Category Archives: Netflix

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen E7, E8

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“Something Living, Something Dead, Something Stolen, Something Red”

“I Do”

I love the synopsis on Netflix for episode eight. It simply says “Something very bad happens.”

These last two episodes of this Netflix limited series were simply batshit crazy.

Holy cow. This went in a manner that I never thought it would. I mean, I never saw Nicky backing out of the wedding at the altar, basically dooming his entire bloodline.

Nicky never believed in the curse that Rachel was so desperately trying to avoid. She went to the extreme by having Jules cut off Rachel’s pinky toe. She had to put all this stuff into a drink. Part of it was the bone of the bride. She needed the seed of the groom.

Honestly, the creation of this cocktail mixture was making me want to puke. It was so gross.

Rachel does not end up drinking it, as she has convinced herself that Nicky is, in fact, her soulmate.

So when Nicky stops the wedding, the sun goes down and the whole group of their bloodline started bleeding from their eyes and mouth.

The Witness arrived at the wedding too. I had forgotten about him. I also forgot that if Rachel called off the wedding, she would replace him as witness. All this because she accepted a proposal that she did not really want to in the first place.

It is difficult to go over these two episodes because of all the craziness that went down. I thought after episode six that Victoria had died. Seems that I overexaggerated that as she was only suffering a certain attack. Victoria was played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and she was amazing. Ted Levine, from Silence of the Lambs and Captain Leland Stottlemeyer from Monk, was the father of Nicky, which I had not realized until episode six. These two are great actors and really solidified the cast.

I hadn’t considered why Jules did not die when the curse switched to the family, but it was because he was married to his true soulmate in Nell. That makes total sense. It was also why Nicky and his father did not die. Of course, when Victoria died, that said that she did not truly believe that Boris was her soulmate, which would be a tragic thing to live with.

This was a great eight episodes with tons of tension and exciting family shenanigans. The supernatural was used heavily, but it the perfect amount and the ending was so shocking that I never would ghave thought it would have been filmed. A lot of bloody fun.

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen E6

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“Last Night of Freedom”

Things are really happening.

So Rachel and Nell are out to investigate any relatives of Rachel who may not have died on their wedding day. They found a long line of family members who died on the same day they got married. It did not sound like a coincidence.

Meanwhile Nicky, Jules and their father go out on a fox hunter for a “bachelor party.” The tension between the three of them could clearly be felt, especially after the event from last episode. Truths came out about relationships.

When Rachel and Nell found one of her relatives who did survive her marriage, they went to Portia and they held some kind of seance. We got a Ouija board and everything. However, they are able to summon her and her arrival was unbelievably creepy.

As she possessed Portia, she answered the question Rachel was asking: How did you survive your marriage?

The response… “Something living, something dead, something stolen, something red.“

But that was not even the worst part of the evening. Nicky confronted his mother over everything that she has been protecting him from his whole life and he wanted to know everything. However, his mother died right after he insisted on her telling him everything.

Two more to go on this awesome limitd series.

Something Bad is Going to Happen E5

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Episode five feels like a huge turning point in this story.

The episode centered around the family pre-wedding dinner with the whole family getting a chance to meet Rachel.

Everyone keeps asking about how Rachel and Nicky met, and Rachel would tell the story. It was a romantic story about them meeting at an airport and how they decided to drive where they were going because Rachel had a premonition about the plane crashing. Nicky said to her that she “save his life.”

It made Rachel feel like someone listened to and believed her. Turned out, much of the story was a lie Nicky told. Jules heard the story and started picking out the lies.

This is the worst timing since Rachel received the news about her family curse last episode. The lies broke her spirit and she announced to everyone that she was going to die on her wedding day. Rachel then revealed everything about the curse to the whole family.

I do think it is going to be Jules who ends up saving her, as it is his destiny since her mother told him to save her on that fateful day.

Lord of the Flies E3, E4

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“Simon”

“Ralph”

These two episodes were remarkably dark and heartbreaking as the community on the island took a turn into one of savagery and chaos.

Jack started out that third episode coming to Ralph’s camp and offering everyone meat. They had killed a pig and invited all to come share it at their camp.

It was a terrible mistake to go.

Simon had told them that it was a trap, and it absolutely turned out to be a mistake to attend.

Simon was the focus of episode three, and that really made me nervous for him. When he wound up being stabbed to death by Jack’s camp when they mistook him for “The Beast,” I remembered that scene from previous variations of the story. It really was a tough thing to watch and seeing Simon’s body drift away into the sea was heartbreaking.

