Chang Noir, Horror Stories and Birth Certificate Conspiracies

We have two new shows to look at this week. Dexter‘s now on its sixth season while American Horror Story is just getting started.

 

Breaking Bad

“End Times” – 5/5

I only need one word to describe the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad’s fantastic fourth season: anticipation. And it’s not the good kind. Right from the get go we’re left expecting terrible things to happen to basically every character on the show. Walt is waiting for a hitman. Jesse’s worrying about Brock’s poisoning. Skyler and Marie are concerned for their family. Hank knows the hit put out on him was Gus. And right at the center of everything is Gus, the super gangster. Even after Walt and Jesse figure out his master plan, he’s still one step ahead of them. The path is paved for the upcoming finale, and there’s no indication of how things will end.

 

Dexter

“Those Kinds of Things” – 4/5

As far as premieres go, this was a good one for Dexter. A year has gone by in the timeline of the show, and a few things have changed. Dexter is at the top of his game, but he encounters something he hasn’t really dealt with much; religion. To match Dexter’s religious curiosity is a new serial killer duo that appear to have religion in mind when they kill. There was plenty of fun moments in the episode, but I also became a little bored during Dexter’s attempts to kill an old high school classmate.

 
How I Met Your Mother

“The Stinson Missile Crisis” – 4/5

What kept this episode from being another classic entry in to the How I Met Your Mother vault was oddly the big draw point. Robin’s been sent to court ordered therapy, which acts as this episode’s anchor as Robin tells the story of how she came to assault a woman. Everytime we had to cut back to the therapy session the stories would lose momentum, which is a big disappointment because they were hilarious. Ted and Marshal in a birthing class? Thank you, more please. Guest star Kal Penn was bland as Robin’s therapist, leaving me wondering why he was even cast.

 

Terra Nova

“Instinct” – 4/5

Terra Nova is, at its heart, a simple, fun series that really shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Yet, so many are taking a magnifying class to it and judging it for silly things like that futuristic vehicles still get flat tires. It’s a new show, so it’s bound to have its fair share of issues, but there’s a lot to love here. I thought the pterosaur plot was exactly the kind of story Terra Nova should be tackling. These people went back 85 million years to escape the collapsed ecosystem of the planet, only to find themselves doing it all over again. And to have reacted so quickly to find a solution was great. They want a fresh start, but they still have a lot to learn if they want to kick humanty’s destructive habits.

 

New Girl

“Wedding” – 4/5

This is an excellent example of the potential New Girl has going forward. You can’t work an entire series around one person forever, so it’s good to grow the supporting characters as quickly as possible. Jess smartly becomes the supporting character while the three roommates have their own adventures. They have a lot to offer as characters, particularly Schmidt. He has potential to be the show’s big star besides Jess. New character Winston came in to his own this episode as he defends his position as a wedding usher against a child. If New Girl can keep this ensemble feel going, it will be a force to be reckoned with.

 
Happy Endings

“Baby Steps” – 5/5

This is Happy Endings when it’s firing on all cylinders. It had three hilarious storylines going on, and they all received equal screen time, something other sitcoms have trouble doing. This show started as a take on the Friends formula, but now that comparison seems silly. This is a faced paced, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants comedy that throws so much good content at you it’s hard to find something to love.

 

American Horror Story

“Pilot” – 4/5

Critically, this horror series, created by Glee creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, has been reemed out pretty good. To be honest, I don’t see where the hate is coming from. I’m not a fan of Murphy and his style over substance way of making TV, but I felt American Horror Story succeeded in what it set out to do. I was genuinely disturbed by the images the house created. A good horror movie doesn’t scare you with surprises (like things jumping out of closets), they come at you slowly, clearly presenting you with terrifying imagery. Horror Story has that in spades, and it leaves you uncomfortable. Now, whether or not it can spread the horror formula over a full season is still in question. We’ll just have to wait and see how it does.

