Gotham Season 5, Episode 1 Review
I am happy that Gotham is back, but I am also sad that the show is coming to an end very soon. No matter if you have watched one episode or all of them, this show is severely underrated. Contrasting this are some of the best episodes in any superhero show and Gotham’s attempt at fleshing out a prequel for The Dark Knight has been extremely enjoyable. Most of this has been thanks to the excellent origin stories given to the most iconic villains in Batman’s illustrious history. Season 5 begins strongly, with a tease of what’s to come and a look ahead at the chaos now gripping Gotham City.
The story begins with a welcome recap, reflecting on the events leading up to the start of this final season. It’s been 391 days since the government blew the bridges to Gotham, effectively trapping everyone inside and preventing anyone from entering or leaving. After a brief opening few shots, we’re shown the forces of good and evil coming together; “For Gotham!” Jim Gordon screams and the screen erupts into a strobe of gunfire and anarchy.
It’s at this point where we skip back to 87 days. Gotham has broken down into a lawless, anarchistic state. All the villains have carved out their own plot of land with Scarecrow, Victor Freeze, Barbara and more all going it alone and fighting over dwindling resources. Jeremiah is no one to be seen and seeking the chance to capitalize on this anarchy is Penguin. Continuing to manipulate those around him, Penguin controls a prolific enterprise of ammunition which seems to be the leading currency for negotiations.
The government has all but abandoned Gotham by this point. Jim Gordon and a very thin line of police officers hold up at the GCPD, trying desperately to get supplies for a continued flurry of refugees who have got caught in the crossfire between gangs and weren’t able to evacuate. After a desperate plea to the forces outside the city, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a Wayne Enterprises helicopter. In true Gotham fashion, the extent of chaos is fully realized when a mysterious figure shoots the chopper out of the sky and various forces converge on its location.
This then leads to different gangs coming to blows over the supplies and the extent of Gotham’s ambitions for the season ahead fully realized. Knowing this is the final season, the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before and during this fight, more than one casualty is realized as the battle lines are drawn. Tabitha is also killed in this episode which is the most shocking moment of the entire episode. It’s a bold move from the writers too and something that appears to set the tone going forward. We also see more of Scarecrow here too although given his brief appearance last season, we’ll hold our cards close to our chest before presuming he’ll be a focal figure for the season to come.
The episode ends with a look ahead at what’s to come. Penguin continues to antagonize, putting out a bounty on Jim Gordan’s head. Barbara has been pushed over the edge and seeks vengeance while Bruce Wayne is determined to follow a new path to help Selina recover from her paralysis. The Riddler is waking up in different places around the city and seems even more agitated than usual. All of this while Jim Gordon follows an ominous message from an exhausted child who passes out soon after revealing his message. There’s an awful lot to chew over for the week but there’s no denying that this episode sets a very high bar for the season ahead.
The fifth season of Gotham opens with a real banger of an episode. There’s some explosive action and crucial questions raised for the forthcoming season ahead. If there’s one thing Fox’s superhero prequel has always done well, it’s the characters and this episode does not disappoint. In the season where we finally close the curtain on Gotham, the first episode gets off to a flier and it’ll be interesting to see if the show can keep this momentum going next week when we return to the lawless streets of Gotham City.
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TV Shows to Binge Before The Winter Break Ends
Happy 2019 everyone. I hope that everyone that is reading this enjoyed their time off during the holidays. 2018 was a great year for television with current shows such as The Walking Dead, West World, Gotham, and Legends of Tomorrow and new shows that landed on television and the streaming services. Some are a hit or miss, but they are watchable during the winter break. When the winter break ends, it is back to reality for the world to get back to either school or work as the normal life resumes. But it does not have to be all normal as you can still do some activities after the day ends. Although there will be minimal time during the week, the weekend is where you can do whatever you want and one of those things is watching television. Gone are the days of sitting in front of your TV staring at commercials every seven to ten minutes as you can pause the show you are watching on your streaming account. Today, I will recommend a few shows to watch during the winter break. It is January now and many people will be inside (if you are in the northeast region) due to cold weather so why not binge a TV show.
Black Mirror (Netflix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ELQ6u_5YYM
This series can challenge the viewer’s mind in many different ways and the best part about this show is that you can watch all of the episodes in any order that you want to. It is one of those shows where you do not have to watch the first episode since each episode has a different story. There are also mind bending plot twists on some of the episodes of this show that will have your mind blown. A perfect example is the ending of the episode “Shut Up and Dance”. I will not spoil the ending, but it makes you think of how far can you go to hide a secret. Give Black Mirror a chance and recently, a movie called Black Mirror: Bandersnatch has made it’s way to Netflix and it is an interactive movie with five possible endings.
