I’d once heard it said that the problem with Horror is that there’s just too many of them.
 
When I inquired what this speaker meant, he assured me that because just about anyone with a camera and a cast could sling even the most low-budget attempt together the genre suffered from a lack of innovation.  Instead, he felt that storytellers could churn out damn near anything, drape it with a copious amount of fake blood here and there, and – voila – screams could be heard.  Indeed, there’s more than a bit of truth to such a position – I’ve made similar observations here and there – but such sentiments kinda/sorta overlook the fact that Horror – at the simplest level – is really only about producing frights and scares endemic to a particular story … and that could be it.
 
In the words of many a scriptwriter: “It ain’t exactly Shakespeare we’re crafting here.”
 
Still, I think audiences do expect a bit of respectability to go hand-in-hand with any feature they’ll spend time enjoying … but there’s sadly little to enjoy in Blumhouse’s Unhuman.
 
Essentially, it’s a zombie picture (but it’s not), a locked-box mystery (but it’s not), an Apocalypse thriller (but it’s not), and a teen-focused caper (but it’s not); writer/director Marcus Dunstan apparently never sought to have his little chiller amount to all that much more than just being one more attempt in the growing pantheon of teen-centric ideas with a pulse.  In the end, it’s little more than filler before the next low-budget outing, doing a huge disservice to an otherwise interesting cast and crew who showed up seeking fortune and fame only to be rewarded with bad writing and misplaced MacGuffins.
 
(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters.  If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment.  If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
 
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“A group of high school students whose school bus crashes on a field trip.  Relationships are tested once they realize they are being stalked by an attacker who intends to drive them out and straight into a horrifying fright to survive.”
 
About every ten years or so, the Horror genre in particular gets gifted with a new phenomenon.  Its storytellers find a new gimmick – a new hook – that doesn’t so much re-invent the field so much as it presents audiences with something that hasn’t quite been seen this way before.  The result is a deserved freshness, one that inevitably inspires a series of inferior imitators who’ll stop at nothing to glean whatever life is left in the business of bloody death … until such a time as the next gizmo reinvigorates audiences once again.
​

For example, the teen Horror prospect found big screen success in Friday The 13th (1980), the first in a franchise that truly milked the prospect of how much wrath one masked killer could unleash on unsuspecting youths.  Then – in 1984 – Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street glistened up the carnage by giving it a healthy dose of existential dread by hosting a murderer who could come at them in their dreams.  Just over a decade later, 1996’s Scream put young folks back up on the Horror pedestal when they ultimately turned their blood lust on their own, pitting victims against those who saw their butchery as little more than a game worthy being played at the highest cost ever.  See what I mean?  The foundation remains the same, and yet the format – the construction – gets a makeover, one that puts a fresh spin on the delivery.
 
Alas, all Unhuman really manages to do for its young people is wrap them up in a somewhat confusing yarn that plucks a bit of everything from superior efforts that came before in hopes of delivering something original.  It fails – and fails astoundingly – but that never stopped a cast and crew from trying.
 
And – in all fairness – it didn’t have to.
 
Many of the components for even a moderately interesting diversion were there.  As Ever, actress Brianne Tju has a likeable degree of moxie – a spitfire who’ll go against the grain and the school’s class structure because she chooses to be an individual instead of one of the usual flock.  Granted, her character never quite overcomes the level of predictability to Unhuman’s zombie set-up – and it would’ve been nice had she been less of a visual tomboy and more of an authentic scraper – but that’s small potatoes when compared to her screen counterparts.  Peter Giles – as the film’s inappropriately screaming sole voice of author Mr. Lorenzo – produces a few laughs here and there, though his apparently dispatch too early in the movie truly hampers what could’ve been a better-rounded role had he lived and fought alongside those he so obviously despises.  The comely Ali Gallo – while wasted with far too little to do here as the unassuming sidekick – makes for a convincingly unassured misfit paired with an almost girl-next-door vibe, and her short scenes elevate some of the otherwise mundane developments.  Still, far too many of the remaining high school cast end up filling up roles carbon copied from other productions – the jock, the prima donna, the fat kid, the obnoxious know-it-all, etc. – never allowed Unhuman to appear, frankly, human in the final estimation.
 
Also, the film suffers – nearly falling apart, honestly – once the ruse is up, and the audience is brought in on the fact that all of this is little more than a hoax perpetrated to … well, it’s kinda/sorta unclear.  We’re led to believe this was meant as a form of retribution and/or revenge against the school – if not society at large – on the part of those belittled as part of their adolescence experience.  Audiences love to root for the underdog, but when the beast shows up with the propensity to infect others with a life-ending rabies such compassion gets tossed out the window rather quickly; and that’s the case here.  However, the fact that some who’ve seemingly died get to come back to participate in the bloody mayhem despite perishing right in front of our eyes leaves me to wonder if something left on the cutting room floor might’ve had this one making a bit more sense than it did.
 
Laughs are solid in a few places, but logic needed greater attention if Unhuman was to emerge alive.
 
Sad fact: it doesn’t.
 
Unhuman (2022) was produced by Blumhouse Television.  According to a quick Google.com search, the film is available via several streaming platforms.  (In fact, I watched this one for free as part of my subscription to Amazon Prime.)  As for the technical specifications?  Well, Unhuman has the look and feel of about any teen-centric production; there are even some visual flourishes that work quite nicely.  Clearly an attempt was made to assemble something that worked cogently … but the final cut here truly needed some more polish … if not a tighter script.
 