 

Community

“Competitive Ecology” – 4/5

This week Community has found a way to do it’s special brand of “genre spoofing” while also telling a normal (by this show’s standards) sitcom plotline. You might find the vastly different styles conflicting each other on the first viewing, but it’s very bold for “Competitive Ecology” to try and do both types of stories. Chang’s noir style detective tale was a great use of the character and never once tried to make any sense. The other storyline, involving the study group turning against each other yet again, pointed a huge flaw in sitcom structure; the main character’s spend way too much time together. And poor Todd. He just wanted to go home and see his wife and child.

 
The Office

“The Lotto” – 3/5

What’s holding back The Office from being the great show that it once was is its over reliance on stupid characters. Kevin never used to be this dumb, and are we supposed to believe Dwight and Jim can’t figure out how to load a truck? What makes it look worse is the genuinely heartfelt story of Daryl and Andy. The warehouse workers won the lottery using Daryl’s birthday, but he wasn’t in the pot and now he’s super depressed. He has to find new warehouse workers (the old ones quit now that they’re Oprah rich), but would rather just be fired. Andy struggles with dealing with Daryl, but eventually puts on his boss pants and puts Daryl in his place. In that moment I realized how good of a lead Ed Helms can be as Andy. I think they made the right choice with him. Now if only they could make the right choices with everyone else.

 

Parks and Recreation

“Born & Raised” – 4/5

As far as Parks episodes go, this was fantastic, just not top tier material. It had endless laughs, great character moments, but it was missing something. I would love to see more adventures with Leslie and her campaign entourage (consisting of Andy and Chris). They got the most laughs thanks to Andy’s physical comedy and Chris’ just plain craziness (the look on his face when Ron calls him Steve: priceless). I always like seeing Tom’s wheel greasing back fire, but having Ben get dragged down with him made it even better. I wish I could put my finger on what it was the episode was missing, but I can’t.

 

Supernatural

“The Girl Next Door” – 3/5

The beginning of this episode was very strong, but dropped significantly when the flashbacks began. Instead of informing the story, they felt more like an annoying interruption to what was going on with Sam and Amy. On top of that, the past was distinguished by a yellowish tinge that felt completely unnecessary.

 
Fringe

“Alone in the World” – 4/5

The search for Peter has officially begun! Walter spends a lot of the episode fearing for his mental health while grabbing hold of a young boy who is involved in the latest case. John Noble brings his A game, showing the complex emotions Walter feels from spending so much time in a mental institute. There’s plenty of parallels to be made between Walter’s brief friendship with the boy and his not forgotten relationship with Peter. This first string of episodes has been great at showing us this new world in Fringe, but now it feels like everything is ready to bring Peter back.

This Week in Review: Ducky Ties, Dinosaurs, and Butt Tattoos

This was one heck of a week of television, as you can tell by the many 5/5s. Let’s get to it!

Breaking Bad

“Crawl Space” – 5/5

If a season of good television is just setting up metaphorical dominoes and then knocking them down for the finale, then Breaking Bad must be a truly great show. “Crawl Space” spent the first 30 minutes setting up dominoes and abruptly decided to knock them all down right away. The result is 15 minutes of chaos. Walt scrambles to save his family only to realize, thanks to the toppling dominoes, he no longer has the money to pay for new identities. The episode leaves us with a Walt who has seemingly lost his mind, cackling over the dire situation. The only question now is, what next?

 

Alphas

“Original Sin” – 5/5

Alphas had a lot of pressure when it first premiered, as most saw it as a Heroes/X-Men clone, but the show quickly established its own tone and style. In fact, Alphas has taken what Heroes has done before and improved upon it. Now with the first season finale, the way has been paved for a more driven second season, complete with a real villain for the Alphas to tangle with. Gary shined in this episode in particular, as he displayed complex emotions despite his handicap. There was an intense atmosphere through out the episode that exploded at the Red Flag raid, and lingered right up until the cliffhanger ending. Next season can’t come quickly enough.

