For a standalone story, I didn’t expect the book to have such a sprawling storyline and a large set of characters for us to follow. Shōgun is an epic. Set in feudal Japan, it’s a fictional retelling of the political maneuvering of the daimyō Toranaga-sama (Tokugawa Ieyasu is his real-life counterpart) as he plots his rise to the status of Shogun of Japan. We watch this through the eyes of an English Sailor- John Blackthorne- who is loosely based on one of the only Western Samurai in Japan: William Adams. The plot follows his slow integration into society as he probes for a way back home, while he slowly gets embroiled into Toranaga’s schemes and plopped right into the middle of Japanese politics.
It’s become a standard trope to have an outsider witness a new culture/region, as he becomes a natural vehicle for exposition to be spouted towards. Naturally, it works well here though there’s a LOT of exposition as we peel through the different layers of ‘Eastern’ culture. There are a lot of areas that I’m sure aren’t historically accurate. In particular, I’m quite sceptical about the portrayal of seppuku in the book. Not with the action itself, but the frequency with which it’s committed. A little bit of leeway can be given for the purpose of enhancing the story though.
Another negative: the amount of time spent on Blackthorne-Mariko could have been reduced and still retain the same level of impact on the main plot. It was a chore to read through a lot of those sections.
The interplay between politics, religion and personal vendetta as the various factions played their pieces was enthralling: Local daimyos vying for power, the reach of the Church, Portugal and Spain having trouble with a possible Englishman taking over local trade, constant backstabbings and shifting loyalties. The characters and their personal ambitions make up a large chunk of why this book is such a quick read. Clavell managed to cram a lot into the book, even sparing some time to showcase the evolution of geishas. Oh, and yes. The book has ninjas.
Anyone suffering from a withdrawal of aSoIaF can jump right into this. I’m quite sad that we won’t be getting a chance to explore more from this Age through Clavell. But he covered the most important period right before the rise of the Last Shogun, so there isn’t a lot of interesting material remaining to cover.
Upon perusing a list of movies, I came across The King of Comedy, which seems to be gathering some press coverage due to certain connections it has with the upcoming Joker movie. Starring De Niro in the lead role, I felt a compulsion to give the movie a go-ahead.
The King of Comedy is a study of how everyday people worship their celebrity idols. It is the story of a failed “comedian” (Rupert Pupkin) who has delusions of grandeur and daydreams about himself as an uber successful stand-up comedian. Upon meeting his idol –talk show host Jerry Langford- he truly believes he has a chance of getting his “big-break” at the stardom that he deserves. We all like to envision ourselves in positions of fame and Pupkin falls in the same boat. He dreams about his success in the field to such an extent that he has begun to believe he has the skill and wit to make it as a comedian. He wants all the fame without the effort. To be a star without going through the trials and tribulations that Hollywood offers. If only life were that simple?
He is annoyingly persistent, and at some point of time, we have run into people who pester us until they get what they want. The ones who are socially inept and do not notice the social cues we are giving off. When his idol Jerry Langford denies him a shot at glory, Rupert resorts to extreme actions to achieve his dream, even if he can only live in it for a night.
The audience is drawn into the life of a man who refuses to back down. His entire life has morphed to a point where he forces down his delusions down the throats of people around him. He has adopted his lifestyle to match those of stand up hosts you see on screen. Everything from gestures and mannerisms are exaggerated to the point where a guest at a restaurant sees right through his act, and is seen mocking Pupkin in the background of a, mimicking the wild gesticulations Rupert has adopted into his daily life. To Pupkin, his fantasies are within reach -the life as a celebrity and the love of his life by his side. We are conditioned to empathize with people who undergo suffering and ridicule by people in power. Rupert displays no sympathy for the people around him and in return, we do not pity his situation either. If you had the chance to be loved and adored as a King for a day no matter the cost, would you stake your freedom for it?
It has been a while since I gave a shot at writing, so the review might seem a bit off. I am going to stick at it though and I will try to have a new article out soon.
The creators of the show were clearly ticking things off a list:
✅ “Cue the intro music guys. Let the viewers know that we are a cool and hip show.”
✅ “Ok kid, time for you to quip now. And Number 1, you need to be totally nonchalant about it and give a corny reply. Can you be emotionless and not crack up? Of course he can, it’s the only expression he’s got.”
✅ “Slick camera work! Maybe that will help cover all of your lousy acting.”
