TV: True Blood (Finale)

True Blood
Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

I've been saying to the little sister since this last season began that everyone would die... well, that didn't happen. As soon as Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) was cured I realised there would be a stereotypical happy ending. I was actually terribly disappointed in the finale: it felt like they had just tacked an ending onto a normal episode, like they had only been given two episodes to wrap it all up instead of an entire season.

Highlights were the Eric and Ginger (Tara Buck) finally getting it on, Bill (Stephen Moyer) splooshing all over Sookie (Anna Paquin), Pam (Kristin Bauer van Straten) and Eric's infomercial for New Blood and Lafayette (Nelson Ellis) and James (Nathan Parsons). *swoons* Points of annoyance: Alcide (Joe Manganiello) copping it to the head - I know, not this episode but it still stings! - Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll) and Hoyt's (Jim Parrack) whirlwind wedding... how did that make any sense? Oh, Hoyt, by the way, we used to date but I screwed your best friend and then made you forget all about it... now let's get married before my maker keels over: true love! And the ending... ugh!

Special mention of the reappearance of show favourites: Nan Stackhouse (Lois Smith) and Steve Newlin (Michael McMillan).

Now that it's all over I have to find a new show to have family date nights with...

2 out of 5 naked Eric's...cos why the hell not?! Umph...

TV: Hemlock Grove SE1

Hemlock Grove
Horror, Mystery, Thriller

I started watching this show because I heard that season 2 was coming, it's a Netflix so seasons come out all in one go (love that!) and because I'd run out of decent shows to watch... if you have any suggestions, let me know! I'll be reviewing anime soon... ha!

Anyway, this show confused the hell out of me at first. I kept thinking I was missing things but I'm pretty sure that's just the way the show is. I'd heard a few whispers about werewolves and vampires but I didn't see any for the first few episodes and thought I must have heard wrong... then I saw the above clip... WOW! I literally stood up and cheered. I am so glad they did the werewolf thing right. No cheese, all gross: fantastic! I spent the rest of the season waiting to see the change again.

I love that they've used Gypsies instead of witches, witches are so overdone. In fact, the way this is written, scripted and filmed is done so well that none of the supernatural elements are lame, as we see in most shows of the same genre. Add in Famke Janssen (Jean Grey from X-Men), Bill Skarsgard (Alexander Skarsgard's little brother), Landon Liboiron (Terra Nova, Degrassi) and Lili Taylor (Almost Human, High Fidelity), a mostly unknown yet surprisingly fantastic cast, and we have a pretty darn awesome show!

I especially love the tense bromance between Peter (Liboiron) and Roman (Skarsgard). I wasn't sure whether they were going to rip each other apart or tear each others' clothes off... please go with second one! I'm also enjoying the Gypsy lore featuring Peter's cousin Destiny (Kaniehtiio Horn), the whole mystery of who/what/where Roman's sister Shelley (Nicole Boivin) came from, and what exactly is Roman supposed to be!?

I figured out who the killer was in the first few episodes but that main plotline wasn't what kept me watching... and I kept changing my mind back and forth. This show is full of mysteries! Stay tuned for season 2 review...

4 out of 5 werewolves...

Movie: Oldboy (2013)

Oldboy 
Action, Drama, Mystery

I've had this movie sitting around for a while now, something about the preview made me not too keen to watch it right away. Wow it was amazing, I can't stop thinking about it!

This Spike Lee (Malcolm X) remake from the hugely popular 2003 Korean movie of the same name starts off pretty average. Joe (Josh Brolin) is an ignorant drunk until one morning he wakes up from a bender to find he's been kidnapped and held prisoner with no explanation. His only company is a small television set from which he discovers that he's been framed for the murder of his ex-wife. After being held captive for 20 years with no visitors, he is suddenly and mysteriously let go. He has only a few days to figure out who captured him and held him for 20 years and why, or they will kill his daughter.

I really, really want to give away the twist that made this movie so awesome...but that would spoil it. Go and watch it, it's totally worth it. One of the most underrated films I've watched lately. Also, Elizabeth Olsen's (younger sister to the Olsen twins) boobs and Samuel L. Jackson as a bad guy! Special mentions to Lance Reddick (Fringe, Lost) and Michael Imperioli (Sopranos, Californication).

4 out of 5 twists...