Not really recommended … except for die-hard Horror enthusiasts or Blumhouse aficionados …
 
Unhuman (2022) is the kind of thing that, alas, Horror production companies have been doing for years, so the film functions on its own internal efficiency, never trying to do anything fresh, new, or novel with any of its individual pieces.  Though not a complete failure in any respect, the flick never quite congeals to the point where it makes perfect sense nor delivers a narrative greater than the sum of its parts.  Though its low-hanging fruit might appeal to some, I’ll admit to requiring something a bit meatier in my diet.

-- EZ

From my experience, it’s become clear that there are a good deal of folks who traffic in fandom’s welcoming circles who believe their sole existence is to dump water on the works, ideas, and reflections of others … and, by others, I mean “fans.”
 
No, no, and no: I’m not gonna give you a rant about toxic fandom, and that’s because I don’t think such a message is fundamentally productive.  While there might be some benefits from reaching across the aisle for common ground, I’ve always believed that was never the purpose of an authentic critic – meaning one who both thinks and writes about film and television as an art form.  Instead, I insist that it’s my job to only express my own opinions: if I’m as thorough and proficient as I should be, then, minimally, you’ll have something to think about after I’m done, and that’s my only purpose here.  Critics don’t exist – or shouldn’t exist – to make you like a property; instead, they try to serve a wider discourse, one encouraging watchers, writers, readers, and all of fandom to reflect on the merits and disadvantages of any art form.  That’s criticism in a nutshell, folks.  Call it Criticism 101.  At least, that’s the case as it applies to being a fan.
 
Still, the downside is that there’s an audience that waits patiently on the Information Superhighway with no other purpose than to rise up, gather pitchforks, light the torches, and dub those who disagree with them to be ‘witches’ in some (cough cough) cultural ‘call to action’ that they believe (cough cough) better serves fandom.  Most of these heretics – if not lunatics – probably never built a blog, a website, a vlog, or a reasonably compelling argument and yet still insist that their judgment is superior, perhaps because he or she feels that the “safety in numbers” outweighs anything the Devil’s Advocate might have to say.  Much like Captain Kirk famously told Captain Spock that reality probably lies somewhere in between, fandom would do well to consider such wisdom; stop hating on those who disagree because – someday – you, too, might feel otherwise … and you might feel oppressed if that crowd you once stood shoulder-to-shoulder with comes calling for your scalp.
 
Yes, yes, and yes: fandom requires and instills passion.
 
But never forget to take a calming breath before you speak … and/or think.
 
Star Wars fandom, in particular, would do well to just dial it back when trying to discuss the Disney+ streaming property that is Star Wars: Ahsoka.  Its fifth episode – “Shadow Warrior” both aired last night on the platform as well as played in select theaters nationally, a theatrical event that kinda/sorta has the feel of desperation so far as this reviewer is concerned.  If the ratings are so positive (and I don’t think they are, but I’m not out to prove anything here), then why the need for an event in theaters?   Is this … wishful thinking?  Are you trying to convince audiences of something otherwise?  Or is this an honest expression of goodwill, giving diehard enthusiasts the chance to bask in the silver screen glow of something so mind-blowing that it deserves such exposure?
 
Well … much like the Ahsoka story, I’m just not following what’s honestly happening.
 
Shadow Warrior apparently was little more than a fever dream, a kinda/sorta out-of-body experience the lead character endured with ‘fall’ at the hands of ‘dark Jedi’ Baylan Skoll in Part 4.  Instead of clarifying the who’s, where’s, and what’s of Ahsoka coming face-to-face with her former mentor Anakin Skywalker (reprised in the episode by Hayden Christensen), audiences were instead treated to more of the same, that being more of the nebulousness and ambiguity of just where is our Togrutan hero.  Is she dead?  Is she in-between?  Is this Heaven?  Is this Hell?  Why does it look so much like the World Between Worlds?  Instead of giving us answers we could wrap our head around, writer/director Dave Filoni pretty much played with our emotions with pullbacks to experiences that may or may not have put Ahsoka on her present path … or was it all about finding peace with knowing she was trained by the Jedi who, basically, both destroyed the galaxy and yet put the Force in balance?
​

That’s the problem when you strive for mythic and/or epic proportions: if the circumstances are not clearly spelled out, then you risk losing the audience with half-steps and/or half-truths.  Come the end of the near hour of programming, I still had no idea where Ahsoka was and whether or not any of it was true, but I do know without question that – in Filoni’s mind – there hasn’t been a character as central to the Star Wars galaxy as is the creation he’s fondest of, that being this little snippy alien.  In her dream state, she even outsmarts Anakin, choosing not to fight him despite his constant taunting, deciding that ‘living’ is the better course of action.
 
Erm … so where’s the ‘warrior’ of “Shadow Warrior?”
 
Despite what history revisionists will tell you, wars aren’t won by pacifists.  No sit-in ever stopped Germany, and no amount of sign-waving deterred Japan from striking America first at Pearl Harbor.  I do know – as Yoda proclaimed in The Empire Strikes Back – that in the galaxy far, far away that wars apparently do not make warriors great; but it’s this kind of moral opacity that sounds good on screen (and in management seminars) and ultimately is left up to the interpretation of the student.  It means whatever you want it to mean, and – as a factivist – I’m not sure how much storytelling is actually positively served by trafficking in the gray areas.  Darth Vader – her master – would have struck Ahsoka down if Ezra Bridger hadn’t ‘cheated’ time by pulling her out of the moment famously in Star Wars Rebels, and I think it’s this feel-good chicanery that is kinda/sorta miring this current series in a spot that – thematically – is going nowhere fast.
 