And holy crap, if there is any TV show/movie or medium of art that wholly defines wooden acting, this would take the top spot definitely. What on earth were the casting directors doing even?! Apart from Number 4 and Number 5, everyone else has nothing to show on their faces at all. Just a deadpan look and monotone line delivery.
Ok, let’s forget the crappy stuff for a bit.
The Umbrella Academy is the latest amongst a thousand productions that Netflix keeps churning out every week. And like 80% of those shows, this one is utter trash. I think their executives just love greenlighting the shows, chucking them on to the wall and then the executives just pray for one to stick.
43 kids were born to women on a random day at the start of which they weren’t pregnant. A wealthy businessman adopts 7 such children and he discovers that these kids have extraordinary abilities. Abilities that could be used to change the world. Instead of giving them names, he assigns them numbers –à la Reservoir Dogs or Money Heist.
Number 1: He has super strength. He pretends like he’s the caring one, but is a dick.
Number 2: He can curve projectiles. He’s a softie deep inside but pretends to be a dick.
Number 3: She manipulates reality, can make people do her bidding by uttering the phrase “I heard a rumour…” (I heard a rumour you forgot you ever watched this show in the first place. Gimme that mindwiping gizmo, Tommy Lee Jones. I am sorry what? Oh… Will Smith borrowed it to forget his shitty blue genie. Also, After Earth.)
Number 4: “I see dead people.” Yeah, he can communicate with the dead and is constantly drunk or high in an attempt to forego use of his powers. (Also, he’s one of the only cast members to play his character semi-convincingly.)
Number 5: He can jump through space and time. He went missing when he was 13 years old and comes back to the present day having aged 58 years mentally: still in the same 13-year-old body. The kid who plays him is the ONLY decent actor in the show and hence I am going to name drop him: Aidan Gallagher. He’sonly 15. WTH is wrong with the rest of the cast?
Number 6: Not a main cast member, but since the posters and marketing team barely show him any love, I will. He possesses a weird Kraken-like monster under his skin and hence is extremely powerful. Quiet possibly the strongest member of the group.
Also, he’s dead. Nope, not a spoiler since it’s revealed in the first few minutes itself. (He’s still present in the show because of Number 4’s abilities.)
Number 7: Vanya, played by a high profile actress. She is a violin student who does not possess any powers at all. The rest of the family consider her to be irrelevant and hence, she chooses to distance herself from them. In her defence, the character is given emotion-suppressing drugs for plot reasons, which explains why she acts as such. Someone must have slipped those pills to everyone else on set as well.
We couldn’t add 6. Because of symmetry? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Then there’s:
i) the businessman/wealthy guy/discount Professor X: Reginald Hargreeves. He plays the distant father who expects the most out of his kids.
ii) Hazel and Cha -Cha: Ruthless assassins who want to kill Number 5, but the script forgot to specify how strong they were and hence all of their fight scenes make no sense at all. Oh, and before I forget: THEY CAN’T ACT EITHER. They might actually be worse than Number 1, which is so sad…
The plot: All of the kids reunite at their X-Mansion to mourn their father’s death. Number 5 who went missing years ago, appears out of thin air (literally) with info that the world is about to end in 8 days.
Honestly though, the script is solid, especially considering the many elements I am leaving out such as:
The organization that Cha-Cha and Hazel work for.
Number 4 has a really good story arc.
5 is an impressive actor and plays to the story beats really well.
the visuals and cinematography are decent enough.
But when the duo’s of Cha Cha-Hazel and Number 1-2 are on screen, the sense of realism just breaks down completely. And top that off with the show’s utter disregard for pacing, and you have a series that you can switch off after the first 30 minutes itself.
I am going to gloss over everything else that’s relevant such as score, direction etc because all of that is secondary to the acting itself. Please spare yourself from this monstrosity.
With the latest announcement about the future of the Mission Impossible franchise, I thought it’s about time I reviewed their latest entry, Mission Impossible: Fallout.
Fallout happens to be the only movie from 2018 that I bothered watching on the big screen twice. Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie have managed to up their game and have delivered the best movie in the series so far. Ghost Protocol comes in at a close second with its brilliant sense of humour and well executed set pieces.
Film Reviewer Jeremy Jahns best summarized the movie by stating: “It’s like the movie goes enough for you to white-knuckle it, keeps you there for a second, and then goes one step further. Before you pass out, the movie is like ‘Don’t worry, we’re going to let you breathe… after this last thing.’ And you just have to hold your breath a little more, it’s like you’re trying to make audiences around the world just simultaneously pass out from tension.” Seriously though, go check out his reviews, they are awesome.