Movie: Grand Piano (2013)

Grand Piano
Mystery, Thriller

I was already a bit jaded on this film after watching just the preview. I knew there would be lots of awesome piano playing which is what I was looking forward to. What I wasn't looking forward to was the thriller side of it... really? Play my pretty, or die! *evil laugh*

Tom, played by Elijah Wood (Lord of The Rings, Sin City) is the brightest piano player of his generation married to the brightest movie star of her generation (Kerry Bishe). Tom has been avoiding performing for 5 years after choking on stage, until his wife sets up a comeback concert. I would be so peeved at her for doing that. Not only does he have the pressure to play well after the failure of his last performance and his wife has set him up this lovely comeback, but he is also being threatened by some crazy person who just so happens to be played by John Cusack (High Fidelity, Being John Malkovich).

In saying all that... I did want this movie to be terrible... but it wasn't entirely. Even though Cusack is a disembodied voice for all but 5 minutes of the film and I actually thought it was all in the pianists head until people started dying, I didn't hate it. The plot was wafer thin and the one part that was interesting was cut off. It's not something I would normally pick up and enjoy... but it wasn't terrible... Kudos to Elijah Wood for actually playing most of those pieces, amazing. Can't say I'll be watching this again though, that's why it gets:

2 out of 5 conductors...

TV: Sherlock SE3 EP1

Sherlock
Crime, Drama, Mystery

Merry Christmas and Happy New Sherlock! I am beyond excited about this show and the return of everyone's favourite neurotic detective, so this will probably be an exceedingly long, swoony post. I - along with everyone else who's seen it - love this show. The cast is amazing and the 1.5hr long episodes are like mini movies which makes the 3 episode seasons not too bad. I know I go on and on about short seasons but if any show can get away with it, it's this one; English shows somehow manage to pull it off.

The opening was amazing, making us think that was how Sherlock (Benedict Cumberbatch - Star Trek Into Darkness) had managed to make everyone believe he was dead... except that's not how it actually happened is it? Will they ever tell us? How do you think he did it? The way Sherlock explained it to the journalist is probably the most liable. Though the jumping through the window and kissing Molly (Louise Brealey)... that scene alone would have made me happy with this episode.

We all knew that Sherlock wasn't dead and even though Watson (Martin Freeman - The Hobbit, The World's End) wished it wasn't so, he had no idea...poor Watson. I was absolutely horrified at that meeting scene... it was everything I could have wanted it to be. I knew he would punch Sherlock... in fact the hubs and I were egging him on the entire time! Sherlock is such an ass! What do we think about Watson's fiance, Mary (Amanda Abbington)? I had a momentary thought that maybe she was a plant... but Sherlock would have picked it up, right?

Mycroft (Mark Gatiss - Doctor Who) knew the whole time then hey? I love the banter between these two; they are each other's bouncing boards. Is Mycroft the smarter one? I wonder if they could do a spin-off for him... spending a day with him would be interesting. And how ordinary are their parents?! Hilarious! How did that happen? Mrs Hudson (Una Stubbs) is brilliant, just giggling away. Lestrade's (Rupert Graves) reaction was surprising.. I thought he would have smacked Sherlock one as well. I loved the fan-fiction Moriarty (Andrew Scott) slash Sherlock scene if only to see the amazing Moriarty again.

Speaking of Moriarty, who is this new nemesis? The one who kidnapped John and put him in the pyre? I wonder if these episodes are at all close to the books. I recently picked up a copy of the classic collection by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and mean to read some of them this year. I'll let you know.

I love the way this is shot; so much black, white and grey... very London! The observations coming up on screen in words, slow motion pan ins and over-layer photographs...great! It's like they show us all the pieces of the puzzle and give us just enough time to almost figure it out ourselves before Sherlock shows us. So well done! I like this show so much better than Elementary, I will probably post about each episode as they come... stay tuned!

5 out of 5 Happy New Sherlock...

Extras

They actually have "I don't shave for Sherlock Holmes shirts" here.

Did anyone else catch some of the #SherlockLives promo tweets? They had an empty hearse drive through London to some of the places Sherlock is filmed and used Twitter to spread the news of the new episode.

