The Academy Awards 2021

Hi!

The Academy Awards this year are coming up next month after being delayed until April 25th from the original airdate of February 28th. The delay was obviously due to the coronavirus, with this amendment being announced way back in June 2020. Of course a lot has changed with regard to the pandemic in this time, but one thing that has not been adjusted is the attendance of people in movie theatres. Since no one is able to attend theatres, we have a bottleneck of releases that have been delayed with no end in sight, so the nominees this year can be viewed by some as not a full slate, but I am happy with what I have seen thus far. As the box office output for films is going to be greatly reduced, a lot studios have delayed some of their big box office hits for another time when things are open again. Christopher Nolan pushed ahead with his plan for Tenet, which has been accepted as a bit of a failure when it came to releasing things to the public. Due to this, on occasion studios have sold their films to another distributer who is able to provide a link for fans during this time, Netflix, Disney+ and HBO Max are some of the services doing exceptionally well all things considered. But what about this years nominees?

The Newsroom – Season 2 Review

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The Newsroom season 2 aired in 2013 on HBO and Sky Atlantic, the show has very high rated individual episodes on sites like IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, and I also hold a high opinion of the show. During quarantine I have watched a lot of tv, and this is the first show I can think of that has me watching episode after episode and I am strategically planning when I finish a season so I don’t have to wait long between writing this review and starting the next. After a strong 1st season which you can find reviewed here, I was slightly concerned about how the show could perform in its 2nd season as the format was no longer new to me and I wasn’t sure if it could continue to ‘shock’ or keep my interest. But thanks to a change in the overall narrative, the show moved around in time, with some aspects taking place in the future and then referencing back to the past so the viewer is always wondering what is happening this season and what the end goal is. With a lawyer questioning members of the news team regarding a story that they shared which appears to have been untrue. By sharing the story the news team became liable and the season is all about getting the entire story about what led to the news they broke and how it got past all of the checks that are in place. The show continues to surprise me in what can be made interesting to viewers and I am looking forward to seeing what the final 6 episodes has in store;

The Undoing – Series Review

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The Undoing was a limited series that aired on HBO and Sky Atlantic in October 2020 starring Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman based on the 2014 novel You should have known. It became the only show to grow in viewership numbers week on week and was Skys biggest show since Game of Thrones. The show is about a wealthy New York therapist who has her family life flipped upside down after an incident potentially involving her husband after they get involved in a murder case. The show was a strong performer for HBO and Sky, with it being a limited series and only having 6 episodes, it is a contained story that gets completed during the arc giving the audience a satisfactory conclusion. (Which is something that has been missing at times lately). Kidman and Grant bounce well off each other and give the series some much appreciated grounding and the establishment of high society while utilising Manhattan as another character was great for the show. But the actor who stole the show for me has to be Donald Sutherland who played Kidmans father, Sutherland played an outstanding character exceptionally, every scene he was in he stole the limelight. The show is fast paced due to the shorter episode count and the theme of the show, it fits into a couple of genres, such as mystery, thriller and the ‘who dunit’ question that most people ask when watching something like this! As per usual, we need to break this down a bit to see what made the series stand out compared to all the available programming we have these days;

Alice in Borderland – Season 1 Review

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Alice in Borderland was released on Netflix internationally on December 10th based on a manga of the same name created by Haro Aso. The show revolves around the character of Arisu who is a 24 year old man obsessed with video games, to the point where it is all that he does with his day. By spending this much time playing games, he is looked down upon by his father and brother, however he has a couple of loyal friends who stand by him and wish for him to do more with his life. The story is based around the fact that one day Arisu with his friends find themselves transported off to a place that looks exactly like Tokyo, but it seems to have no-one else living in the city. While they are looking around for others, they come across a building, entering and end up part of a twisted game, within which failure leads to death. If you are successful in completing the game, you are given a visa which lets you stay in the area for a period of time dependent on the value of the card you just played for, with the type of game being decided based on the suit. The show is something that I had never heard of previously and didn’t really know what to expect going into it, and prior to this the only show I can remember watching based on a Japanese Manga was Death Note. (Love that show, not the film). The show is enjoyable, but not something that I will think about rewatching anytime in the future, while in the same breath, I think it could improve in the 2nd season. Season 2 got greenlit just 2 weeks after season 1 finished, so considering how Netflix have been over the past year with shows, that was great news for everyone involved. What made the show enjoyable but a pause for a re-watch? Lets take a bit of a deeper dive into what made the show tick (Normally I do more in-depth analysis, but I feel like simple positives and issues is suitable for this show);

