Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #2

/ / Comics

Dungeons & Dragons: At the Spine of the World #2 comic reviewRuna, Saarvin, Patience, Amos, and Belvyre continue their trek across the icy Icewind Dale in a second issue that offers quite a bit of bickering among the group prior to them taking shelter in a cave and then getting a good look at the Zombie Frost Giants following them.

The giants are fun, as is the back and forth between our unlikely group that is balanced by the quick friendship forged between Runa and Saarvin. I also quite enjoyed some of the reaction shots we get in this issue from artist Martin Coccolo as events play out.

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Sound of Metal

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Sound of Metal
  • IMDb: link

Sound of Metal movie reviewRiz Ahmed stars as one-half of a heavy metal band whose life is turned upside down when the drummer starts to lose his hearing. A recovering heroin addict, Ruben (Ahmed) agrees to go to an insular community for deaf recovering addicts to appease girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) while still refusing to come to terms with what has happened to him.

The film from co-writer/director Darius Marder is one on personal struggle, loss, acceptance, and transformation as Ruben struggles both in finding a new life and his refusal to let go of what he had prior to his hearing loss. Even discounting the imparement, Ruben practices selective hearing in what doctors and others tell him both about the state of his hearing and about the limited help he might receive from expensive cochlear implants.

Although much of it takes place with a couple of montages, we do witness Ruben’s role from outsider to productive member of the deaf community over the course of the film. But despite the help Joe (Paul Raci) and others give to Ruben, the drummer can’t let go of returning to life on the road with Lou.

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The Hardy Boys – Of Freedom and Pleasure

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Hardy Boys – Of Freedom and Pleasure
  • wiki: link

The Hardy Boys - Of Freedom and Pleasure TV review

With each continuing to separately investigate different threads of the same mystery, the Hardy Boys hit the carnival in “Of Freedom and Pleasure” which offers the return of the Tall Man (Stephen R. Hart) and J.B. Cox (Atticus Mitchell). Frank (Rohan Campbell) gets a history lesson from the carnival’s psychic Anya Kowalski (Joan Gregson). Meanwhile, Joe (Alexander Elliot) discovers what the thief hid in his room, and even more importantly what was hidden inside the bust which somehow seems to improve Joe’s luck at carnival games and allow him to survive being pursued by the Tall Man. It’s only at the end of the episode that Joe and Frank come to realize they know things which could help the other, suggesting that we might finally see the Hardy Boys work together to solve the mystery about the odd artifact and how it relates to the murder of the boys’ mother.

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Firefly: Blue Sun Rising #1

/ / Comics

Firefly: Blue Sun Rising #1 comic reviewFirefly: Blue Sun Rising #1 concludes the Blue Sun arc that gave fans a look at the operations of the Blue Sun Corproation which was set-up in the television show’s original run but never fully developed. The arc, which takes place before the events of Serenity, also sets up the location of Haven as this issue marks the departure of Shepherd Book from Serenity as well of the temporary departure of several other members of the crew.

Despite not reading the issues prior, Firefly: Blue Sun Rising #1 is easy to follow as it sticks to the show’s standard set-up. The storyline involves Malcolm Reynolds and company picking a fight with Blue Sun. As the comic opens, Serenity is dead in space thanks to Blue Sun’s technology powering several of the ship’s systems. Only a quick fix allows for the survival of the ship and crew thanks to borrowing parts from one of the ship’s passengers.

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The Stand – Pocket Savior / Blank Pages

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Stand – Pocket Savior / Blank Pages
  • wiki: link
  • wiki: link

The Stand - Pocket Savior / Blank Pages television review

The second and third episodes of CBS’ new adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand focus on introducing more of the novel’s long list of characters. Here we get musician Larry Underwood (Jovan Adepo) who spends some time with the tragic Rita (Heather Graham) before continuing west on his own and coming across Nadine (Amber Heard) and Joe (Gordon Cormier). We also meet Lloyd Henreid (Nat Wolff) who is the first character we see approached and successfully recruited by Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård) for his community in Las Vegas and the deaf-mute Nick Andros (Henry Zaga) who refuses Flagg’s offer and becomes Mother Abagail‘s (Whoopi Goldberg) voice in Colorado. We also see the first meeting of Stu Redman (James Marsden) and Harold Lauder (Owen Teague) and Frannie Goldsmith (Odessa Young) on the road which doesn’t turn out as Stu planned, but he does make another acquaintance in Glen Bateman (Greg Kinnear).

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