The plot to attack the city as revenge for a covered-up massacre due to a biochemical weapon of Howard Stark's(used without his permission) during WWII was fortunately thwarted in time but not without some sad memories of Captain America being dredged up. I have to say that this mini-series was a neat breath of fresh air,using some old school story telling with a bit of feminist flair. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. will be back next week but I sincerely hope this isn't the last we see of Peggy Carter and the gang:
I did manage to catch up with Downton Abbey as their penultimate season finale aired during the Oscars(more on that in a moment) and boy, was there a lot to take in!
What with Rose's wedding almost being called off due to a false scandal created by her mother, Thomas using his wily ways for good instead of evil, Mrs. Patmore getting that war memorial tribute for her nephew and Anna getting busted for the murder of Mr. Green(who apparently got what he deserved and I'm wondering why such a case received so much police scrutiny in the first place. The guy was just a valet with a string of sex crimes attached to him, not a member of the royal family after all!) made for one hell of a merry mess to clean up by next season.
I do hope that Edith finds some spine and tells Mary off,particularly since their father finally realized that Marigold is his natural granddaughter.
I am so sick of Mary being such a self indulgent bitch(she's as bad as she was way back in season one at this point) and granted, Edith is no saint but it is high time that someone put Mary in her place in regards to her sister. Perhaps my wish will come true, we shall see:
The Oscars went off fairly well, I thought. Neil Patrick Harris did a great job of being host(although that bit about Octavia Spencer watching his padlocked set of Oscar predictions ran on way too long there) and the musical number were excellent, from the Best Song nominees to Jennifer Hudson's eulogy tune and of course, Lady Gaga's Sound of Music salute.
It is worthy to note that this Academy Awards broadcast was one of the lowest rated showings of the past few years. A good reason for that was not only the ultra-white selection of nominees but the lack of crowd pleasing films up for bids as well.
Look, Academy, we all know you like to pretend that your output is all about the art, no commerce during this time of year but it's pretty clear that is not the truth. I'm all for quality movies getting their due but in addition to honoring Selma with more than two nominations(Congrats to Common and John Legend), you could have thrown a bone to something that audiences were actually familiar with and I don't mean the Lego Movie either!
You're telling me that Gone Girl, Guardians of the Galaxy and Big Eyes weren't due some consideration here? Also, a art house movie like Belle or Dear White People(which won a First Screenplay honor at the Independent Spirit Awards the day before) couldn't have benefited from some Oscar love, unlike any Wes/Paul Thomas Anderson production?
Your audience is what makes you strive to work harder,after all and while popularity doesn't always equal quality, it does help to bring folks to the theater and sit in the seats. Without them, there's no work to be done or money to be made. Think about the future of film, folks and let that be reflected in your awards:
RANDOM NOTES:
SLEEPY HOLLOW: Season two wrapped up nicely, with a few welcome twists(so long, Katrina!) and while things are far from perfect, I have hope for the next time around. Give credit where it's due, they did clean up some of the debris here and created a nice reset for season three:
I respectfully disagree on a few points.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised that a lot of NPHs jokes weren't very funny. One highlight was the "lunch" comment to Octavia - it looked bad, tho not as bad as Sean Penn looks every time he opens his mouth off screen. Then an Oscar winner dedicated her award to her son who committed suicide, and he still cracked the small joke he had prepared before the next presentation. Ugh, he's classy and funny, but it did not always show.
Also, I don't know that the Oscars need more crowdpleasers - I'm glad they highlighted artsy films, and I detest Avatars best film nod. But yes, they did miss some worthy films (didn't even nominate 9), and I had issues with many of their nominees anyway.
I loved loved loved Abigail getting Ben Franklin's praise! So cool! But Katrina was handled as she was all season long: as if the writers didn't know what to do with her, as if they couldn't be bothered to figure out how. In the end, she wasn't even handled as "well" as Willow in Buffy Season 6 - they just moved her along. And I fear it means that our two Witnesses will hook up just because they have great chemistry as actors. I hope they rebound in season 3, because I really loved this show's inventive insanity...
I do concur that NPH did miss a few cues there(perhaps the pomp and circumstance of the Oscars made him less at ease than he is at the Tonys) but a far better host than some of the others we've had lately(James Franco,for one,ugh!)
ReplyDeleteWith SH, I think that by killing off Katrina,who Evil Willow would have trounced soundly, and her troublesome son(John Noble was the awesome,tho), the writers were "cleaning house" to smooth out a fresh new direction for next season.
And, no, I don't think they'll do an Abbie/Crane hook-up any time soon. For one thing, Crane will be in serious mourning mode there and they did sort of introduce a possible love interest for Abigail(he was in the second to last episode this season).
After all, Elementary is still keeping Sherlock and Watson in the non-romantic zone and they're in season three,so I suspect SH may do the same. I know, they're separate shows on different networks but they do share the "men and women as equal working partners" theme and I sincerely believe that standard will be kept up.
Dear God, I hope so, too. It's a mark of terrible character when someone can't be friends with an attractive person of the gender(s) to which one is oriented, but the shortcuts taken in this season (that stupid blonde dude, or Katrina in every scene she's in, almost) suggest otherwise.
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