Now … don’t get me wrong.  I’ve no major bones to pick with Ahsoka, Dave Filoni, and/or the current state of Star Wars.  As I tried to convey above, that isn’t my job as a critic.  I’m not here to convince you that X is good or bad; I can only reflect upon what I see in the adventure and maybe how it bodes within the broader mythology.  In fact, I’ve always liked Ahsoka; but – as I’ve said – I just don’t quite understand why she’s changed as a person between Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.  She obviously reached a super-advanced level of maturity, and I’m at a loss as to understand perfectly well why.  How did this happen?  Why did this happen?  I get that she evolved; I’m just missing the pieces to grasp and appreciate her evolution.
 
And, of course, it’s always great to see Star Wars, too, take some steps in different directions; and many of these new twists and turns have been engineered by Filoni himself.  He’s definitely crafted some incredible arcs within The Clone Wars and Star Wars: The Bad Batch (I struggle with Rebels because I find some of it uneven), and he’s been blessed by even George Lucas with the task of deepening this universe in ways that merit some honest acclaim.  But … we’ve never been told in Ahsoka why so much effort needs to be expended to find Ezra Bridger in the first place … in fact, so far as the audience has been told there’s no way to know whether even he and Grand Admiral Thrawn (except for plot leaks) are even alive out there wherever they are … and that’s a narrative weakness no matter what anyone argues.
 
Why?
 
Well, without such assurances, characters have been launched on this crusade either in hope … or fear.
 
As Star Wars fans, we know that the films and shows have warned us about doing anything out of fear because – dum dum dum – fear leads to the Dark Side.  If that’s true, then why does it seem like the driving motivation behind so much of these activities rests firmly on the shoulders of alleviating one’s fears?  Sabine Wren fears Ezra is lost.  Hera Syndulla fears that the New Republic isn’t listening to her.  Ahsoka fears that she let Anakin down.  Why, even Huyang fears that Ahsoka and Sabine didn’t listen to her.  And … every single one of them fears Thrawn’s return.
 
Huh.
 
But … hey!  It was great to see those purrgil, am I right?
 
(All kidding aside, it was great to see the purrgil.)
 
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one to provide a review of Star Wars: Ahsoka streaming series as I’m presently a subscriber to Disney+ … which might be changing in the future as their programming has really gotten a bit stale.

​-- EZ

Good morning, gentle readers ... and welcome to yet another Hump Day to add to your growing collection of midweeks!  You've made it!  You truly have!  Congratulations!  It's all downhill from here!

Folks, never stop learning.  Never.  Yesterday, I learned from some (cough cough) glorious TikTokker that using the phrase "well, well, well" (which I often do in this space) is considered R-A-C-I-S-T ... and I've never heard anything so stupid in, perhaps, all my life.  But still it's a lesson learned ... and I'm not even remotely suggesting what it is you think I'm suggesting ... rather I'm saying that the level of stupidity some people are willing to parade online has reached astonishing levels.  In some ways, that's scary, you know?  In other ways, it's refreshing to know that, culturally, some among us are ever striving to lower the bar ... if, indeed, the bar can get any lower.  Sigh.

(Now, I also sigh an awful lot.  I'm guessing that's going to be found to be sexist next.)

Good grief.

(And that'll be termed ageist!)

​Not to sound inspiraitonal this morning -- certainly not needed as I already pointed out that it's midweek -- but never let others stop you from being you.  I realize that it can be a constant uphill battle to reach for the silver lining as it seems to be either out-of-reach or beyond one's limitations, and that, too, is just a never-ending part of the human experience.  Be yourself.  If you do something wrong, apologize for it; make whatever adjustments are necessary; and then get back to the business of being a better you.  Don't let the online "culture warriors" win the war with words because -- if you do -- you'll forever be watching over your shoulder for the next buzzword or catchphrase they'll steal for their own nefarious purposes ... and, quite frankly, they don't deserve the attention unless it's to be laughed at.

So ... well, well, well ...

Oh, my goodness gracious ... can you believe it?  TV's long-running Horror serial Supernatural turns an incredible, astonishing 18 years young today.

Full disclosure: Supernatural was a show that I didn't get into during its original broadcast run on television.  In fact, the wifey and I discovered it well into its tenure by picking it up on DVD.  We burned through the first five seasons, and -- while I thought the show had some basic weaknesses here and there when it got heavily into its own formula -- it was a great, entertaining diversion, the kind that we don't get all that much these days.  Free of politics and crafted in such a way as to do little more than chase down the things that go bump in the night, Supernatural endured for an impressive fifteen seasons.  Like any procedural that benefits from a long life on the Boob Tube, it had understandable highs and lows; but it almost magically stayed committed to its characters, and that's something other programs would do well to emulate.  If you like the characters, then you'll hang through the good, the bad, and the ugly; if you don't, then you're apt to go elsewhere for your entertainment.

So, yes, it was imperfect ... but when it was perfect it was must-see-TV.