The death of Piggy was even worse. In this version, Piggy is hit on the head with a rock thrown by Roger, but he is not killed immediately. In other versions, including the novel and the movie, this blow to the head lead directly to Piggy’s death. Here, Ralph is able to get Piggy out of the camp and into the jungle. Piggy survived for awhile, but it was clear that his time was nearing an end. The extra time between Piggy and Ralph made this moment even more painful to watch. Seeing Ralph dig a grave for his friend was another tragic moment.

I was not overly clear on the “Beast” in this version, but it did turn out to be a parachuter who had died, entangled with his parachute. The kids’ imagination and own fears made this to be even worse.

I do not love the ending of the show, which feels fairly faithful to other versions I have seen. The arrival of the British naval officer, attracted to the island from the smoke of the fire that was set to flush Ralph out of his hiding place by the Hunters. I want to know more… what happened to the boys? To Jack? To Roger? These are murderers, as Piggy said at the beginning of episode four. We saw the break down of civilized from the boys and I wish to know consequences for their actions. I did not feel for Jack, whose shocked stare was the last imagery we saw of him. He had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing, but he consistently chose the path of cruelty.

Piggy had wanted to give Jack a chance to do the right thing, after a raiding party arrived in episode three and stole his glasses in the middle of the night. He was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but it only led to tragedy.

Once again, young boys are among the worst out there and without a strong hand, they will become savages. That’s the take away here, right?

This was an emotional adaptation of a dark and brutal novel. The performances were really strong, and the adaptation was excellent. The episodes are each about an hour long and can be viewed on Netflix.

Lord of the Flies E2

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“Jack”

Our second episode focused in on our villain… humanizing him tremendously.

Jack seemed to be the real bully of episode one, one of the jerks on the island. In episode two, we see inside Jack’s doubts and fears, watching him trying to prove his worth. He had placed his worth on killing a boar, but he kept on adding responsibilities. He believed he could handle them all, but keeping the signal fire lit was too much.

Oh, and there was a boat.

Shoot.

Jack struck Piggy, breaking his spectacles. This led to the split of the camp with Jack heading off to lead a second camp, the fun one.

I did find myself rooting for Jack through this episode, until the point where he hit Piggy. To be fair, this version of Piggy is a little annoying. Past Piggy characters that I have seen were more lovable than this version. That does not excuse the way Jack is treating him.

I am fascinated by the “beast” that is, apparently, coming from the water. Even Jack seemed to be concerned with this turn of events. I want to know what it is and why it is doing what it is doing.

I do think this is going a bit too fast. Maybe the pacing will feel better later, but I do think, at this point, we needed more before splitting apart.

Lord of the Flies E1

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“Piggy”

The brand new Netflix four episode limited series that proves young boys are the worst people ever dropped on Netflix today with a new variation of The Lord of the Flies.

The Lord of the Flies is a classic tale that has been retold several times over the years in movie format. This time, the BBC redid the story into a limited series.

The group of boys, after surviving a plane crash on an isolated island, form a society of their own in an attempt to bring some order to the chaos. As I mentioned earlier, young boys are the worst anything and their grouping only leads to trouble.

The first episode focuses on Piggy (David McKenna) and his tragically doomed character. We are introduced to Piggy (real name Nicholas) doing his best Jack Shepard in the jungle on LOST imitation. Piggy comes across Ralph (Winston Sawyers). Ralph, who is supposed to be the good one, immediately screwed Piggy over by telling everyone that his name was Piggy, even though he was told that he hated that name.

Of course, Ralph is nowhere near as much of a jerk as Jack (Lox Pratt). The blonde bully is already scheming how to grab more power. Lox Pratt is going from this and into the role of Draco Malfoy on the new Harry Potter series. I wonder if he worries about being typecast as a villain.

There were some more LOST connections as the boys find the pilot in the jungle, dead. They basically shove him off the mountain because they could not carry him. Piggy seemed to be the only one who had any problem with this.

No one was listening to Piggy either when they nearly burned down the whole island with their too large fire (which they started with Piggy’s glasses in one of the more uncomfortable moments). The episode ended with the implication that one of the kids, the one with the birthmark on his face, was lost in the fire.

The first episode of the new Lord of the Flies was solid. I have been a fan of the book and other versions of the story for years and I thought this was well done, well acted, and full of a darkness that you would expect from this IP.

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen E3-E4

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“I Will Light You On Fire”

“The Witness”

Another pair of tension-filled, anxiety-creating episodes in this Netflix limited series. I have been extremely creeped out by this show, especially episode 4.

