2.5 Razors

Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Special Ops: Lioness – Sacrificial Soldiers
  • IMDb: link

Half of the first episode of Special Ops: Lioness offers insight into the life of an agent of the CIA (Zoe Saldana) on one of her worst days in the field and the immediate aftermath. The various aspect of the story hints at spy craft and the need to route out terrorist cells overseas but really is about the human toll on Joe following the events. The rest of the episode is devoted to Cruz (Laysla De Oliveira) who leaves an unhealthy relationship to join the Marines and eventually get tasked into Joe’s program. It’s this half of the episode where Special Ops: Lioness leans its overtly patriotic messaging and imagery to such a degree it feels more like an Armed Forces recruitment film than drama. By the end of the episode the two women are working together, hopefully removing some of the fractured narrative found here, but the less stylish, but no less simplistic, Michael Bay-ish view of world politics is a tad concerning.

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Moon Knight #25

/ / Comics

Moon Knight #25 offers an oversized issue that doesn’t lead to any important revelations, wrap-up the ongoing story, or offer the unexpected. Instead we get an oversized issue featuring Moon Knight going after the Black Spectre, the trap the latest villain lays for him involving a handful of Marc Spector’s former foes, in a B-movie version of Knightfall, Moon Knight cuts a swath through them before being saved by one of the Black Spectre’s minions who had second thoughts after leading Moon Knight into a trap.

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The Blacklist – Raymond Reddington

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Blacklist – Raymond Reddington
  • wiki: link / link

After 10 seasons, The Blacklist comes to a close not with a bang but a whimper. The two-part finale involves the FBI hunting down their former confidential informant Raymond Reddington (James Spader) while others including Congressman Arthur Hudson (Toby Leonard Moore) continue to throw shade at the task force unintentionally allowing Red to escape. We get the arrest, and shooting, of Dembe (Hisham Tawfiq) along with the misdirection of Red in the first episode. Derrick Williams is added to the mix as the new person to not listen to the team and go off half-cocked, although his character has no resolution and is simply forgotten by the final half-hour. 

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Scream VI

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Scream VI
  • IMDb: link

The sixth entry in the Scream franchise follows Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara (Jenna Ortega) to college. The film opens in the expected way with a woman (Samara Weaving) being stalked on the phone and then killed, although we do get a twist with the killer (Tony Revolori) immediately being revealed and then himself stalked and killed by a different Ghostface killer out to frame Sam for his crimes and punish the sisters for what he believes are their crimes.

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Panhandle – One Billboard Outside Boggsville, Florida

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Panhandle – One Billboard Outside Boggsville, Florida
  • IMDb: link

The paths of  Bell Prescott (Luke Kirby) and Cammie Lorde (Tiana Okoye) cross again the show’s second episode with Bell needing help looking into the actions of his wife before her death and Cammie (Tiana Okoye) looking for some more easy wins to boost her stock and get her out of her current position of manning the local speed trap. There are some fun moments such as Bell accosting a man at a miniature golf course, but with no case of the week to solve the structure of the episode doesn’t hold up nearly as well in the pilot, although we do get surprise visitors for both Cammie and Bell, one who confirms Bell suspicions about Cammie and one who offers Bell some secrets about his wife.

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