Thank you, Winchester family, for keeping us safe all of those years.
​

Another serial from the growing heap of 'shows gone by' that honestly deserves another look is the CBS Television incarnation of Planet Of The Apes.  It first aired in the U.S. back in the 1974 television season, and -- somehow -- it's just been mostly forgotten, and that's a crying shame.  While it only lasted a scant fourteen episodes (one of those half-season installments), the writing was generally very good -- reminiscent of the days of the original Star Trek -- and it, too, tried to stay as true to its characters and the central theme of the movie franchisie -- that being 'man vs ape' -- but in the weekly serial format.

​In some ways, the show was likely doomed by the prospect that it came to be reasonably late in the overall Apes franchise history.  The film series had started to lose its popularity, so what was the impetus to transform its potential by putting it on the Boob Tube, of all places?  It certainly wouldn't have the budget to do what they could theatrically, nor would it have the commitment to big screen storytelling.  But what it did have -- at least, I imagine this was the case -- would be access to everything the franchise had already conceived and made in its library of props and costumes; and that alone would give the series the authenticity it needed to compete on an admittedly smaller scale.

I watched it during its original run as a young'un, and -- a few years back -- I picked it up and rewatched it on home video.  Like the original Star Trek, I thought it held up quite well.
​
So there it is, folks: if you needed a little 'something something' to be thankful for on this day, I've given you two entries ... and you'll find a helluva lot more by checking out September 13th's full page of citations by following the helpful link right here ...
​

As always, thank you for reading ... thank you for sharing ... thank you for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!

​-- EZ

Good morning ... and Happy Tuesday, gentle readers!

​Hey there, peeps!  Sorry for the delay on The Daily Grindhouse announcement.  I had one of those nights wherein -- for no particular reason that I'm aware of -- I just couldn't sleep.  I'd wake up and drift off over and over again.  Finally -- around 3 AM -- I just gave up and climbed outta bed, giving the day my full attention.  I had a few errands I had to get to early anyway, so I did those, picking up a few items here and there, and then -- when I got back to the house -- I finally felt the pull of sleep again so I napped.  I'm up now -- hopefully -- for the day.  I'm good.

So ... what's going on in the world?

Well, I've watched the first episode of the new Daryl Dixon show.  It was a lot of set-up, but I thought it was vastly more focused than was The Walking Dead: Dead City.  Plus, it helps when you allow your signature character to actually do things and behave in a way that warrants a signature character.  I'm thinking about penning a review, but it might be a day or two.  I have a few other items on my plate that I'll likely get to first, but kudos to showrunners for assembling what looks to be an interesting variation on a theme for Apocalypse dramas.

​As for today's trivia announcements?  

There are a good number of significant birthdays in there, along with a few interesting motion pictures, so folks are encouraged to follow the link and take a serious gander at them.  Seriously -- as I do sometimes say -- there's something in there for everyone, and I hope you like what you find.

Without further ado ...
​

As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!

​-- EZ

Good morning, gentle readers, and welcome to an all-new Monday!

Now, now, now: let's not get all riled up, okay?  You knew it was coming.  You probably new it was coming since yesterday, in fact.  Can't do anything about it, so you may as well embrace the travesty, am I right?

Ugh.

Well, I, for one, am glad to be back at it.  At least, for today.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

In any event ... welcome to it!

If you check out today's trivia citations, then you'll see that there's an interesting assortment of television programs that premiered on this day back when.  The only one that truly stands out for me -- in the thick of memory -- was CBS's Saturday Morning SciFi excursion Ark II.  It was a spiffy little show with this fabulous decked out RV (Recreational Vehicle) that went about rolling through what was left of our world after an Apocalypse of some sort brought about our demise.  You know the formula?  The crew would show up somewhere, the backwoods folk of the future would need help of some sort, and they'd do a good deed.  It was pretty much like that for week-to-week ... but it was a solid Saturday morning diversion for young minds.

The day also showcases a few motion pictures that debuted on this day back when.  2009's Daybreakers was a sleeper hit, that I recall.  I know I saw it in theaters during its run.  What can I say?  I've got a soft spot for vampire movies, and this nifty little caper tried to take the bloodsucking mythos into the future wherein the infected's food supply -- meaning us -- was starting to taper off.  They were using science to create an alternative, and -- as you can imagine -- it wasn't exactly going swimmingly.  If you haven't seen it, then check it out.  It's actually very smartly made, though I can't recall the issue I had with its ending.  Probably wasn't anything major.

​So ... without further ado ...
​

As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!

​-- EZ

Good morning and Happy Sunday, faithful readers!

Folks ,it was on this day all the way back in 2017 -- not all that long ago, really -- that Seth MacFarlane showed home audiences that the tried-and-true formula behind so much of early Star Trek -- the very same formula that Paramount kinda/sorta kept insisting was pretty much dead on the Boob Tube -- was still legitimate for storytellers when he launched The Orville into outer space.  Yes, many a critic basically dubbed it a comic version of the Gene Roddenberry property; and -- to a certain degree -- they weren't all that far off the mark.  But over the course of two season on Fox and another one on Hulu (which magically appeared on Disney+ after some time), this fledgling franchise got its space legs, so much so that it's continued generate a spark of interest from a great many corners of the Information Superhighway.  Presently, it kinda/sorta looks like MacFarlane has abandoned it for other pursuits, though he does pop up in interviews every now and then promising that more could be coming.  Let's keep our fingers crossed.

