This week Tiny and I welcome our friend Greg Lenz (from We Are Libertarians) to review Steve Jobs, gush over Aaron Sorkin’s work, and draw parallels between this movie and The Social Network! In potpourri, I review Rick and Morty season 1 and indie drama Unexpected; Tiny talks about NBC drama Nashville; and Greg talks about his excitement for The Big Short and the Tarantino police boycott controversy. Continue reading →
I will be upfront here; I’m a bit out of my element with this post. I watched season 2 of The Newsroom in a vacuum, completely free from all internet chatter be it reviews or tweets. You can read my thoughts on the season itself in this week’s The Week in TV post. In this post, however, I would like to address something that surprised me.Continue reading →
Pilots are interesting beasts in the television world. They’re used to convince a studio to shell out more money for more episodes. In order to do that, a pilot needs to succeed on several more fronts of storytelling than any other single episode. A pilot needs to introduce the major characters of a series in an engaging, often standalone, story that will leave the audience clamoring for more.
Furthermore, a good pilot needs to rely on a strong cast to build a rapport in a short period of time. Writers working on pilots also have to gauge possible long-term onscreen relationships completely blind of actors’ chemistry. Because of these factors, I live by one steadfast television-viewing rule:
Never judge a show by its pilot.
But some series have such strong pilot episodes that you can and should judge them on the pilots. And so, here I have compiled a list of some of my favorite pilot episodes. They aren’t necessarily my favorite shows ever, and they aren’t exactly the best episodes of said shows. These episodes are just the most engaging series-starters that I’ve seen. They also introduce the characters and story arcs in a highly satisfying way.
You can click the episode titles in the list to buy them digitally on Amazon.
The calm anxiety that flows throughout this movie is impressive. The Assistant showcases the monotony of daily life for Jane while keeping the more dramatic elements in the background. It shows us how normalized abhorrent behavior is in this setting and the effect is fantastic. There's a scene between Julia Garner and Matthew MacFayden that is masterful […]
It's about what I expected. There's some whimsy to the story and Dev Patel does a fine job with a strong supporting cast. But I really wasn't captivated by the story. The more dramatic moments felt a bit hollow and unearned to me.
Ultimately, Da 5 Bloods is a perfectly fine movie. Delroy Lindo's performance is without question the highlight of the movie. An incredible performance.But the way Spike Lee incorporates breaks in the story to flash news footage of events of the era really makes the whole thing feel disjointed. I absolutely loved the way he ended BlacKkKlansman with foo […]
Leaves a lot to think about. Very powerful and at times haunting performance from Sidney Flanagan. Talia Ryder and Théodore Pellerin give strong performances too. The scene that gives the movie its title is one of the best scenes I've seen all year.
It's not a surprise that Zoey Deutch nails this. She's really talented and Buffaloed is another in a growing line of titles she elevates with her charisma and energetic performance. Aside from her performance, the movie is okay. There are some solid supporting characters that keep up with Deutch as best they can. The stakes are high enough. Ultimat […]
Really inspiring. I thought it was just going to be about Camp Jened but that's merely a launching point for the revolutionary fight for the Americans with Disabilities Act. The way the documentary frames the camp as a place for the people in the camp to find themselves and grow as individuals leads to a beautifully poignant depiction of the fight for d […]