 

How I Met Your Mother

“The Ducky Tie” – 5/5

This was a definite return to classic form for HIMYM. The first two episodes were great, but this was a whole other level. We got a hilarious story from Marshal, Lily and Barney about a bet involving Lily’s boobs and a big return from both Victoria and romantic Ted. The show hasn’t been this strong in a long time, and I hope it uses this positive momentum to charge through this season.

Terra Nova

“Genesis” – 4/5

My scoring for Terra Nova is based primarily on how everything worked together. If you take this apart and look at each piece individually you begin to see the seams, but if you take a step back and view it as a whole it becomes else entirely. You really feel that the money put in to this premiere was well spent. We get action, tenderness, CG, a dystopian future, naturally beautiful environments and threads of the season’s long running plotlines. This is the show to watch out of all the new ones. It deserves your attention more than anything else.

 

New Girl

“Kryptonite” – 3/5

In a kind of weird move, New Girl replaces one of its main characters. Bye-bye Coach, hello Winston. Is he as good or as memorable as Coach was, hardly, but he at least has more of a chance to grow. Schmidt is turning in to the most entertaining of the three guys, and Jess is basically the same as she was in the pilot. This is a pretty bland second episode. There are still plenty of laughs, but I’m wondering how long the show can keep its premise going. I mean how long does a show have to run before calling it New Girl becomes redundant?

 

Awkward.

“I Am Jenna Hamilton” & “Fateful”  – 5/5

The first season finale of Awkward. had everything a good finale needs. There were resolutions aplenty, but they were the kind that led to more problems. Jenna may have chosen Jake, but will she stay with him for long knowing how bady she’s hurt Matty? And what of the letter? Did Jenna’s mom really write it? All of this was set up expertly around the prom theme of the finale.

 

Happy Endings

“Blax, Snake, Home” – 4/5

Happy Endings lives in its own little world. When I first started watching it, I liked the fast paced line-o-rama thing it had going, but found it odd that every character was so witty. The show has grown on me since, and its become one of those comedies you can sit down with and enjoy without worrying about… well anything really. The plots are generally always rehashed sitcom plots, but they come off a little more bizarre when Happy Endings does them. The premiere started off just right with a mass panic from the group that involved Brad being stabbed and Jane having an allergic reaction to oysters. A hilarious opener if ever there was one.

Community

“Geography of Global Conflict” – 3/5

A less than stellar follow up to last week’s premiere, “Global Conflict” was bogged down by Jeff and Annie’s odd relationship. While still quite funny, the Model U.N. story didn’t quite mesh. On the other side of things, the Britta/Chang plot was a bigger success, thanks in part to slow motion and some Lionel Richie.

 

Person of Interest

“Ghosts” – 3/5

I really wanted to give this one a 2, but Michael Emerson’s character saved it from that shame. Everything the pilot did wrong, “Ghosts” does wrong as well. It was like no attempt was made to fix the shows issues, from boring supporting characters to Jim Caviezel’s performance. Thank goodness we got some insight into the Finch character. He’s the most mysterious person on the show, but he’s become the most fleshed out. That shouldn’t happen!

 

The Office

“The Incentive” – 4/5

Making Andy the branch manager allows The Office to revisit classic Michael Scott storylines from a different angle. While Michael was a petty, selfish, sales genius, Andy is a genuine, bumbling idiot. Andy hopes to double the office’s sale by introducing an incentive program that quickly spirals out of his control. The result is the entire office working their butts off to say they can gain the reward of tattooing something on Andy’s… butt. Whereas Michael would have backed out like a coward, Andy goes through with it and wins the adoration of the staff. It was a good episode for the Nard Dog. However, there was this strange plot with Daryl that was suddenly dropped without explanation. What was that about?