​And can you believe that Chris Carter's The X-Files turns an incredible 30 years young today?  Yes, yes, and yes: I can still remember discovering this gem in its premiere airing; and the wifey and I hung on with this one for all of its TV seasons as well as its theatrical outings.  While David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson appear to have moved along to other things, I personally believe that -- if done properly -- the franchise could return for more theatrical adventures.  I know that many would want it to return for the Boob Tube for more, but -- sigh -- I'm just not sure what more they can accomplish in that setting.  This isn't to say that it's worn out its welcome; rather, when you get that many episodes under your belt, it's hard to not start seriously repeating trips already taken and/or seriously doing anything fresh and vibrant with the same characters.  I have heard that the Walt Disney Company (they purchased Fox a few years back) are tinkering with a reboot, but I've yet to see anything materialize.  Let's keep our eyes peeled for that, as well.

​On a personal note: that feline I've mentioned a few times in this space over the last few weeks?  Sadly, she took a dire turn for the worst yesterday, and we had to make that horrible decision to let her go.  Folks, it's heartbreaking to lose a pet -- I'm not saying that to disparage losing a flesh-and-blood human being -- because there's no way to functionally communicate a heartfelt goodbye between you and the furbaby.  Though she'd been on the decline for a few months, I always held out hope for a miracle ... alas, none was coming.  My heart is heavy even writing these few words; and I'll not be the same for some time ahead.  That much is for sure.  But if you have pets, give them a hug from me today.  We don't deserve the level of unconditional love they afford us, and nothing fills the hole in our hearts when they cross over.

Here's the link for today's goodness:
​

As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... and live long and prosper!

​-- EZ

As a huge, huge, huge fan of the original Planet Of The Apes' movies, I'm surprised that I'd never seen this bit ...

I was doing a bit of research this morning into some obscure topic (Hell, I don't even remember how I started down this particular rabbit hole at the time), and I jumped over to the reliable YouTube.com to do a bit of further digging.  You know the YouTube.com?  Great little site, that one is.  Anyway, I've been getting some really unusually prompts as a result of the research digging when -- lo and behold -- up comes a suggestion for me to check out this interview actor Paul Williams did with Johnny Carson on the famed set of The Tonight Show.  It looks like this thing has been up there for a short while, and I had never heard that Williams showed up for his time in the TV spotlight in full movie make-up for his stint aboard 1973's Battle For The Planet Of The Apes!  Good lord!  It must've been incredibly hot under all of that make-up, prosthetics, and costume in those lights!

Williams was also a bit of a funny character, and he gets in some great comic insights about his work, the role, and society at large ... so I thought I'd put this up on the MainPage to point others from my era in the direction.  At a time when so many (cough cough) young actors and actresses are spewing unmitigated hate and venom on the various intellectual properties they have the good fortune to be paid to represent, I found it goddam refreshing to see a true talent so bought into his experience that he wanted to carry it a step further.  Good on you, Mr. Williams ... good on you!

As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!

​-- EZ

Fandom = fanaticism.

I don't think that there's a truer equation in all of life.

​However, the downside to such a simplistic review of reality -- especially as it pertains to our choices in entertainment -- has led us to some very dark places, my friends.  This is not to say "I told you so" (though I'm not above doing such), but I think it's clear I've long warned about this tendency since back in the days of the launch of Joss Whedon's Firefly and what it did to the web in general.

For those of you who weren't there to watch it happen in real time, the TV show Firefly was a bit of an internet sensation -- one of the very first genre shows to build a huge following of fans on the Information Superhighway.  (No, it most certainly wasn't the first, but that's a debate for another day.)  What happened not long after the show aired and was cancelled due to poor ratings was that these 'Browncoats' -- their self-appointed name for Firefly's fan contingent -- took to the web and, essentially, tried to overtake every single message board affiliated with Science Fiction and Fantasy, inundating these places with an incredible amount of traffic.  Think of this as the original 'click baiting': these folks would go into every single thread and make it about their show, much to the chagrin of folks showing up to talk about the original theme or property of the post.  Because websites were compensated based on traffic, the various webmasters and site adminstrators were fine with this activity -- they saw a pretty big bump in traffic since these fans were everywhere -- so those of us just wanting to talk about SciFi, Fantasy, and/or Horror in general couldn't get a word in edgewise.

​The short story is that the Browncoats -- for better or for worse -- destroyed a great many little information holes that many of us used to frequent; I've no idea if many of the boards survive to this date.  Given that Firefly has kinda/sorta died down quite a bit, I doubt these places get much traffic these days ... but it is what it is.

My point here is not to take issue with fans of any property.  What this behavior fostered as an unintended consequence is that it became easier and easier for fans to pile on in cyberspace.  As an example, if I showed up in a post about, say, Captain Kirk, and this post had suddenly been taken over by Browncoats talking about their Malcolm Reynolds, and I tried to talk about Kirk (who was the subject of the original post), then I'd been trashed left and right by said Browncoats because all they intended to do was make that I.P. the center of the big damn shiny universe.  Conversations turned ugly very quickly, and site moderators -- wanting to keep their traffic of Browncoats high and profitable -- allowed it to get even uglier day after day.

I bring this up because folks today are kinda/sorta experiencing a similar phenomenon with Disney+'s current Star Wars streaming show Ahsoka.  While I've been no fan of the program in particular (you can check out my reviews on the MainPage), I don't hate it in any regard ... but what's starting to rise up is the diehard supporters of it, Dave Filoni, actress Rosario Dawson, and anything else associated with it are flaming anyone trying to critique the show to holy Heaven and Hell below.  Those simply trying to point out some storytelling deficiences or even plot holes are being christened as haters, and their good names are being dragged through the mud as a consequence of merely speaking about a TV show.

