Author Archives: Megan

If We Controlled Your Remote… 1/12/18

Posted on January 12, 2018 by , and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Early this morning, Amazon Prime released the 10-episode first season of the new anthology series Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams. The series is a co-production with Channel 4 in the UK, which already aired 6 of the episodes this past fall. Each of the standalone episodes have been adapted from futuristic and sci-fi short stories written by author Philip K. Dick. The episodes have been penned by a mix of American and British writers. Each episode also features an amazing cast of recognizable actors, including Steve Buscemi, Greg Kinnear, Timothy Spall (Harry Potter), Jack Reynor (Sing Street), Mireille Enos (The Catch), Anna Paquin (True Blood), Terrence Howard (Empire), Sam Witwer (Being Human), Rachelle Lefevre (Twilight), Vera Farmiga (Bates Motel), Mel Rodriguez (The Last Man on Earth), David Lyons (Revolution), Maura Tierney (Parenthood), Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad), Liam Cunningham (Game of Thrones), Ruth Bradley (Humans), and many more.

I watched about half of the episodes, a mix of the British and American ones, and couldn’t help but be reminded of Black Mirror. This series often depicts a somewhat bleak portrait of the future, where science and technology have become an even bigger part of our lives, bringing both the good and the bad. While I found the writing to be a bit more compelling on Black Mirror, this series does provide some really interesting topics of conversation, as well as an excellent cast. A couple of the episodes also delve into the world of aliens, which I don’t recall any episode of Black Mirror doing…yet. I really enjoy these kinds of anthology shows. While everyone seems to be binging entire seasons in a single sitting these days, this kind of series lets you enjoy episodes at whatever pace you want, jumping around to whichever stories or cast you find yourself most interested in. I look forward to checking out the rest of the season’s adventures.

Check out the entire first season now on Amazon!

I’ll also be watching/recording Child Support, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Taken, and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 1/10/18

Posted on January 10, 2018 by , and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Tonight, the third season of The Magicians kicks off on Syfy. As the second season came to a close, Penny learned that he had “cancer plus” and was dying and only had three weeks to live. Meanwhile, in Fillory, Eliot and Margo started to execute their plan to take back their kingdom. However, in exchange for helping her re-enter Fillory, the Queen of Fairies took Margo’s right eye. Eliot and Margo threw a party to lure brother gods Umber and Ember into their trap. After Ember killed his own brother, Quentin, with Julia’s help, used a sword to kill Ember. They believed they had saved magic, but when Alice heard the news, she was concerned that Ember and Umber’s parents, the creators of the universe, would send something to avenge the death of their children. Sure enough, the literal plumber of the gods cut off the supply of magic to Brakebills, the library, and Fillory.

In Fillory, the fairies used this lack of magic as their opportunity to forcibly seize and occupy the castle. At Brakebills, Dean Fogg resorted to teaching his students magical theory, in hopes that magic might still return. Meanwhile, Julia sneaked onto campus and showed Quentin that she could still create a small spark, which gave him hope. Finally, Joseph the monk appeared to Alice, warning her that The Lamprey was coming after her.

Will the group find a way to restore magic to Brakebills, Fillory, and the rest of the world? Can Julia’s spark of magical ability be harnessed into more? How long can Penny survive by staying in the library, immune from the passage of time? And will magic return in time to find a cure for his cancer? What is after Alice, what does it want, and can it be stopped? And how are Eliot and Margo going to take back Fillory from the Queen of Faries? I’ve already checked out tonight’s wonderful season premiere. I had forgotten how much I had missed this show’s great mix of humor, sarcasm, action, and drama. There is an especially fun scene between Eliot and Margo that made the TV fan in me so giddy. The premiere sets up several interesting quests for the characters that are sure to intersect over the next few weeks. It looks like we are in store for another thoroughly entertaining and magical season!

This past summer I got the opportunity to talk with some of the cast/creators of the series at San Diego Comic-Con. You can check out my press room Q&A videos at NoReruns.net. http://www.noreruns.net/2017/08/17/magicians-press-room-san-diego-comic-con-2017/

On tonight’s premiere, “The Tales of the Seven Keys,” Quentin tries to find someone who can bring magic back; Julia explores her small, but significant, gift; Eliot and Margo struggle under the hostile fairy occupation; Kady searches for a way to heal Penny.

See how the season starts tonight on Syfy at 9/8c.

I’ll also be watching The Goldbergs, Modern Family, American Housewife, Match Game, The Amazing Race, The Blacklist, The X-Files, 9-1-1, Happy!, and The Librarians.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 1/9/18

Posted on January 9, 2018 by and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Kevin (Probably) Saves the World continues to be a fun, entertaining series. Two weeks ago, Kevin finally found the first righteous soul. However, while this was going on, Yvette had made herself visible to Tyler, and the two shared a romantic evening of dinner and dancing. Ever since, Tyler had been desperately trying to reconnect with her. Last week, fate led Kevin to help a lonely single guy get back into dating. However, he had chosen Kristin as his first date, and he wanted Kevin to join him on a double-date. So Kevin brought his sister Amy along, and things got a bit awkward. In the process, Kevin and Kristin realized they still had feelings for one another. Later, Kristin saw how well Kevin interacted with her students when she stepped out of the classroom for a few minutes, and so she submitted his name for the substitute teacher job at her school. Meanwhile, Reese, inspired by Kevin, befriended the odd new girl at school but regretted her decision after the girl became a bit too clingy. And Amy finally asked Nate out on a date.