Everything Sucks (Netflix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_YjzEvYeQ
This show takes place in the year 1996 at Boring High School in Oregon (I am not joking, that is the name of the high school) and most of the show’s plot revolves around the A/V club in that school. The characters on this teen comedy has different personalities and one of them is also closet gay which becomes another sub plot of the show when the way it was revealed during the show. Another good aspect of the show is that it was not just about how everyone looked at the 90’s as it felt natural and not forced in your face. The acting of all of the characters during that time period fits the narrative of what the show was about. And this is the freshman year of high school so there is also drama with other students and parents as well. I recently found out that Netflix pulled the plug on this show due to high production costs and I was bummed to find out about that news. Take a chance to watch this show as I think that it is underrated.
Gotham (FOX)
The fifth and final season of Gotham premiers this week and this is another show where I feel that should have not ended this quick. Gotham showcases the characters of the Batman comic book series in their younger days as Commissioner James Gordon and Harvey Bullock are the main stars of the show. There is intense action in every episode that will keep you on the edge of your seat. We are also shown the younger versions of Bruce Wayne, Catwoman, Poison Ivy, The Riddler, The Penguin, Scarecrow, and even The Joker. There was a concern about continuity issues since most of the stoylines from the show that are in the comic happens when all of the characters are older, but it blended in well on the show especially The Court of Owls plot arc on the show. If you want to see a young Batman on television, then this show is for you. It is also not connected to the Arrowverse shows at all so you will not be confused with trying to catch up with the other shows at all.
Unreal (Lifetime/Hulu)
Another good show with an interesting concept as it is about a production of a “Bachelor/Bachelorette” reality show. This is not a reality show at all and I was intrigued about it. The head of the production is a woman named Quinn and her on and off again producer is Rachel and they have a team with them to produce the show. You will find out real quick who is the enemy and who is not and the show has many moments that will make you laugh especially when Quinn makes funny comments about the contestants as she sees them from her production room. I will not spoil too much about the show, but there is also drama with the cast and the contestants and it all makes up for good TV. If you are into TV production, I would fully recommend the show. Plus, I know that reality shows are over produced, but it was not until this show where it exposed how over produced those reality shows are.
You (Lifetime/Netflix)
If you want a psychological thriller that is based off a novel, then this show is for you. Taking place in New York City, This show is about a male that stalks his love interest with social media and he does everything he can to be in a relationship with her and to protect her. He does this by killing people that are close to her such as her boyfriend and her best friend. The best parts about the show is the narration sequences that blends in with the scenes to give the viewer what is on his (and sometimes hers) mind as the scenes go forward. The concept is interesting and this show took advantage of the use of social media the most out of any scripted show from the first episode, to the season finale. Good thing that Netflix picked the show up because season 2 is coming soon.
The Edge and Christian Show That Totally Reeks of Awesomeness (WWE Network)
Of all of the WWE Network original shows, this show I would recommend the most. Edge and Christian are a former tag team in WWE in which they have won the tag team championships together seven times. They would both have a successful careers without each other winning multiple World Heavyweight Championships on their own. The team was known for their highly praised comedy skits inside and outside the ring and a show about them doing comedy skits is so totally worth watching. There are great skits on this show that breaks the fourth wall such as “Will WWE Talk About It” which is the funniest part of the show. During the episodes, Edge and Christian go on a mini adventure and there are also sometimes Easter eggs that are included in their dialogue. For example, one of their most recent episodes, they traveled to a dark cave and everyone in the scene commented about how dark it is inside the cave. Then Christian says “are we in the impact zone?!” and I laughed to tears hearing that unexpected line. There are also game show skits within the show such as the “Chumpstain Challenge” as Charly Caruso is the host and Edge and Christian answers themed questions. This show has a mix of everything packaged into one show on the WWE Network.
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The Walking Dead News: Another Character is Crossing Over to Fear The Walking Dead
The first news of the year of The Walking Dead universe is a great one. Austin Amellio who has played as Dwight from Seasons 6-8 will reprise his role on the sister show Fear The Walking Dead.
The news broke today as many fans speculated when he would return and if he would return on the main show or the sister show. Austin Amellio said in a recent panel at Walker Stalker Con New Jersey that he would love to return on the show to reprise his role.
He last appeared on the Season Finale of the eighth season of the show as Daryl exiled him from Alexandria and he was looking for his wife Sherry ever since. With the current show doing a six year time skip, Fans would wonder how and where he will make his appearance on Fear The Walking Dead but hopefully, our questions will be answered in a few months when the show returns. In fact, how would Morgan react to seeing him return on the show? Dwight will also be the second character from the original show to cross over to Fear The Walking Dead and it looks like that more characters could cross over in the future.