Before I go on, I want to look at episode four. We are in a flashback where we see Rachel’s very pregnant mother Alexandra and Jay, her father, recording everything on a video camera in the year 1997, and part of their trip where they were eloping was stopping for ice cream. The drive up ice cream shop had a guy at the window that scared Rachel’s mother badly. If I did not know better, I swear this character was Rick from the comic book, Ice Cream Man.

I wonder how much of an inspiration, if any at all, this character took from Rick. The character’s name was Larry and, technically, he only sold custard. I wonder if the producers changed it to custard to avoid any comparisons between Larry and Rick.

Larry could have been tied to the Larry Poole from the stories on the podcast in episode one. Producers have said that this character was just a red herring, helping to build the suspense of the episode.

The storyline of the Sorry Man has seemingly been wrapped as we discovered that Jules, as a kid, had witnessed Jay and Alexandra on their honeymoon, when she started hemorrhaging from her eyes and nose and died in Jay’s arms. Then, he cut open her stomach to pull baby Rachel out of the womb. Jules saw all this and, in his mind, made the whole thing into a serial killer thing/monster.

Episode 3 had some powerful moments too as Rachel called a “family meeting” and wanted everybody to deal with their trauma over Victoria’s upcoming death. Rachel gets called out for not being a therapist, but everyone seems to go along with what she wanted to do. So much so that Nell expressed surprise with how much Rachel is getting away with from this family. Of course, Nell just simulated drowning Jules in the bathtub before being caught by Rachel, so maybe she is not the best choice for reasonability.

So, after episode four, it seems like the story is heading in this curse way, and there are only two days until the “I dos” as the show keeps letting us know. This is the halfway point of the limited series so I wonder where this goes next.

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen E2

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“Bride-Shaped Hole”

The Sorry Man is not real.

Yeah, right.

Episode two may not have been as creepy as the premiere, but it was still very disturbing and unsettling as this bizarre family comes together for a wedding. But who knows if the wedding will ever come to pass.

It is four days before the wedding and Rachel discovered that her wedding dress was missing. She was sure it had been brought, but it all felt like some kind of machinations among this family.

As Nicky went to Cleveland to see if he could find the dress, Rachel was involved in a fitting using Victoria’s old dress. This degenerated into a weird and wild event. Rachel wound up wandering through the house, hearing all kinds of strange whispers and discussions between the others about her and the situation. It was very creepy.

Rachel found the dress hung up in the woods over an effigy. Meanwhile, Dr. Cunningham was digging a grave. This, understandably freaked Rachel out and she started running from them. Nicky was returning as she was running away and she wanted to leave immediately, but, also understandably, Nicky wanted to speak with his family.

Turned out this all had to do with a tumor in Victoria’s brain that is killing her. The wedding came up as a surprise and they were going use it as a way to bring all the family together for one last celebration.

Jude, Jules’ son, apparently took the dress and put it on the effigy as a way to confuse the Sorry Man. Jude had discovered blood that Rachel had dripped on the floor the night before when she had her bloody nose, and he was trying to keep the Sorry Man from coming and killing Rachel. His father made Jude repeat that the Sorry Man was not real.

Of course, the silhouette in the woods that showed up at the end of the episode told a different story.

Two episodes in and there are so many weird things going on that I sure hope pay off. I am invested in the story so far and these characters are all so sus that I can not imagine what the real situation is. Good stuff on Netflix.

Something Very Bad is Going to Happen E1

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“Never Get on One Knee”

That was really creepy.

I have had this limited series, Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, on my Netflix queue for several weeks now. I had heard positives about the series that I wanted to watch it, but with the load of other TV and movies, not to mention comics and school, I was not sure when I could squeeze it into. However, I have gotten to a point where The Pitt, Invincible, Paradise, Shrinking were all done and Monarch is on its last episode. I only currently have Daredevil: Born Again and The Boys as active TV shows that I was watching, so I thought this was a good opportunity to start this show.

Man, what a creepy first episode.

It grabs you right away with a somewhat disturbing wedding and the reaction of the bride was unexpected. We then flash back five days prior to the wedding and things get even creepier.

The podcast they listened to in the car was unnerving too as it gave the story of Larry Poole, a man who sold custard and was a serial killer.

As this podcast was telling the story, we were suddenly at a rest stop and the story switched gears. Rachel and Nicky, who were the couple getting married, were driving to Nicky’s family cabin. Stopping at the rest stop, they find a baby inside a car, apparently deserted.

There were some real disturbing images at this rest stop including a dead fox in the women’s restroom. Rachel chose to go back and find a phone to call for help and Nicky would stay with the baby. This felt like a poor choice, but it is what happened.