While Kevin’s progress toward finding the righteous souls has been a bit slow this season (only 1 in 10 episodes!), the series has still done a great job of both evolving the main characters while also giving Kevin interesting souls of the week to help. It seems like everyone’s lives are moving in the right direction… Amy is finally going on a date with Nate, Kevin has a job (which also gets him closer to Kristin), and Kevin’s good activities are also wearing off on Reese. When will Kevin find his next righteous soul, and what other people in need will he help along the way? I look forward to finding out!

On tonight’s episode, “Solo,” as the newest substitute teacher at La Salle High School, Kevin tries to help an introverted student named Adam become more self-assured and popular. However, to do so, he must first pull off the second greatest freshman prank in the school’s history. Meanwhile, Yvette contemplates life after the mission, and Amy and Nate struggle to plan the perfect first date.

See how Kevin does as a substitute teacher tonight on ABC at 10/9c.

I’ll also be watching The Middle, Fresh Off the Boat, black-ish, This Is Us, LA to Vegas, and The Mick.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 1/5/18

Posted on January 5, 2018 by and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Kyle’s Choice

Early this morning, Netflix released the entire first season of the British dark comedy, The End of the F***ing World, a British dark comedy/drama that first aired on Channel 4 in the UK this past October and now launches as a Netflix Original series for the rest of the world. The series is based on the award-winning graphic novel by Charles Forsman.

James (Alex Lawther, Black Mirror) is a 17-year-old self-proclaimed psychopath. At the age of 8, he realized he had no sense of humor; at the age of 9, he put his own hand in a deep fryer just to see if he could feel anything; and shortly after that he got a taste for killing small animals. Now he’s eager to try to kill something larger. That’s when he meets Alyssa (Jessica Barden, Penny Dreadful), the new girl at school. She’s a foul-mouthed rebel who can’t stand her mom and stepdad and finds joy in annoying people. James decides to pretend to fall in love with Alyssa in order to get close to her so he can kill her. The two quickly form a bond and embark on a road trip, but things don’t go quite as planned. They soon find themselves involved in a bad situation, and they seem to get themselves deeper in trouble with every day, becoming like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde. In pursuit of the young couple are cops Eunice (Gemma Whelan, Game of Thrones) and Teri (Wunmi Mosaku, Guerrilla), who have some relationship issues of their own.

It took me a couple episodes before I really got into this series, but once I did, I was hooked and binged all 8 episodes in one sitting. The season plays out like one long 160-minute movie, with each episode picking right up where the previous episode’s big reveal or twist left off. The series has a nice blend of humor and drama, set to an excellent late 1950s/early 1960s soundtrack. The writers do an excellent job of evolving the characters of James and Alyssa over the course of the season. In the first episode, pretty much all of the “dialogue” comes in the form of inner monologues inside James’s and Alyssa’s heads, but as the series progresses and the characters grow, there is less inner-thoughts and more actual talking. The inner-dialogue is then used more to add punches of humor to the story. I really enjoyed this series, and while I don’t know if there will be a second season (I hope there will be), the first season does provide a solid story and emotional arc for the characters.

Binge the whole first season on Netflix now!

I’ll also be watching Child Support, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
 
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If We Controlled Your Remote… 1/3/18

Posted on January 3, 2018 by , , and

Have you ever been at a loss as to what to watch? Too many shows to pick from? We’re here to give you our opinions on what we feel is worth watching. Check it out and then let us know in the comments below what you’re choosing for tonight!

Jenny’s Choice

My pick tonight is the series premiere of 9-1-1 on FOX. This new procedural stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights, Nashville), Peter Krause (The Catch, Six Feet Under), Angela Bassett (American Horror Story, What’s Love Got to Do with It), Kenneth Choi (American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson), Aisha Hinds (Shots Fire, Underground), Oliver Stark (Into the Badlands), & Rockmund Dunbar (Prison Break, The Path), so it’s quite a strong cast.

This isn’t a normal procedural, though. First, it comes from Ryan Murphy (Glee, Scream Queens) and Brad Falchuk (American Horror Story, Glee), so not names you’d normally see when attached to a procedural. Second, most procedurals have a major “A story” that is the meat of the episode. Take Chicago Fire, for example. Whatever big call they have is usually involved in the A story, and they usually only have one big call per episode. But in this case, at least in the pilot, which I’ve seen, there are a handful of calls for the firefighters, paramedics, & cops. Each call gets a smaller, quicker focus, rather than taking one and fleshing it out to fill the episode. It was a rather fun take, in my opinion. Also, we get another view of first responders, in Connie Britton’s 911 operator. That’s a point of view we’re not used to seeing.

I read a review yesterday that wasn’t very positive, but frankly, I quite enjoyed the pilot. I liked the way they handle the quick calls and how much we see (without getting too detailed or involved) into the characters’ personal lives. Hopefully everyone will give it a chance and we see them settling in and getting more comfortable in their roles.

On tonight’s episode, “Pilot,” emergency response providers put their lives at risk to save others, from a possible baby in the walls to a young girl home alone when intruders break in and more.

Don’t miss tonight’s premiere on FOX at 9/8c.

I’ll also be watching/DVRing The Amazing Race, The Goldbergs, The Librarians, Iron Chef Showdown, Law & Order: SVU, Modern Family, Property Brothers, SEAL Team, American Housewife, Chicago PD, Criminal Minds, & Match Game.
 
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