The franchise has managed to up its game by giving greater focus on the team, injecting a dose of humour into set pieces, and by complementing the action sequences with high-quality videography and audio (whatever technical terminology). Mission Impossible has always had amazing set pieces, and they have turned the dial up a notch after the nail-biting Burj Khalifa spectacle from Ghost Protocol. McQuarrie and Cruise have made sure that all of their action scenes are well shot and planned out. We are allowed to take in their glorious bike chases and hand-to-hand combat scenes without any shaky-cam or quick cuts. They had to step up their game after the release of John Wick, which emphasizes clean action. Whether it was a bike/car chase, fight sequences or people jumping off aeroplanes or rooftops, nothing is left to the imagination of the viewer and we are given a front row seat to this rollercoaster of a movie.
I want to give special credit to the “Nightmare sequence” that occurs nearly midway through the movie. (IDK what else to call it) 1) Instead of a crummy exposition scene where they blabber out the details of a plan to us, they chose to let it play out through Ethan’s head. This isn’t anything groundbreaking, but, 2) The manner in which the scene is shot, with overexposed lighting in the background, slightly blurred out extras in the frame and blaring music drowning out the background noise gave us hints that the scene was playing out in Ethan’s head. And just like a dream, Ethan snaps out of it with a sudden muting of the score. Again, this is nothing that hasn’t been done before in movies, but to pull it off successfully is no mean task and their execution was nothing short of perfect.
I have always felt that the plot in Mission Impossible films have always been secondary to the action. I imagine it going like this: Tom Cruise hands over a list of stunts to the writers, and they go- ‘Okay bike and car chases? Covered. A HALO jump? Umm, we could squeeze that in somewhere? A minute long take of me running? Pfft, been there done that. Me dangling off of a helicopter and then taking control of it? Wth Tom we said no more dangling!’ It’s a generic plot with terrorist organizations chasing after nukes blah blah… you know the shtick. But the writers manage to intricately plot various elements and add enough twists to keep the movie from feeling stale. I mean, it’s kind of impossible to do that with all the various stunts going on, but the movie still needs a solid plot. Oh, and it finds a way to give closure to a past character as well. Neat.
So, videography covered, sound work has been given due praise. The acting. We have seen most of the cast in the previous movies, and they continue to do a good job. New additions Henry Cavill and Angela Basset. Cavill plays a nice foil to Cruise and they play well off each other. The no-nonsense ideology of Cavill’s Walker and Hunt’s precision planning go against each other’s natural playstyle and neither actor outshines the other, which is a good thing. Both of them have a strong on-screen presence. DC missed the trick by not choosing Angela Basset for the role of Amanda Waller in the DC cinematic universe (she previously played the character in the Bruce Timm DC Animated Universe). She is overbearing and plays the role of FBI head with the right amount of charisma and power to leave an impact during the few minutes she had on screen. We should be seeing more of her in the future. Rebecca Ferguson’s Ilsa Faust gets left out from the spotlight, after her breakthrough performance in Rogue Nation. She stole every scene in that movie, so they must have decided to push her back a little to give Cavill room to shine this time around. Vanessa Kirby plays The White Widow, a broker between various parties. She eases herself into the spidery character seamlessly and is terrifyingly good in the role. More of her as well in the next one?
Which brings me to the fact that we are getting TWO more Mission Impossible movies, 2021 and 2022. Both movies are going to be shot back-to-back so we can expect some sort of overarching plot between them. And this will be the 3rd – 4th time that Chris McQuarrie will be taking the helm at the director’s seat. His vision combined with his good working relationship with Cruise has translated to 2 consecutive hits on screen, and we should be expecting even greater things from the duo. Both of them are never short of ideas and it will be interesting to see where they take the franchise next.
A criminally underrated film, Bridge to Terabithia used to air quite often on Star Movies when I was a kid. I used to watch it whenever I got a chance. The performance by the two leads appealed to me a lot. Leslie and Jess are outcasts at school who bond together and decide to spend their free time in a world they make for themselves, called Terebithia. In Terabithia, they could be the greatest of hunters, the fastest runners and could make up anything they wanted.
