Pop Culture Princess

Pop Culture Princess
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Thursday, October 09, 2014

Gotham needs to get into gear,The Flash is off to a running start and American Horror Story sets up it's Freak Show

It's only three episodes in and already folks are less than impressed with Gotham but I'm still willing to give it a chance.

Granted, the show is rather wobbly on it's feet and needs to build up some serious momentum yet part of the impatience is due to this being a Batman series without the Caped Crusader being able to man the helm.

 However, I think they may be able to over come that within a few episodes yet I do have a major complaint; what is up with that long angle lens approach to Montoya's brief kiss with Barbara Kean?

If you haven't been watching, Barbara is Jim Gordon's girlfriend and Officer Montoya appears to be a former lover of hers who,due to her position in the police department, is hearing bad things about Gordon and passing on those doubts to her exe.

The ladies had a major scene this week and when Montoya went into for a kiss, we went from close up view to all the way across the room. Look,behind the scenes people, I'm happy to see that Montoya's sexuality(and yes, it did happen in the comics) is being incorporated into the series but don't be so hesitant about it. I can handle the whole "old lover bad mouthing the current lover" trope but pulling away like that breaks the intensity of the scene and intensity is something that this show is in dire need of at the moment.

Truth be told, I'm sticking around Gotham for Oswald Cobblepot, our potential Penguin, who has made his way back to the city and is slipping back into bad society. His showing up at Gordon's door in the last moment of this past episode was a sit and take notice ending there.

In a weird way, Oswald's story line reminds me of Miller's Crossing, a Coen brothers movie where a mobster spared the life of a snitch out of pity and both of them wound up regretting it in the end. I'm not saying that this sub plot is award winning stuff but the actor playing Oswald brings a solid mix of smarmy toadying with true deadly menace that makes you wonder what he'll do next and for a predictable villain to become so unpredictable is no easy feat:



Meanwhile, the opening episode of The Flash this week has made a nice first impression as both ratings and reviews agree on it's promising merits. The tone is lighter than Arrow but just as cleverly done and yes, we already had a brief crossover.

I like how well Barry Allen's back story(a blend of classic canon and a recent reboot) has been developed here, plus his band of high tech supporters are an intriguing bunch. The typical love triangle between Barry, his childhood friend Iris and her current beau Eddie was to be expected but I hope that doesn't completely overwhelm the show's upcoming plot points.

As I am still a season behind with Arrow(finally finished S1 on DVD!), it's good to jump into this series at it's very beginning and it does pair well with Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.(really good season over there, especially now that Simmons is a double agent embedded into Hydra) on Tuesday nights. The Flash so far is a lot of fun and worth keeping up with:



American Horror Story put up it's tents for a fourth season last night, with the theme of Freak Show being placed center stage in Florida of 1952.  The main ring of the story line had conjoined twins Dot and Bette recruited for Elsa's Cabinet of Curiosities, a traveling show hoping to set down roots.

 The long hidden from the world girls happen to be on the run from the law, due to the untimely death of their mother, another complication that owner Elsa is more than ready to deal with. There's a lot going here, with a murderous clown on the loose and several of the sideshow performers tired of being treated as second class citizens looking to dispense some street justice of their own.

The initial set-up is interesting but since Coven went on and off the rails last time, I do hope that Freak Show is better equipped to stay on solid ground. Whimsey is fine and dandy but gets old really fast. Still, plenty of engaging strangeness to tune into here:



RANDOM NOTES:

PROJECT RUNWAY: We've got some diva action from last week spilling over into tonight's episode as eliminated designers are asked to return in order to assist the remaining ones in a challenge involving the outfits that gave them the boot in the first place. Korina was sent packing, not only for her lousy work but her cattiness and disparaging of her fellow competitors during the judging, in my opinion.

Korina was given a second chance and lost out to Char(who she resents due to Char being saved earlier on by Tim Gunn from an elim) who she is now asked to work with. I have never liked Korina, due to her "why can't they see how wonderful I am?" attitude and her whole demeanor last week was terrible to say the least. Apparently, for this challenge, she's throwing another tantrum and all I can say is that if she wants to leave so badly, then by all means,Tim, show her the door!:






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