3.5 Razors

Everafter #1

/ / Comics

Everafter #1Fables may be completed, but it seems there are still stories left to tell. Taking place in a world where magic runs rampant and no longer has to hide, Everafter #1 introduces us to The Shadow Players (network of both Fable and mundane agents tasked with policing a newly enchanted world). The first issue gives us a trio of Shadow Players (Bo Peep, Hansel, and Peter Piper) searching a zombie-infested train station for a “package” their boss wants found. Things get even more interesting with one member of the team chooses his own agenda over the mission.

Everafter #1 sells me on the concept of the issue, although for a Fables spy series there’s a definite lack of Cinderella here. Although it’s likely laying the groundwork for something bigger to come, the subplot of Snow White and Bigby Wolf‘s son joining the secret organization feels a bit shoehorned in.

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Atlanta – Streets on Lock

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Atlanta – Streets on Lock
  • IMDb: link

Atlanta - Streets on Lock

Following the parking lot shooting which was alluded to in both the opening and closing scenes of the Atlanta’s first episode (but not actually shown in either episode so far), “Streets on Lock” picks up events the following day as Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) is processed and released to discover the overblown story of what happened has earned the aspiring rapper new street cred while Earn (Donald Glover) stews in holding, with a bizarre cast of characters, while waiting to be processed. Although to be fair, the folks Paper Boi runs into on the street aren’t necessarily any less colorful (or any more sane).

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Batman #6

/ / Comics

Batman #6In the final issue of the relaunched series’ opening arc, Batman must deal with the deteriorating mental state of Gotham Girl who struggles to understand and deal with her partner’s recent demise. A super-human with a thin grip on reality (she continues to talk to Gotham as if he is still present) but who is still continuing to serve the city and dispense fair justice makes for an unusual problem for Batman to solve.

Although the comic’s solution to this brings up several logical and logistical questions which put Batman’s secret identity at risk in public (both in his discussions with Alfred and in choosing to remove his cowl on a rooftop where any number of people, or satellites, might see), the emotion of the plot is quite strong and deals with Bruce Wayne’s own loss without delving the comic into grim and gritty territory or relying on the overused flashbacks of that night in crime ally.

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Sully

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Sully
  • IMDb: link

SullyAnointed by the media as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” Sully offers the story of pilot Chesley Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) whose miraculous water landing of a full-sized passenger plane in the Hudson River was celebrated by the world as a near-impossible feat but questioned heavily by the airline industry. Remarkably, every passenger and crew member survived Sully ditching the plane, but that’s really just where this story gets started.

More analytical than I expected, the screenplay by Todd Komarnicki spends much of its screentime on findings, data, trial strategy, simulations, discussions, and bureaucratic infighting. While this allows director Clint Eastwood to steer well-clear of the film venturing anywhere near the realm of sappy or schmaltzy, it also means much of the movie lacks the emotional impact one would expect. Other than watching his struggle to deal with reluctantly being pulled into the limelight, we don’t learn much about our title character. Although deeper family and drinking issues and are hinted at, the movie’s focus is completely on Sully being the right man in the right spot at right moment and how those few seconds effected the flight and Sully in particular.

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Atlanta – The Big Bang

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Atlanta – The Big Bang
  • IMDb: link

“Look, I don’t have $500. I make $5.15 plus commissions, I gotta pay rent tonight, and my parents won’t let me in the house. It’s like those drug commercials, only not funny.”

Atlanta - The Big Bang

The first episode of Atlanta introduces us to Earnest Marks (Donald Glover), his ex-girlfriend (Zazie Beetz) and daughter, and his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry). Stuck in a series of dead-end jobs and schemes which have failed to pay-off, Earn gets the idea to attach himself to Alfred’s aspiring music career as the rapper’s new manager. Of course to do so he’ll have to get around his shifty reputation which even his parents admit is his defining characteristic.

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