 

Parks and Recreation

“Ron & Tammys” – 5/5

Parks continues its awesome streak by having an episode featuring not one, not two, but THREE Tammys. You would normally expect a series to save someone like Tammy Zero for her own episode, but Parks decides to jump the gun and throw her in early. The results are spectacular. All three storylines were hilarious in their own right, and demonstrated how well this series has gotten at balancing its characters. The Office has a hard time keeping multiple storylines on the go in a single episode, while Parks knocks them all out of the park (freaking puns!).

Supernatural

“Hello Cruel World” – 5/5

From the moment the episode began it was nonstop ride of dark intensity. Not even a minute is wasted in dumping Cas’ body and spreading the Leviathans in to a local water supply. The Winchester’s are in deep doodoo, and Dean’s the only one left to handle the mess; Sam has gone nuts and Bobby’s missing. The strain of everything is finally getting to Dean and next episode will be a big test for him. Hopefully Supernatural can keep the momentum going.

 

Fringe

“One Night in October” – 5/5

Last week was a sort of reintroduction to Fringe after the summer break. It was a kind gesture to soften our landing as we entered a whole new timeline. “One Night in October” offers no hand holding however, as we plunge deep in to the parallel universe pseudoscience. Anna Torv was fantastic, adding subtle differences to both Olivias so you could tell them apart even if they were in the same scene. The idea of bringing a civilian Over There to help in an investigation proved to be a valuable story tool. Fringe is at its strongest when it embraces how weird it is, and this was one strong episode.

First Weekly Review Round Up and Already Late

Yes, I know I said I would post this yesterday, but in my defense I finally received my welcome e-mail for Pottermore! I think that’s understandable. So here we are, quick reviews of everything I watched this week, along with a number grade out of 5.

Breaking Bad

“Salud” – 5/5

This is easily one of the best episodes of the current season, if not of the entire series. What makes this particularly memorable is Bryan Cranston’s performance as he repents to his son. Granted, he’s hopped on beer and painkillers, but his defenses are down and we get a glimpse at how Walt really feels about himself. On the other side of things, Jesse digs deep in to himself to be the leader Gus sees in him. It’s rewarding to see Jesse succeed at something for once. The episode ends them with a big power play by Gus, who takes down the Mexican Cartel in one fell swoop, though he and Mike are left in a sorry state. This was a powerful, emotional, and fun hour of Breaking Bad.

 

Alphas

“The Unusual Suspects” – 3/5

Nothing is more disappointing than a good show treading a slippery slope. Alphas does just that when it goes too far with the concept of abilities. It introduces someone who can change his shape without giving any scientific explanation to back it up. This is supposed to be a down to earth show, but with powers like shapeshifting it could end up being another Heroes. Despite this huge flaw, the story of the episode, involving a mole in Alpha group, was compelling and gave everyone their chance in the spotlight.

How I Met Your Mother

“The Best Man” – 3/5

One of my favorite sitcoms, How I Met Your Mother came out of the gate strong for it’s seventh season. This isn’t nearly the best episode of HIMYM you’ll watch, but it’s darn good. The most exciting part of the premier was Ted realizing he wants to become the old romantic Ted that’s been messing for a number of seasons. Special props have to go to Cobie Smulders, for being both funny and endearing as she dealt with her lingering feelings for Barney. Now if only Future Ted would stop narrating every little thing.

“The Naked Truth” – 4/5

Airing right after the premier, “The Naked Truth” builds off of what was introduced in the previous half-hour. Barney continues his pursuit of Nora, and while it’s hilarious to see him recount every lie he’s ever told, I have a hard time understanding what he sees in Nora. The most entertaining bit involved Ted attempting to decide which of two girls to take to an Architect Ball through pro and con lists and color charts (of course everyone cheers in excitement). For the first time since the Season 1, Victoria makes an appearance. It feels like the show is trying to get back to its roots, a plan I’m all for. The jokes through out were pretty solid. The only black sheep was Martin Short playing Marshal’s new boss. I’m not sure his character feels real enough at this point.