3% – Season 2 Review

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3% was a Netflix original show that began airing in 2017 with its 2nd season being released in 2018, the show continued until 2020 finishing after season 4. The show considering it is not in English had a large number of fans during its run and alongside Dark it became a show that portrayed Netflix as a powerhouse for original programming in various languages. While watching the show I continue to get caught up in the fact that it is very similar to most Young Adult dystopian novels but that is not to say the show is bad or to diminish the writing that is contained within it. But rather so anyone who goes on to watch the show becomes aware that if you have seen The Maze Runner or The Hunger Games, you know what you are in for within a couple of episodes. We know that we saw little of the Offshore in season 1, but with our surviving candidates heading there following the conclusion of Process 104, we can only go on to see more and more of this fabled land, surely;

Shooter – Season 3 Review

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Shooter season 3 aired in the Summer of 2018 and the show was cancelled following the conclusion of this 3rd season. Looking at the series from the viewpoint that I knew it was going to be cancelled I can not say for certain why it was cancelled, I think the show was well done and appealed to a large majority of potential audience members. While also having a distribution deal with Netflix for an international audience, I am surprised at the decision which was made, but the story itself wraps up in the most suitable way possible for it I think. While also giving the option and time for a 4th season to happen, but alas, despite shopping the series around to other television networks there was no-one who picked up the show, meaning Shooter ended. Without any further ado I guess lets start looking at the show a bit more in-depth. (Unless you can tell me why the show was cancelled in which case, please tell me in the comments below so my mind can rest easy!)

Shooter – Season 1 Review

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Shooter was a tv show on the USA network in America and distributed internationally by Netflix, with the show lasting 3 seasons, I have so far watched just the 1st season. The show had been on my last for a long time, and with us all being at home for such an extended period of time right now, I have been able to stick the show on. The show is based on the book Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter and there had already been a film released based on the characters back in 2007. The series stars Ryan Phillippe, Shantel VanSanten, Omar Epps and Cynthia Addai-Robinson, with executive producer Mark Wahlberg. As the series ran for 3 seasons prior to its cancellation, I was completely unaware that there are also 10 books based on the character, so I am looking forward to seeing where the next couple of seasons go and where the story ends up before its conclusion. With the background out of the way, time to look at the series in a bit more depth so we can get a proper view;

Into the Night – Season 1 Review

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Into the Night is Netflix series from Belgium (The 1st Belgian series on the platform), that was released on May 1st 2020. It is based on the book The Old Axolotl by Jacek Dukaj from 2015, the show has been renewed for a 2nd season at Netflix but due to the virus, there is no other information available at this moment in time regarding when it may air. The show follows a group of people who are on a plane headed for Moscow before it is hijacked by an Italian NATO officer who commands the pilot to take off early and head West rather than East as the rising sun brings with it death. Anyone who comes in contact with sunlight will die due to reasons that are speculated at during the shows initial season. But as always, the surface of what a show is about does not do much to sell it to audience and it can become difficult to know if something is for you or not simply by knowing what happens in broad stokes. So, lets look into it a bit more;

The Alienist – Season 1 Review

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The Alienist aired in 2018 on TNT as a 10 episode limited series with Netflix then purchasing the rights to distribute the show internationally. While a 2nd season has since aired in the US, it won’t be available on Netflix for another few days, so I will write about that another time. The series is based on a novel of the same name released in 1994 by Caleb Carr and stars Daniel Bruhl, Luke Evans and Dakota Fanning as the shows leads. This season is set in 1896 New York, where following multiple deaths of boy prostitutes, the new police commissioner Theodore Roosevelt calls for the assistance of Dr. Laszlo Kreizler who is an Alienist (Criminal psychologist), to conduct the investigation alongside the police department. Kreizler requires the assistance of friend John Moore, police departments Sara Howard and twins Marcus & Lucius Isaacson who were detective sergeants in the NYPD. The show deals with themes of class, loss and our motivations among many others. As a whole the show is a good experience and something I have no problem recommending to others, and it is a bit of a combination of two other shows I have watched over the previous few months. (Hannibal & Mindhunter). They have similar focuses with murder, cannibals, gore and the psychology of criminals. If you have seen those and enjoyed them, this is a great show to move onto!

Money Heist – Part 4 Review

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Money Heist / La Casa De Papel aired its 4th part last April, and it has been confirmed that another part is on the way, which will be its final. This part of course follows on from Part 3 meaning it continues to deal with the fallout from the heist at the Bank of Spain regarding their gold supply and state secrets that are in the vault. We have the crew trying to contain the hostages, complete their plan, not lose any of their crew members and the Professor is trying to control the narrative from the outside regarding Rios capture and subsequent torture, while attempting to stoke the fires that is the publics support of the crew. The show has gone to new levels since being taken over by the folks at Netflix, but this is without it losing the things that made it great to begin with, so for that a round of applause and appreciation needs to go everyone involved. But with that out of the way, lets look at some of the technical aspects of this show;