​This is the fanaticism I mentioned above.  And I encourage folks to try to keep it all in check.

That's it.  That's all.  That's my public service announcement for the day, peeps.

Each of us are fans in our own way and our own right.  Each of us deserves to have a point of view.  That doesn't mean that everyone must and/or should agree with it.  It's just -- again -- a TV show, and it's just -- again -- a point of view.  Doesn't make it right or wrong ... but bullying -- in whatever shape it takes -- should be stamped out at all costs.

Now ... back to our regularly scheduled program ...
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As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!

​-- EZ

Sigh.
 
Well … I hate jumping into the midst of controversy, folks, I really do.  As many of you know, I do preach that it deserves being avoided, despite what positive effects it could propose as potential ‘click bait’ tactics to bolster one’s marketshare on the Information Superhighway.  I don’t always avoid the politics of blogging in this space, but I have always made a concerted effort that – when I do jump into the fray – I minimally try to offer something fresh to the debate, hoping that you’ll see my two cents as an honest contribution and not some attempt to fan the flames.
 
Now … that said … it’s pretty clear that in certain circles, Ahsoka’s fourth episode – “Fallen Jedi” – kinda/sorta did set the world on fire, and I’m sorry but I’m standing clearly on the side of the folks who don’t quite understand why.  Despite some pretty graphics and tightening of pace here and there, I saw the 40 minutes as more of the same underwhelming potboiling.  In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that the Peter Ramsey-directed installment felt more like a creative misdirect than it did anything else.
 
Ok … buckle up.
 
Here’s the episode’s plot summary as provided by the folks at IMDB.com:
“Hera risk her career to help her friends while Ahsoka and Sabine confront enemies.”
 
I’ve always had a bugaboo about stories that aren’t specifically if not painstaking clear as to what their central point is.  Just this morning, I kinda/sorta ribbed an otherwise very affectionate and heartwarming time travel flick – Aporia (reviewed here) – for taking me on a journey of discovery only then to let me down by not specifically showing me an effective conclusion.  What the writer/director does is end with a smile, and – despite evidence to the contrary – I believe it was implied that all of the characters received a happy ending.  But without being shown that absolute reality – the entire film was structured around changing the flow of events – I’m left to assume that the lead (the lovely Judy Greer) was justly rewarded by a forgiving universe.
 
My problem with that is – as a person who is presently alive – I know all too well that our universe is many, many things; but I’d stop short of calling it ‘forgiving.’  Arguably, it’s incredibly unforgiving to those who make a general mess of things – as the characters within Aporia do – so I resent the ambiguity of the conclusion.  I accept that the lady found happiness; I just don’t know what shape happiness took.  And that matters.  It matters greatly given what steps to took to subvert the natural order of things, but I don’t want to get too far into the weeds.
 
Even titling an episode “Fallen Jedi” leaves a lot for me to dissect.  Who?  Who is the fallen Jedi of which I’m being directed?  Is it Ahsoka?  Well, again, I hate to split hairs, but she walked away from the Jedi and the Jedi Order, so why are we merely granting her Jedi status yet again in this universe?  The audience has been treated to a small handful of speeches by her as to how wrongheaded the Jedi have been, so … does she even consider herself a Jedi?
 
Okay, okay, okay … if the fallen Jedi isn’t Ahsoka, then who is it?  Baylan?  Well – again, sorry with the hairs – he’s not a fallen Jedi as he, too, pretty much walked away from his responsibility of dispensing justice in the universe with the fall of the entire Jedi Order, and he shackled his cart to the villains’ horses … so is that really fallen?  He could’ve taken a stand but chose not to, and I’m not inclined to start giving him a ‘free pass’ to get out of galactic jail at this point, not with all that he’s apparently done and is doing.
 
Okay, okay, okay … if the fallen Jedi isn’t Ahsoka and it isn’t Baylan, then who is it?  Anakin?  Anakin Skywalker?  The guy that the movies pretty much showed he brought balance to the Force?  That guy?  He doesn’t show up until the final moments of the episode, brings nothing to the narrative other than a bit of an M. Night Shyamalan twist ending, and … what?  Is that ‘dark Anakin’?  Is that what you’re referring to, Mr. Filoni, because you ending the installment musically with Darth Vader’s theme, so that’s the only truly fallen Jedi I can detect in the adventure.
 
Now, I understand fully that there are many who critique television and movies who like engaging in such mental gymnastics.  What can I say other than I’m not one of them?  If you don’t have the gumption and/or the desire to pony up some authentic story and storytelling within each episode of an ongoing serial, then maybe episodic television really isn’t your strong point.  I know that’s not the case with Filoni – I’ve seen him do some very, very, very respectable work on The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch – but I’m seriously at a complete, total, and utter loss to understand where he’s at with this incarnation and where he might be taking us.
 
Yes, yes, and yes: I’ve watched enough video reviews to fully grasp that this might be precisely where the storyteller wants you to be.  As I said, this is my two cents, and – frankly – this is what’s been plaguing me with Ahsoka since the first episode, that being … it appears directionless.

This may clear up once the totality of this adventure is brought to fruition.
 