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Bi-Coastal Premieres for “Reign of the Supermen” in January 2019
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Announces Bi-Coastal Premieres of
REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN
in Los Angeles & New York
Latest DC Universe Movie to Debut in LA (1/10/19) and NYC (1/28/19);
Limited Free Tickets Available to Fans on First Come, First Served Basis
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment proudly presents the bi-coastal premieres of Reign of the Supermen, the next entry in the popular, ongoing series of DC Universe Movies, at The Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills on January 10, 2019 and at the Directors Guild of America in New York on January 28, 2019. Filmmakers and members of the voice cast will attend the events for red carpet media interviews and a post-screening panel discussion.
Executive producer James Tucker, director/producer Sam Liu, character designer Phil Bourassa, writers Jim Krieg & Tim Sheridan and members of the all-star voice cast will attend the World Premiere festivities in Los Angeles and East Coast Premiere in New York. Additional talent participating at the two premieres will be announced as confirmed.
Both screenings will begin at 7:00 pm. The Paley Center for Media in Los Angeles is located at 465 North Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills. The Director’s Guild of America is located at 110 West 57th Street in New York City.
A limited number of free tickets are available to the general public.
Fans wishing to receive free tickets to the Los Angeles event on Thursday, January 10 must RSVP via email to ReignSupermenLA@gmail.com.
Fans wishing to receive free tickets to the New York event on Monday, January 28 must RSVP via email to ReignSupermenNY@gmail.com.
The subject of all fan email entries should include which location (LA or NY) they wish to attend. The body of all fan RSVP emails need ONLY include the (1) name of the entrant, (2) number of tickets requested (limit four per entry), and (3) valid email address (again, within the body of the email text). Fans should keep their entry simple – here’s an example of exactly how the body of the RSVP email should appear:
Bruce Wayne
2 tickets
Tickets to the event will be distributed on a “first come, first served” basis, and fans will be notified via email.
Reign of the Supermen finds Earth’s citizens – and the Man of Steel’s heroic contemporaries – dealing with a world without Superman. But the aftermath of Superman’s death, and the subsequent disappearance of his body, leads to a new mystery – is Superman still alive? The question is further complicated when four new super-powered individuals – Steel, Cyborg Superman, Superboy and the Eradicator – emerge to proclaim themselves as the ultimate hero. In the end, only one will be able to proclaim himself the world’s true Superman.
Reign of the Supermen is the second half of a two-part DC Universe Movies experience that began in August 2018 with The Death of Superman – the two films telling a more faithful animated version of “The Death of Superman,” DC’s landmark 1992-93 comic phenomenon. Superman Doomsday, the inaugural film in the DC Universe Movies series, told an abridged version of that comics story, but with a runtime of 75 minutes, the film was only able to focus on a core, singular storyline. The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen restore many of the moments and characters that fans hold dear to their hearts.
The Reign of the Supermen all-star cast is led by Jerry O’Connell (Carter, Bravo’s Play by Play, Stand by Me), Rebecca Romijn (X-Men, The Librarians) and Rainn Wilson (The Office, The Meg) as the voices of Superman, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor, respectively. The potent trio is joined by the DC Universe Movies’ returning voices of the Justice League: Jason O’Mara (The Man in the High Castle, Terra Nova) as Batman, Rosario Dawson (Sin City, Rent, Daredevil) as Wonder Woman, Shemar Moore (S.W.A.T., Criminal Minds) as Cyborg, Nathan Fillion (Castle, The Rookie) as Green Lantern/Hal Jordan, Christopher Gorham (Covert Affairs, Insatiable, Ugly Betty) as The Flash, and Nyambi Nyambi (Mike & Molly, The Good Fight) as Martian Manhunter.
Newly featured cast members include Cress Williams (Black Lightning) as Steel, Cameron Monaghan (Gotham) as Superboy, Patrick Fabian (Better Call Saul) as Hank Henshaw, and Tony Todd (Candyman) as Darkseid. In addition, the cast includes Charles Halford (Constantine) as Bibbo Bibbowski and The Eradicator, Rocky Carroll (NCIS) as Perry White, Toks Olagundoye (Castle) as Cat Grant, Max Mittleman (Justice League Action) as Jimmy Olsen, Paul Eiding (Ben 10: Omniverse) as Jonathan Kent, Jennifer Hale (Green Lantern: The Animated Series) as Martha Kent, Trevor Devall (Suicide Squad: Hell To Pay) as Dabney Donovan and Erica Luttrell (Salvation) as Mercy.
Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment, the feature-length animated Reign of the Supermen arrives from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on Digital starting January 15, 2019, and on Ultra HD Blu-ray Combo Pack and Blu-ray Combo Pack on January 29, 2019.