Rachel found a bar that was mostly deserted, but the woman working there “Benjamin” was creepy and there was another man there who was apparently stalking Rachel. She ran off to her car after stabbing the man in the hand with her keys.

When she returned, the baby was gone and Nicky had been punched by the baby’s father, who thought Nicky was trying to steal the baby. The whole encounter with the parents happened off screen and something about it felt odd. There was a scream that Rachel had heard in the woods before Nicky came back.

They headed to the cabin, which is humongous. Rachel meets part of Nicky’s family when she was looking for ice for his head. Nicky’s sister, Portia, tells Rachel a story about when their brother Jules wound up lost in the woods as a child and supposedly saw the Sorry Man.

According to Jules, the Sorry Man came from Hell and murdered women by slitting them open and turning them inside out, trying to find his lost wife inside them. Rachel also mentioned a scream from the woods, which made me think about that rest stop and how the parents of that deserted baby had taken a stroll in the woods.

Things only got creepier as Rachel woke up with a bloody nose and wandered off to find Nicky’s mother who said that they would not be seeing each other very much. Rachel found a returned wedding invitation on the floor with the words “Don’t marry him” scribbled on the back.

There are so many weird and bizarre things happening that it truly did a great job of making me anxious as I watched it. The music was excellent in that manner too. I was full of suspense and I was feeling scared. Most of the time, scary things do not bother me that much, but I have to say that this really kept me on edge. I am excited to continue this limited series later in the week.

One Piece S2 E8

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“Worst in the East”

Monkey D. Luffy might be one of the best characters in all of fiction.

I don’t know how you can watch Luffy and not love him. He is such a honorable, heroic, kind-hearted, awesome hero. He is always smiling and laughing and so child-like. He is unlike any character that I can think of.

The battle for Drum Island was the backdrop for the finale of season two. The people of Drum Island against King Wapol and his monsters was an awesome battle. Wapol fighting Luffy was epic. I do not think there was a better representation of the way Luffy is than when he threw himself in front of the pirate flag, taking the whole blast of Wapol’s canon, and, when the smoke cleared, he was there ready to monologue to the King. I found this remarkably inspiring.

Of course, Chopper is joining the crew as the ship’s doctor. The way this crew bonds with each other is such fun and you can see how much they mean to each other.

But again, the magic of the Straw Hats is Luffy. He is the center of this crew and I love how the others look at Luffy.

The episode continued to build the lore as we meet Mr. Zero, aka Sir Crocodile.

I speculated that the trip to Alabaster would be next season, and that is exactly what has happened. I love how the show has taken its time to introduce the character of Chopper and Vivi, and because of that, we love them.

Season two was sensational. It is every bit as great as season one, if not better. I could watch more than just 8 episodes per season. One Piece is such an amazing show and I can’t wait for the third season.

One Piece S2 E6, E7

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“Nami Deerest”

“Reindeer Shames”

The next two episodes of season two gives us the debut and the origin of a character that I had heard about, but knew very little about him.

Chopper is a character that I heard some people wonder how they were going to adapt him. Apparently, Chopper is a reindeer who had eaten a Devil’s Fruit and turned into a being that walked on two legs and could talk. Moreso, we discover that Chopper is able to change between forms.

Katey Segal joined the list of guest stars this season as Doctor Kureha, who they took Nami to see after she fainted last episode.

The path to Dr. Kureha was one of the most tense moments of the series as Luffy and Sanji literally climbed a mountain side to reach a castle. They were told that the castle held a witch, but it is just Dr. Kureha and Chopper.

On the way up the mountain, Sanji slipped and fell. Luffy caught him by stretching his neck and catching him with his teeth. While that was all kind of bad ass, it had a weird CGI about it. Stretching can be a tough thing because it does not look natural. Still, Luffy using his teeth to save Sanji… great.

The story of Chopper’s origin is heartbreaking and is told to Luffy, Sanji and Nami by Dr. Kureha. It was after Luffy found a pirate flag in a crate and Chopper yelled at Luffy to not touch it.

The seventh episode was almost the entire story of Chopper and it goes to show you how important of a character he is.

We are introduced to the King of Drum Island, Wapol, who is just a horrendous character. Wapol also got a Devil’s Fruit at the beginning of episode 6 and he is one who really needs his comeuppance in the finale.

It really looks like there are a bunch of storylines that are not going to be wrapped up this season. The whole bit with Smokey and the Marines are not going to catch up yet. I am not even sure that Vivi is ever going to get back to Alabasta this season. Maybe as the cliffhanger. That is fine with me.

One Piece S2 E4, E5

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“Big Trouble in Little Garden”

“Wax On, Wax Off”

Last season, One Piece was cruising along and then, suddenly, they had a two part episode. Season two has copied that idea as episodes four and five are a two part episode on the island in the Grand Line called Little Garden.

