest as he loves his job more than his wife (presumably) and will do anything to get his man. At the moment he is the necessary figure that attacks Nucky form the legal side, but hopefully his smelling of Margaret’s ribbon will paint him as an interesting rival for Margaret’s affections against Nucky (since that seems to be the way the show is heading at the moment, although it could easily be a fake out). At the very least, it provides a complication into his otherwise moral, asexual personification.

I think the best part of this episode was how funny it was. Van Alden’s partner mentioning that Rothstein’s relation is Jewish after Van Alden quotes the Bible, and correcting the insult the mother translates (“little…faggot penis”) were surprisingly dark in this episode.

We are left with the last scene in this episode of different people reacting in different ways to the rain, Nucky most importantly looking at the wet steps he has left on his hotel floor perhaps pondering how everything leads to him and leaves a visible mark, or perhaps how he needs to hurry and erase those marks as soon as possible. Then again, though water is easily cleaned up, the bodies every episode are not.