Julian’s Thoughts: Aquaman Review
The DC Extended Universe has had a few more issues than the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not for nothing, but Man of Steel was two thirds of a great take of the original superhero that turned into a CGI 9/11 mess, Batman v Superman was a dull, overlong, muddled mess that crammed six films worth of story into a single film with only fleeting moments of brilliance, Suicide Squad was a compromised but fun enough mess with enough ideas to warrant a second viewing. Then came Wonder Woman, Patty Jenkins’ game-changing story of love conquering all troubles and being the greatest thing in the world; it smashed records and was a fun ride that called to mind Richard Donner’s Superman (the granddaddy of the genre). Justice League was a mess, but now with a slate of intriguing films on the horizon, the DC universe can do anything, which leads us to James Wan’s Aquaman.
Aquaman is the first post-Justice League film from DC, and it shows that the lessons from previous DC adaptations have been learnt. Gone is the dark colour pallette, the reluctance to have fun, the overstuffing of storylines and the dour tone. Welcome a bright, epic adventure film with plenty of things going boom, and laughs to be had along the way. James Wan has had an extraordinary fourteen year career. Having made Saw and then moving on to lesser seen films like Dead Silence and Death Sentence (the latter being a great little revenge flick) he made films like The Conjuring 1 & 2, Insidious 1 & 2 and then out of nowhere directed Furious 7, the best of the Fast and Furious franchise even with a sad loss of Paul Walker during filming. Here, Wan crams everything into the film like a child playing with action figures.
Jason Momoa returns as Arthur Curry, half human half Atlantean, the first born child of Queen Atlanna and heir to the throne. His destiny is forced upon him when his half-brother King Orm begins manipulating the seven underwater kingdoms into attacking the surface world, and things go bonkers.
From the off, Wan might as well be handing out copies of his favorite 80s movies. It’s no secret that most superhero directors want to show you the movies they’re inspired by, but here it shows more than ever. For people who like old-school adventure films like Romancing the Stone (brilliant), Raiders of the Lost Ark (brilliant) and The Goonies (brilliant) you’re in for a fun ride. There are moments that look like throwbacks to Stephen Sommers original The Mummy (brilliant but less so), and the film is all the better for it.
Momoa plays his superhero like a slightly hungover bouncer, reluctant to get involved in a world he has no real stake in, his only tether to the human world being his father (a very well used Temuera Morrison), and his claim to the throne of the ocean holds no interest. Having rocked up to the party in Justice League like a absolute dudebro and yelled things like “my man” and “i dig it”, this time around he has a bit more heavy lifting to do. Given his frame, his eyebrow scar and his voice like gravel there is so much to relish in his performance here – he stands confidently with other heroes of the DC universe as being distinct but of that world.
The film also has that old-fashioned feel, thanks to a great supporting cast – Morrison along with Nicole Kidman play Curry’s parents well, in a well-done prologue showing the quick romance between the two that leads to young Arthur being born. Patrick Wilson decides to chew his scenery as the villainous Orm, deciding that other royal sibling-relation superheroes are OTT enough, with none of the charm of Loki, the nuance of Killmonger or even the manipulation of Ares, this time around we get a shouting Wilson, going for absolute broke and clearly having an absolute blast. Willem Dafoe and Dolph Lundgren aren’t used to their full potential, but they flesh out the world, and are convincing even as they pretend to swim in the underwater world.
It’s actually the secondary villain of the revenge-driven Black Manta played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II that gets some of the best sequences, he has a cool suit and the guy looks like he means business, laying waste to a small Sicilian village in his revenge quest against Curry.
There are some fun cameos along the way (Julie Andrews voices a giant sea monster for one), and the score by Rupert Greyson-Williams flips between a superhero score and something resembling Tron’s soundtrack, but it works. This is a love letter to those swashbuckling adventures of days gone by, and the film doesn’t mind being silly.
There are some awkward issues: a lot of action sequences begin with someone being blindsided by an explosion, and the underwater hair effects seem a little uneasy, but even so, neither undo the film because Wan knows not to do the same old action sequence. There’s a fun Tron/Star Wars style escape from Atlantis, there are sword fights, parkour rooftop running, and good old-fashioned fisticuffs.
By no means does this make for a perfect viewing, and at two and a half hours the film does sometimes go into overlong time, but even as the CGI heavy third act begins to weigh hard, there’s another bizarre sea monster ready to show up, including giant angry sharks, big crab people, a CGI Djimon Hounsou, seahorses big enough to ride and enough jokes to keep you going.
In the end, this is a movie that doesn’t want to upset or bore, it wants to entertain, offering good old-fashioned thrills without being too tethered to the movies before it, taking a leaf from Wonder Woman’s book and like that film heralding a brighter future for the DC Universe. If Shazam! and Birds of Prey can keep up this momentum, DC might have a future after all, and as for Aquaman, if there was ever a reason to go see a big movie it might be the sight of an octopus playing the drums.
Final Grade: A
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