 

New Girl

“Pilot” – 4/5

As far as new comedies go, they are a dime a dozen. Rarely any of them are good enough to grab my attention, but New Girl has a secret weapon; its star, Zooey Deschanel. Granted, if you are not a fan of her you won’t like her show. It’s all about her character, Jessica, especially in the first episode, and it’s largely successful. The jokes almost always hit the mark. The three guys Jessica moves in with, while entertaining as caricatures, only really work when they interact with Jessica. This could turn in to this year’s break out hit if the other characters can be flushed out more and get bigger plots just for them.

 

Awkward.

“No Doubt” – 3/5

My biggest complaint about Awkward. as a whole is Jenna’s voice over. Sometimes it’s necessary, but mostly, and especially in “No Doubt”, it becomes too much. We don’t need to hear every little though of insecurity that passes through her head, though I understand why the show might think we do. This is her life through her eyes after all. Still, it’s wearing thin and became a big thorn in the side of an otherwise great episode. I wish we hadn’t waited this long to see Matty interact with Tamara and Ming. The fun they all had together looked real and reminded me of being with my friends in high school. There was a lot of sweetness to be had, and it’s all thanks to Matty being such a good guy, despite what Jenna’s inner voice tells her.

Community

“Biology 101” – 4/5

What separates Community from other comedies is its ability to be both funny and deeply character driven. The opening musical number is a perfect example of this. It pokes fun at the show’s past of being big and crazy, while at the same giving us a window in to Jeff’s state of mind. He’s extremely happy that Pierce isn’t in the group, which is why he’s imagining a musical. The episode perfectly explores Jeff’s dependency on the study group and his fear of becoming just like Pierce. John Goodman’s Vice Dean Laybourne is deliciously malevolent, complete with an evil monologue. He’s going to be a fun character. The only thing that drags the episode down is Michael K. William’s biology professor. He doesn’t mesh with the cast, but there’s still time for the character to worked in properly.

 

Person of Interest

“Pilot” – 3/5

This procedural from the mind of Jonathon Nolan and executive produced by J.J. Abrams has the atypical premise of a machine that can predict crimes before the happen. The catch is you only get a person’s social insurance number and the assurance they will be involved. You have no idea if they are in danger or if they are the danger. Jim Caviezel vomits out a wooden, unenthusiastic performance unless he’s beating someone up. Fans of Lost will enjoy Michael Emerson’s Mr. Finch, who is like a good version of Ben Linus. There are some wrinkles that need to be ironed out, otherwise this is a promising series.

 

The Office

“The List” – 4/5

All summer we’ve been wondering who would be the new regional manager of Dunder Mifflin. James Spader returns as Robert California taking over as CEO, and his first act is to promote Andy. Instantly you can tell this means Andy will be getting more screen time, even as the show evolves in to an ensemble piece. This is a different show now and it’s not fair to continue to view it as the old Office. I was particularly annoyed by the planking joke, but the gag lasted so long it became funny. Robert California is significantly toned down, though he’s still pretty intense. I look forward to seeing him interact with more people, especially Jim.

 

Parks and Recreation

“I’m Leslie Knope” – 5/5

Parks and Recreation came out the gates swinging, with Ron running from Tammy 1 with his tail between his legs. The whole escape was just ridiculous and totally Ron Swanson. I can’t wait too see a .gif of Ron running down the hallway. Aside from the heaping amounts of funny from Ron, Andy and the rest, Leslie and Ben have some really sweet moments, particularly at the end when he reveals he knew Leslie was running for office, and they have to end their relationship. Ben attempts to lighten the situation by telling Leslie “It’s not you, it’s me” and listing other break up clichés. These are just so meant for each other, it sucks they have so many obstacles between them.