Its emphasis on friendship, creativity, first love and death rather than pure fantasy elements help it to stand out from the pack. Leslie and Jess grow close to each other through their adventures in Terabithia, as well as their antics outside school. They grow bolder and learn to deal with issues that plague them in school. Leslie’s arrival helps Jess unleash his creative side. Through their adventures, they learn to value their relationships with their family and realise most people are fighting off their own demons. They teach us to empathise with people, not berate them. We may find people with different opinions all around us, and it’s our duty to respect their views. Nothing is truly black and white in our world. Instead, embrace both sides and help put a smile on someone’s face.
Camera work, score and CGI (in particular) are adequate for a film that came out in the early 2000’s. At its core, the movie isn’t about witches, wizards or monsters to fight off. It’s about the little things in life that we pay little attention to. The fantasy medium is just a messenger that sugarcoat the truth. Dreams may cushion us, help escape trials life throws at us. But reality will always come crashing down when we least expect it. So it’s about time we accept it and move forward.
Coil. The man who has been toying with everyone behind the scenes. Able to create parallel worlds in order to test out odds of success. Orchestrating a robbery to work as a distraction in order to get control of a valuable asset. Buying the Travellers with some sort of promise and using them to take control of the city. The Undersiders – Used as a tool to carry out most of his schemes. Ever since Taylor the rest of the gang learned about Dinah Alcott, he has been set up as someone to be taken down. Ever since the Nine got taken down, the number one priority for Taylor is to free Dinah at all costs. The disadvantage? Coil knows that Taylor needs to be eliminated, that she won’t back down until she gets what she wants.
A game of cat and mouse ensues, with Coil making his big move against the major players while pulling out all cards. In the chaos that follows he manages to take control of the Protectorate. With both the villains and heroes under his palm, Coil has become the most powerful man in the region. We know that Cauldron is depending on him for some outcome in the future. The Undersiders face off against Coil, with one team coming out on top over the other. The aftermath results in the release of a new S-Class threat. Noelle.
Echidna. Noelle. The Travellers and where they come from. The tragic story of how the team found themselves where they are right now. An all-out battle as an out of control Noelle unleashes havoc against the assembled heroes and villains. Dark secrets being spilled out. The final set of arcs have a nonstop barrage of action and revelations that are pumped out, and the writing becomes a bit too messy in a lot of places. Wildbow could hire a few editors to smoothen things out a bit, cutting out parts that seem needless.
The fall of the Protectorate seems almost imminent by the end of this round against ‘’Echidna-Noelle’’. How much more violence can Brockton Bay residents handle before people start giving up hope? Especially at the face of what has come out. Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon all having to own up to the wrongs they committed in the name of good.
From arc to arc, the scale at which the story is told keeps increasing, amping up the odds and introducing new characters effortlessly while offing a few major players along the way.
We need more people reading his works, and John C McCrae needs to start getting this published as soon as possible.
You are in a deep sleep, dreaming about meeting that celebrity from your favorite TV show, fantasizing about how you would react when you finally meet them: Be nonchalant? Or would the fanboy/girl in you take over? You could end up being best pals with them down the line if you play it right. You walk up to them and are about to introduce yourself- ”Hi, my name is—,”
”Che bajne wala hain, utja jaldi! School ke liye taiyyar ho jao.”
You struggle a bit -”ek minute aur please”- , hoping to get a few extra minutes in, then at last wake up and mechanically go through the same routine:
Get out of bed
Brush your teeth, take a quick shower
Dress up, have breakfast, pack your lunch
Leave for the bus stop
Once you get back from school, the whole cycle starts again once more. Wash, rinse, repeat. For twelve long years, you have followed this schedule strictly like a mantra. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be able to break away from it for once? Being able to get those extra few minutes of sleep. Not needing to take a shower before leaving just because you could do it later?
Living in a hostel away from home gives you that freedom you have been craving for. Feel like skipping breakfast? No problem. Want to sit up late to get stuff done- no one’s going to berate you for it. And above all else? You make lifelong connections with the people you live with.
Hundreds of hours having fun in varying degrees: whether it’s pranking your friends, sitting up late to play cards, binging through the latest season of Stranger Things through the night. Even the struggles you go through with your hostelites: prepping for internals, a project submission or just plain complaining about how bad the mess food is no matter the number of changes you make to the menu (let’s be honest here, blaming the mess has become something staple about hostel life). You create a thousand little moments that you carry on with you for the remainder of your life, moments that you will savor once you reminiscent your time in college.
It hurts to leave your family behind, knowing that they won’t have your back when you need them. But you learn from the experience as you begin to stand up for yourself, facing troubles on your own. Growing up has never been easy, but the most satisfying moments in life come from making difficult choices -and in learning to live alone- you will know that you made the right one.