The Little Garden had all kinds of things we had not seen before such as dinosaurs, giants, and David Dastmalchian. Dastmalchian joined the roster of the Baroque Works as Mister 3, an assassin who can create wax.

This was an excellent pair of episodes that featured some awesome things:

  • One of the key storylines over theses two episodes includes trying to give Usopp an arc. He came through big time in these episodes.
  • The two giants and their century long duel was great and I loved how these giants were not the stereotypical giants one would come to expect.
  • The big fight with Miss Valentine and Mr. 5 at the giant wax cake was awesome, and, as I said, Usopp came through like a boss.
  • I love how the giants survived, even after it seemed as if they were dead.
  • Miss Goldenweek was perhaps the scariest of the Baroque Works assassins we’ve met so far. She caused a lot of suffering to Luffy.
  • We get our first interaction with the mysterious Mr. Zero, via a phone conversation between Mr. Zero and Sanji (who was pretending to be Mr. 3). I think he was being played by Joe Manganiello.
  • The two giants work together to help Luffy’s ship to get past a giant goldfish.

Three episodes remain in season two and I expect it to be awesome.

One Piece S2 E3

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“Whiskey Business”

Booger Bombs!

Yes, there were booger bombs. It was epic.

Another great episode of One Piece. Here we get to see Zoro and his new swords get in some action on the new island where they stopped. It seemed as if the island loved pirates and we so friendly. Of course, things are too good to be true.

The two assassins, Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9, were freed by Luffy… or at least Miss Wednesday was freed because Luffy’s gut told him to do it. They escaped and became a major problem during this episode.

However, Miss Wednesday turned out to be someone that we did not expect… a missing princess, undercover inside the assassins.

One of the best parts of the episode was the swordfighting of Zoro as he is seeing visions of Dracule Mihawk, the world’s greatest swordsman who left Zoro defeated and near death last season. Zoro counting off the number of agents of the Baroque Works he took out was awesome and showed some amazing fight choreography.

Back to booger bombs. Mr. 5 showed up with Miss Valentine as they chased Miss Wednesday. Apparently, Miss Wednesday has found the info on the identity of the leader of the assassins, Mr. Zero.

The show has done a tremendous job of building up a group of antagonists for our crew in the first few episodes that feel more than just the bad-guy-of-the-week. From Smokey to Mr. Zero and the assassins in-between, this has a good group of characters with mysteries abounding.

One Piece S2 E2

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“A Promise Between Men! Luffy and the Whale Vow to Meet Again!”

The Straw Hats are on the way to the Grand Line and the path gets distracted by a giant whale.

Yes, a giant whale.

Laboon is his name and he wound up swallowing the ship of the Straw Hats. They give the whale a backstory and a reason why he was pounding his head against the Red Line. The show introduced Crocus as the man who watched and tried to help Laboon.

We also get two more assassins inside the whale. Miss Wednesday and Mr. Nine are the two assassins from a group and I do not think we ever found out why they were inside Laboon.

I do love the way that Luffy painted the straw hat on Laboon to symbolize that he was the part of the Straw Hats and keep him from pounding his head into the Red Line.

This was a fun side adventure with Laboon. The whale actually turned out to be a pretty cool character for the show.

One Piece S2 E1

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“THE BEGINNING AND THE END”

One Piece is back!

The surprise hit series from Netflix is back after a couple of years with a second season of pirate action and Anime adventures.

I knew One Piece was coming out on March 10th, but I did not realize that it was out right now. Because I did not realize this, I was only able to watch the premiere episode of season two, entitled “The Beginning and the End.”

The whole crew is back and they are on their way to the Grand Line, but they need supplies so they take a detour to Loguetown, which happened to be where the former Pirate King, Gol D. Roger, was born and died.

Zoro needed to buy two new swords. He wound up with a couple of very special ones after “haggling.” We were introduced to Tashigi, a young woman Marine who helped Zoro out at the sword shop. She did not mention being a Marine, and that she worked for Smoker.

Buggy the Clown and Alvida showed up too and grabbed Luffy. They were out for revenge for what Luffy had done to them before.

You can’t watch this show without getting swept up in the positive energy of Luffy. He is one of the best, most engaging characters on television. The crew around him are fabulous too. I am not a viewer of the Anime One Piece, since it has like five million episodes (Looks like it is actually 1,155… but may as well be five million). However, I loved season one of the Netflix live action show and I am here for these new eight episodes.

It is just a lot of fun and has such an energy about it. I am glad it is back.