Supernatural

“Meet the New Boss” – 3/5

This felt like a rocky start to what seemed like a promising development. Castiel as the big bad was fresh, the complete opposite of what we’re used to seeing on Supernatural. But this episode felt so rushed as with Cas’ character arc. On paper it feels right, but it could have used another episode or two to be fully believable. The show attempts to negate the need for more time by having the premiere take places over a couple weeks. That being said, the cliffhanger involving a Leviathan returned the show to an impressive level of intensity.

 

Fringe

“Neither Here Nor There” – 4/5

Watching the Season 4 premiere of Fringe was like going back in time. With Peter blipping out of existence, all our characters revert to their old personalities from when we first met them. Olivia is cold and guard while Walter is afraid to leave his lab. Peter’s influence in their lives becomes extremely apparent. The show reintroduces Over Here’s Lincoln Lee, who acts as an audience surrogate into this alternate timeline. Aside from a few brief flashes, we see nothing of Peter and instead focus on a simple Case of the Week, though it ends with the realization that Walternate may be up to something. It wasn’t the most stand out episode of Fringe ever, but it was a satisfying return made more fun by having our characters act just a little differently.

 

Next week, I’ll be adding Terra Nova and Happy Endings to my reviews, so there will be even more to write about. I apologize in advance if I can’t get it up on Saturday.

A Quick Update

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted anything on this blog. I got pretty busy doing daily news and TV reviews for BoomTron. At first I figured I could do reviews for both that site and my own personal site, but it didn’t last very long. But I have a solution! Instead of posting full reviews here, I’ll do a weekly recap of everything I watched through out the week. Each show will get a quick review and a score out five. If it’s a show that got a full review on BoomTron then I will link to that and you can read more of what I have to say on a particular episode. Maybe in a few months I’ll be able to find more time to do full reviews on both sites, but until such a time this is how things will be done! So every week I will post my reviews on Saturday for the whole world to see (and subsequently criticize ).

Peace!

TV Review: Fringe – “The Day We Died”

Future Peter and Future Olivia.

Are you confused? I know I sure am.

Hot on the heels of last weeks cliffhanger, we find ourselves fifteen years in the future of our universe. Things have changed a lot, so try and keep up. Walter’s been imprisoned, Broyles is a senator, Peter and Astrid are Fringe agents (and so is Olivia’s niece, Elle) and Olivia is in charge of the division, Peter and Olivia are married, the other universe was destroyed, and Walternate lives Over Here and is trying to destroy our world using wormholes. Did you get all that?

The majority of the hour is spent in the future. Even though the world is slowly decaying and will inevitably be destroyed, there doesn’t seem to be a sense of doom. At least not in the frantic “We’ve got to do SOMETHING!” vibe from the past. This has more of a “We’re going to die and there’s nothing we can do about it” groove. This isn’t a happy future. These characters that we know and love have all but lost hope it would seem. Olivia doesn’t even want to have kids because there’s no point bringing life into a dying world.

Things take a drastic turn when Peter confronts Walternate about his attempts to speed up Over Here’s destruction. The twist that he was just a hologram was great, and suddenly that sense of doom resurfaced. Walternate gets his revenge on Peter by shooting Olivia in the head. WHOA!

We saw what we never expected to see; Olivia’s funeral. It was nice touch to mute Peter as he gives her eulogy. We know how he feels and didn’t need to here it. I was haunted by the image of Olivia’s funeral pyre drifting into the water.

And at long last, we get answers about the First People. Walter figures out that at some point in the future he will use the wormholes to send the pieces of the machine back in time millions of years. Great, time travel. My head’s going to be hurting soon. I don’t know if this explanation is what I wanted, but I’m going to take it for what it is, even if it does add some confusing plot holes.