Often times, writers will engage in such misdirection – mystery writers, in particular, love to insert McGuffins and plot twists to keep viewers guessing as to whom the guilty culprit could be – and the results could be good, bad, or middling.  With Ahsoka, I’m strongly sensing an incredible amount of mismanagement, though, as developments either aren’t organic to what’s come before (hello, smoke creature Marrok), what’s been established in canon (hello, world between worlds), or what’s remotely plausible (hello, just about everything else that doesn’t quite add up).  Folks, I’m no Filoni hater – I’ve mentioned before that I’ll agree if anyone deserves the chance to right this sinking enterprise it might be him – but this show is feeling more and more like a two-hour movie bloated out to an eight-hour series … and for absolutely no valid reason.

​Sorry, too, to all of those who proclaim that actress Rosario Dawson is doing a fabulous job with the material because – again – I’m just not seeing it.  Her delivery is particularly stilted – so much so that I’d have to insist she’s been instructed to deliver both her dialogue and her fight scenes with decidedly leaden effort – and it’s ruining what I thought was an otherwise interesting side character.  (I do agree with many who question if this program was, functionally, even necessary; that, too, may not be answerable until we arrive at its ultimate destination.)  There’s no sense of urgency to the character on any level.  She seems to be going through the moral motions only because someone has to, which leaves me to ask, “Was no one else a bit more interesting available?”
 
Also, I have to throw just a touch of shade on all of the praise being afforded the late actor Ray Stevenson.  (Bite your tongue, haters, and let me make my point.)  While I think the man was an immeasurable talent who left our world far too soon, can someone please explain to me why I should give a player major kudos when looking like he’s downright Shakespearean while be paired up with planks of wood?  Of course, I’m glad he showed up for work and isn’t phoning it in, but even his delivery in places only begs the question as to what is his true motivation as a villain especially when he claims he’s only doing this for the good of the galaxy?  Who defines good?  The guy who joined some dark players in order to advance his agenda?  Or the guy who apparently walked away and hid while his brothers and sisters were felled in the execution of Order 66?  Didn’t we just cheer Hera for pointing out something thematically similar to a New Republic senator?  Why are we giving Baylan Skoll a pass?  Because we like him?
 
Has anyone called New Republic Child Services on Hera for her unauthorized ‘take your child to work day’ excursion?  Are we not concerned about toting the young’un into battle, or is that perfectly acceptable ‘girl power’ on display?
 
Has there been a more useless droid in the Outer Rim than Huyang?  At least C3PO convinced the Ewoks that they were better off helping the Rebels defeat the Empire.  Plus: great comic relief.
 
At spending an alleged $25M per episode, could we really have not come up with a better line than “going somewhere?”  In case you missed it, that’s what Shin confronted Ahsoka and Sabine with in the forest before swords were drawn and blood (erm … smoke?) was spilled.
 
Does the New Republic employ so few X-Wing fighter pilots that Captain Carson Teva must appear in every show?  Good grief?  What?  Are there only twelve space jockeys on staff?  No wonder the Sequel Trilogy undid this useless New Republic so quickly.  Even I know better than that, and I’ve never been to space!
 
Lastly … and I do mean lastly … why was it that the magical ball/map only burned Ahsoka?  Sabine touched it.  She’s fine.  Baylan touched it.  He’s fine.  Why is it damn near everyone else can get their hands on the thing without being harmed?  Again … is that a misdirect … or is something more at work?
 
Sigh.
 
I just don’t know.
 
As I hope you can see, I’m downright befuddled by this show and – to a small degree – both sides of its reception.  I can see strengths and weaknesses in every scene, and I can only hope against hope that (cough cough) Anakin’s arrival might help shine a bit of light on just what the maker has intended for this whole, galaxy-hopping affair … because right now?  I haven’t a clue.
 
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that I’m beholden to no one to provide a review of Star Wars: Ahsoka streaming series as I’m presently a subscriber to Disney+ … which might be changing in the future as their programming has really gotten a bit stale.

​-- EZ

From a Google.com search:
 
Aporia: (noun) - an irresolvable internal contradiction or logical disjunction in a text, argument, or theory.
 
“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.”
 
For those unaware, the above is little more than an ad slogan made famous during the 1970’s for Chiffon Margarine.  Essentially, what would happen is Mother Nature herself – embodied by actress Dena Dietrich – would show up only to be fooled into thinking that she was tasting margarine instead of real butter.  As a consequence of the ruse, she’d look at the camera, mildly threateningly say “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” and then release environmental wrath in the form of thunder, lightning, wind, or what have you.  Everyone would learn their lesson (especially Chiffon, which ultimately died out as a brand in U.S. and Canada sometime in 2002), and a good time was had by all.
 
The moral to each of these clever commercials was that trickery against the natural establishment – no matter the shape, size, intent, or form – will likely always be exposed for what it is and will provoke a necessary retribution of perhaps an even greater magnitude.  So … don’t try it, users, unless you’re willing to suffer whatever response Fate – or Mother Nature – might unleash.
 
This central idea has long been the lesson provided to a good number of time travel stories.  For example, renowned Science Fiction author Ray Bradbury’s famous short story – “A Sound Of Thunder” – postulates that visitors sent back in time might irrevocably alter their future by some small and/or inadvertent action in the distant past.  In the tale, an event as small as unintentionally stepping on a butterfly could fell a series of dominos across time and space, ultimately putting an entire civilization in ruin.
 
Get it?  “It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature!”
 