Possibly the best set of arcs so far in the series. After the fallout from the Leviathan Attack, Wildbow gives us a glimpse into the life of the Wards, and how they have suffered after the loss of their teammates following the Endbringer attack. All of them are suffering in one form or the other, and two new additions have been made to the team in order to make up for the deaths of Gallant and Aegis.
The Undersiders finally let themselves loose, with Regent being allowed to make use of the full extent of his abilities as a Master 10 – being able to take control of any person he wants to, with certain restrictions. The team carries out an attack on the Protectorate headquarters to retrieve crucial information that Coil has asked for. We watch Rachel and Taylor’s friendship breaking down due to the reveal that Taylor had been working as a double agent, which leads to friction between them during the attack. Shadow Stalker finally receives her just desserts for the wrongs she committed as a civilian and as a ‘hero’.
Phew, now for the main plot. Following the Endbringer attack, the city isn’t in the best shape. Its been plagued with water and power shortages, transportation issues, local gangs ramping up crime as the Protectorate and Wards struggle to maintain any form of control over the city.
Well, one S-Class threat decides to pay Brockton Bay a visit- The Slaughterhouse Nine. They have been mentioned in passing before this, but holy crap do they get a banger of an introduction. With a set of interludes reserved for each of them, we get to see the Nine in the flesh for ourselves as we find out why they are regarded to be extremely dangerous individuals.
The Nine are in town to recruit a new member following the death of one of their members.
Mannequin -pursuing Colin- manages to inflict a kind of fear in us like never before in the series. Without even uttering a single word, he shows us how capable he is as he beats the disgraced hero- the one who nearly took down Leviathan- into submission.
Burnscar decimating Faultlines crew singlehandedly. Shatterbird taking down Hookwolfs splinter faction of the Empire. Bonesaw- probably the most psychotic and dangerous member of the group, a tinker with no moral compass- going after the purest member of the Protectorate, Panacea. Siberian- violent, feral and inhuman, picking Bitch, Regent by Cherish, Crawler choosing Noelle, one freak for another.
The visitors lay down some ground rules about how they are going to go about choosing their next member, a series of challenges that need to be completed by each of the candidates: complete them and live, otherwise be killed. The Undersiders manage to put in a clause in the rules: if more than 2 candidates survive the trials, The Nine leave Brockton Bay peacefully.
The remaining teams in Brockton Bay meet up to form an alliance of sorts against the Nine- including the Wards and other heroes. Everyone has one goal- off Jack Slash before he leaves Brockton Bay in order to prevent the end of the world scenario from taking place, as predicted by Dinah.
Right after the meeting, the Undersiders and Travellers get attacked by the Nine. The Nine leave them after revealing the above-stated rules. Knowing that both the Nine and Undersiders play a similar game- choosing their battles carefully, Skitter suggests going on the offensive, taking the Nine by surprise. It works for the most part as they escape with a captured Shatterbird and Cherish. Meanwhile, Skitter has to protect her territory from Mannequin, whom she manages to outwit using silk threads and some of her minions. The Nine keep on suffering losses until Grue gets captured and tortured by Bonesaw.
The Nine suffer from continuous losses with Siberians weakness being outed by the Undersiders. This results in a last-ditch attack by the Protectorate, targeting the Nine. By this point in time, only Siberian, Bonesaw and Jack Slash remain of the original 8 who visited the city. Due to the rules being broken by the heroes, Bonesaw unleashes a chemical attack against the city. Panacea messes up and disfigures Glory Girl completely, another hero bites the dust during the ensuing chaos and the last remaining members escape the city (with a new member joining them) accepting defeat. The coalition fails to kill Jack Slash and the world remains poised to end in 2 years time.
Grim times ahead for the capes of Brockton Bay. The arcs move at an absurd pace, and Wildbow manages to keep us hooked into the story, one plot point after the other. Amazing interludes and well-written arcs keep us invested. Grue and Regent are fleshed out a little bit more. Imp is a welcome new addition to the Undersiders, and Parian’s expanded role adds a fresh new breath into the story. The Nine added a new element to the story that moved it along beautifully. Bonesaw and Jack Slash proved to be interesting new characters who still have a key role to play in the arcs to follow.
At the end of the first set of arcs, the ABB turned out to be the primary antagonists going into this ”book”. Where we last left off, Bakuda goes on a rampage, the Undersiders are badly hurt and a series of bombs are set off killing civilians.