Finally we end up back in the present. Peter brings Walternate and Fauxlivia Over Here and tells everyone they have to work together to save both worlds. Duh? OH and then Peter gets erased from the timeline. Wait, what? Yup, that’s what happened. This brings up so many questions. If Peter never existed, why did Walter cross over? Plot holes galore, but you know what? I’m not going to sweat it. I trust the writers that they know what they’re doing and they’ll be able to explain all this. Unfortunately, this was the season finale and we have to wait until September to get any kind of closure from this confusing but thrilling episode.

TV Review: Happy Endings – “Of Mice and Jazz-Kwon Do” & “Dave of the Dead”

Who's up for a 90's bar mitzvah themed hispter party?

Unlike last week when I reviewed both episodes of Happy Endings separately, I’m going to cram this week’s into one post. Unless of course one of them happens to be either outstandingly good (or more likely bad), I’ll be doing it this way for the rest of the season.

The first episode (“Of Mice and Jazz-Kwon Do”) of the night was pretty forgettable. It had the usual nonsense I’ve come to expect from this show. For some reason, I found Penny to be absolutely painful to watch. It was like she cranked the annoying all the way up, as high as it would go. If that wasn’t bad enough she dragged Jane down into her crazy pit with her.

Everyone else faired a lot better. If it hadn’t been for Penny, this might have been a great episode (for Happy Endings that is). Dave misses his old shower in Alex’s apartment, and uses hunting a mouse as an excuse to hang out there. They have a kind of awkward chemistry that I’m coming around to. Brad and Max explore the finer points of gay stereotyping, which is pretty amusing and also kind of true. Not all gays are the same and just because two people are gay doesn’t mean they’ll get along.

The second episode (“Dave of the Dead”) hit all the right notes for me. It was easily the best episode of the series thus far. It was also the most original, tackling more unique ideas rather than tweaking already tried and true sitcom formulas. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another show feature a competition to see who would survive the longest in a zombie apocalypse. I think about that kind of stuff all the time. The best part was Dave’s mini zombie montage of his daily routine.

Penny was less annoying and I found her to be more endearing. She had a highly amusing storyline this time around. While at a laundromat she meets a cute guy and they hit it off and go for coffee. Unfortunately she doesn’t realize that he’s a hipster. In case you don’t know, a hipster is a person who basically hates everything “mainstream” and tries super hard to look like they don’t care about anything. I dislike these people, so watching them get trashed in the episode was amazing.

If Happy Ending can make more episodes like “Dave of the Dead,” it just might have a chance. It needs more original ideas and creativity. Sticking to sitcom clichés hasn’t really worked for it, so it definitely needs to try new things.

Movie Review: Fast Five

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker with the rest of their crew.

Fast Five is the fifth installment of The Fast and the Furious franchise. In the past, I have not been a fan of these movies (for the record, I have not seen the third movie, Tokyo Drift). They’re fun, yes, but I’m just not interested in street racing thugs who apparently have no fear of death. So no one was more surprised than me when it turned out that Fast Five was actually really good.

A lot of it has to do with the plot of Fast Five. The best movies in the franchise have both Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, but they also tend to have boring undercover cop stories that always run the same way. The fifth movie changes up its approach and goes for a straight up heist story. No one’s secretly a cop; everyone has the same goals.

Now the acting is of a pretty low standard. You forgive the actors though because you’re so enthralled by the action. It’s completely over the top in the best kind of way. Forget any sense of realism. This isn’t that kind of movie. I think once the franchise embraced it’s ridiculous nature it finally became something I can enjoy. For a heist movie it has to be beyond crazy for it to work sometimes. Just look at The Italian Job or the Ocean’s 11 franchise. Those are great movies, and they were all on the unbelievable side of things.

There are cops in Fast Five, FBI to be exact. They are headed by non other than Dwayne Johnson. The former wrestler is fun to watch hunting down the main characters, but is even more fun when he goes toe to toe with Vin Diesel. That was one fight I won’t soon forget.

This was easily the best movie in the franchise. Fans will go nuts over this new entry and if you aren’t already a fan you might become one. At the very least you’ll like this one.