Succinctly, audiences have seen stories like Aporia before, and they’ve seen them plenty of times.  In fact, one might argue that the central tenet to any if not all time travel stories is that the players are going to pay a price for fooling Mother Nature, and it’s going to eventually be a very big one.  So, critically, the only distinguishing characteristic to any new temporal manipulation yarn is how well its narrative pieces are assembled; and – on that front – Aporia makes for a compelling visit or, at least, one that holds it own in the growing pantheon of Butterfly Effect tomes.  It never provides anything fresh or all that different, but it does tinker in a small way with the construct that might draw the attention of cinema academics but probably no one else.
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(NOTE: The following review will contain minor spoilers necessary solely for the discussion of plot and/or characters.  If you’re the type of reader who prefers a review entirely spoiler-free, then I’d encourage you to skip down to the last few paragraphs for the final assessment.  If, however, you’re accepting of a few modest hints at ‘things to come,’ then read on …)
 
From the film’s IMDB.com page citation:
“Since losing her husband, Sophie has struggled to manage grief, a full-time job, and parenting her devastated daughter, but when a former physicist reveals a secret time-bending machine, Sophie will be faced with an impossible choice.”
 
I firmly believe that all of us cradle some event in the past that each of us secretly wishes there were a means to alter in ways big and/or small; and that’s the central issue that Aporia confronts reasonably eloquently.  For Sophie (played by the luminous Judy Greer), it’s the death of her loving husband Mal (Edi Gathegi), an incident that put both her and her daughter Riley’s (Faithe Herman) lives spiraling out of control.  Naturally, Sophie isn’t going to expend countless hours evaluating the pros and cons of using a device to change history – to reach back in time and kill the drunk driver instead of seeing her husband die as a consequence – because her inconsolable grief wouldn’t allow her to.  However, once she commits the act – one that brings Mal back but truly only transfers the grief onto another mother and daughter – Sophie’s true conflict begins.
 
As you can see, Sophie – the everyman of a fairly straight forward melodrama that truly only uses the Science Fiction elements to spin its yarn – isn’t all that different from you or me.  Given the same set of circumstances, each of us would likely do the same – we’d bring back a lost loved one – and then we’d be spurred by our guilt to try to help those we’d inadvertently harmed along the way.  But in doing so – by employing the same device to now manipulate time even further – Sophie only traps herself further down than rabbit hole wherein Fate – the aforementioned ‘Mother Nature’ – will eventually unleash a fury that’ll change the world into something it was never quite meant to be.
 
So, yes, if you’ve watched any time travel story, then it’s pretty clear that this is territory that’s been amply explored before.  Nothing new – well, except for perhaps how this particular device works – is added to the equation; but the performances by all involved here are quite good, so much so that I found it hard not to be drawn into the occasionally heady web.  Greer has always been an actress on my radar – I’ve enjoyed her work in everything I’ve seen – and Aporia does give her more emotional substance to explore.  She’s up to the task here, and she’s well-matched with Gathegi as the man who’s momentarily mortified to learn how he’s been drawn into such unfortunate circumstances.  Their journey of opening up a temporal Pandora’s box and slowly discovering what they’ve undone along the way makes this an experience worth its running time.
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My chief quibble?  (You didn’t think that you were getting out of here without at least one, right?)
 
The film closes on a note of high uncertainty.  It’s one of those finales that hangs open, encouraging audiences to ultimately guess the fate of those who spent the previous 100+ minutes tempting Fate.  (Yes, yes, and yes: I get that a happy ending is strongly implied, but as we’re given no particulars it’s still inconclusive to this critic.)  Writer/director Jared Moshé probably wants viewers to now go off and talk about his ‘did she or didn’t she?’ moment, and – argh – I’m just never a fan of such hocus-pocus.  Like the characters manned up to make a hard choice, I prefer stories that definitively do the same.  Leave those shenanigans to lesser features.
 
But – and I do promise this is my last observation – kudos for making what must be one of filmdom’s ugliest time machines!  Its sheer hideousness ably demonstrates the unsightliness of the choices these characters faced, and that alone spoke volumes when it mattered most.
 
Aporia (2023) was produced by Armian Pictures, BondIt Media Capital, Buffalo 8 Productions, and Soapbox Films.  DVD distribution (for this particular release) has been coordinated by the fine folks at Well Go USA Entertainment.  As for the technical specifications?  While I’m no trained video expert, I thought that the sights-and-sounds were exceptional from start-to-finish.  Lastly, if you’re looking for special features?  The disc includes the theatrical trailer along with a short ‘making-of’ featurette for fans to enjoy.
 
Recommended.
 
While there’s little new added to the growing universe of time travel and/or temporal paradox stories, Aporia is held up on the shoulders of its performers; and their emotional discoveries do make for some quality screen experiences.  Greer is quite good as the film’s lead – I’d love to see her do more roles with this range – and those around her certainly prove that they’re up to the challenge of pulling at the audience’s heartstrings each time it’s tried.  True genre fans will appreciate the heartfelt story, but casual fans might grow a bit weary, knowing such territory has been trod before.  Watch it for Greer and Gathegi’s work, though, and you shouldn’t be disappointed.
 
In the interests of fairness, I’m pleased to disclose that the fine folks at Well Go USA Entertainment provided me with a complimentary Blu-ray of Aporia (2023) by request for the expressed purposes of completing this review.  Their contribution to me in no way, shape, or form influenced my opinion of it.

​-- EZ