This results in a truce – the resident villain groups of Brockton Bay, the Undersiders, Empire Eighty-Eight, Faultline’s Crew, Coil’s Crew, The Travellers, and Skidmarks crew ( a little hazy about the groups present) all band up together to take on the ABB.
Task forces are formed with different teams being mixed together and they all coordinate attacks on different ABB operations. Kaiser, Newter, Fenja and Menja, Coil, Sundancer, Trickster are amongst the new set of characters introduced.
My gripe with the series so far has been this: any and all action sequences tend to be drawn out, and the two longest sequences so far fall in this set of arcs. When Kaiser and his task force head to take on an ABB operation, they encounter Lung and Oni Lee. Taylor is shown to use her powers in a unique manner in the ensuing sequence, but the sequence just drags on to eternity. Long story short, the ABB get taken down. All of the remaining villain groups start scrambling for control of new areas and try to make an impact in the absence of the ABB.
The Undersiders are asked by their employer to take on the Proctectorate at a function being held in the city. Another long, but gripping encounter occurs, with the threat of Taylor’s dual role as a spy almost coming out when she faces Armsmaster. Taking on Mini Militia, Battery and Armsmaster along with the Wards was never going to be an easy feat, but the Undersiders were creative enough to one-up them.
The third act has us being told who the employer is, and a few more revelations are made. Followed by an Endbringer attack on the city.
The Endbringers are seemingly unstoppable beings who target weakened cities. After the ABB attacks, the Endbringer Leviathan heads for Brockton Bay. Heroes and villains team up together to take the threat down. This makes for a nice dynamic as rivalries are put aside in order to stop Leviathan. New heroes introduced include: Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon, Narwhal etc. We are told at the start of the battle that one in four people end up dying while facing the endbringer, and Wildbow sticks to his words. Characters that we have been introduced to die in numbers, heroes and villains alike. The battle shows some heroes true colours, as they discard the rules and play dirty to try and take down the Endbringer, no matter the cost. We get treated to a glimpse of Scion and Eidolon- who is probably the 5th strongest parahuman- battling together. Scion, the first parahuman, still remains a mystery with not much info given about him so far.
The set of arcs give us a lot of insight into most of our characters. Strong interactions between Taylor, Rachel and Brian help us understand where these people come from and why they function, as they do. It forces us to ask whether these people can be considered to be villains, and whether some of the people who call themselves heroes have the right to do so. It’s a very grey and murky world, where some actions can be justified in the face of the events that take place.
The Endbringers and Case 53’s are amongst the two key plot points to follow as we know very little about them, and they begin to take center stage in future arcs.
This is a very hard series to review without getting into spoilers. I am going to keep trying to post reviews every few arcs.
Next arc, we have the fallout from the Endbringer attack and a visit from the Slaughterhouse Nine.
Considering the fact that pretty much every major player in the streaming network keeps pumping out one series after the other, in the hopes that they can build a successful long-running series that generates revenue for them, a show like The End of the F***king World is a breath of fresh air.
Tightly plotted, fast-paced and gets to the point right from the start. The trailer beautifully highlights the premise of the show: James and Alyssa –a psychopath out to commit murder and a rebel respectively- decide to run away together and end up on a journey that neither one could have anticipated at the start.
James- Right proper PsychopathAlyssa-Rebel Teen
A simple enough plot on the face of it, but when you couple two extreme personalities together, you are bound to run into a bunch of trouble. Which is what ends up happening. A series of unfortunate events that just feel natural considering the characters that we are following.
What makes the show so interesting is the fact that it delves into so many aspects of the world we live in, while maintaining a sense of humor and not losing sight of the plot. Sexuality, violence against women, homosexuality, child abuse, suicidal tendencies and a few more are amongst those covered. When so many issues are dealt with, losing track of the plot is a very real thing to contend with and all of the above-mentioned issues are dealt with in a rational and satisfying manner.
The quick pace helps move the story along at a steady pace and slows down just enough to give us time to breathe and process what just went down. The side characters introduced don’t feel unnecessary, and all of them are given just enough screen time such that they don’t detract attention from our protagonists. Except for Frodo. We needed more Frodo!
Oh dear Frodo- Photo Cred: Buzzfeed
All in all, a tight plot, brilliant casting, spot-on social commentary and a good conclusion makes TEOTFW a must watch.
alotofrandomcrap 