Movie: Odd Thomas (2013)

Odd Thomas
Mystery, Thriller

You might recognise the name of this film from the series of books written by Dean Koontz and yes this is an adaptation. I haven't read these books yet but they are pretty high up on my list now. I have read quite a lot of other Koontz though and I recognise his story style in the film. He normally writes mysteries with a twist of the fantastical, such as Odd Thomas (Anton Yelchin - Star Trek). Odd can see dead people, they never talk but using his "psychic magnetism" he figures out how they died and why they cant't move on.

It's a great little story and it features some new faces and some old. I spotted Arnold Vosloo (The Mummy) who made me chuckle as the one armed ghost looking for a laugh and Willem Dafoe (Spider-Man) as the police chief who tries to make sense of Odd's abilities. Addison Timlin (Californication) plays Odd's lovely girlfriend, Stormy. Their relationship is so cute; they're soul mates, even a fortune teller told them so. I love their banter and Stormy's complete and utter acceptance of Odd's abilities.

I really enjoyed this movie. I've heard there has been a bit of a drama over it actually being released and I'm not sure if they've resolved that yet... maybe it will go straight to DVD. But I definitely recommend it. It's funny and has a great story with some fantastic scenes played out by the two leads. I laughed, I cried and it made me want to read the books and find out what happens next with Odd Thomas. If you see this on the shelf, pick it up!

5 out of 5 I see dead people...

TV: Pretty Little Liars

Pretty Little Liars
Drama, Mystery, Thriller

This show is one of my guilty pleasures. It's like watching a teenage version of The Bold and The Beautiful mixed with Lost. I find myself always yelling at the girls for sneaking around and pulling off these massive plans when it would have been much easier if they'd just tell people what the hell is going on. I also tend to rewrite the scenes in my head as they happen... sometimes scenes just aren't realistic and I think of how I would actually do it if I were really stuck in those situations. I just watched two seasons back to back because curiosity kills a Gee and I really just want to know who A is.

Ok, so I had an inkling that Alison (Sasha Pieterse) was alive for quite a while now and finally we get confirmation at the Season 4 mid-season finale (have I mentioned how much I hate mid-season finales? That's just slack guys, you want not one but two finales a season? Ugh!). So she's been alive and doing what exactly for the last three years? Hiding from Ezra (Ian Harding)? Really?! I've been thinking for a while too that it could be one of the boyfriends playing A. I know it's not Caleb (Tyler Blackburn) because of Ravenswood (which is why I started watching this show again, I couldn't figure out how Caleb got there... at least that's all cleared up now). There was a while after Spencer (Troian Bellisario) caught Toby (Keegan Allen) in the hoodie that I thought he was A, but now he's gone all soft... disappointing. But never did it even occur to me that Ezra might be involved!

I thought as well that maybe one of the girls might have been A. I remember my first suspicion was Aria (Lucy Hale) because, well; A and no one would suspect her, ever. Then Spencer went off the rails for a while after finding supposedly dead Toby in the woods and I thought maybe she had turned for real... but of course it was only about finding Toby then. Hanna (Ashley Benson) might be doing it to get back at everyone for calling her fat and not hanging out with her (I know, I rolled my eyes at that sentence too). I don't know why Emily (Shay Mitchell) could be considered... maybe just that is enough to put her under suspicion.

Let's not forget Jenna (Aussie Tammin Sursok) and being all tangled up with Shana (Aeriel Miranda); what is really going on there and who smacked her over the back of the head and left her to drown? Is the other Red Coat CeCe (Vanessa Ray)? Why did she run from Wilden (Bryce Johnson) and who really killed him? Where have Mona (Janel Parrish) and Jason (Drew Van Acker) gone? Speaking of Jason, that older generation actually have some idea what's happening... so next on the never ending list of suspects is Spencer's sister Mellissa (Torrey DeVitto) and her ex-fiance Wren (Julian Morris). What in the world do they know?

I am so freaking confused, dying of curiosity and a little dazed by how ridiculously good looking everyone in this show is... I'm ashamedly addicted and cannot wait 'til January when the season resumes. Meanwhile, I now understand how Caleb ended up in Ravenswood. Guess I'll continue with that...

3 out of 5 Hansels...

(He's so hot right now!)

TV: Person of Interest SE3 EP9

Person of Interest
Action, Drama, Mystery

Holy crap! What an episode! The fandom are all up in arms over this one and I don't blame them. None of us saw that coming.

Finally Joss Carter (Taraji P. Henson - Boston Legal) with a little background help from Elias (Enrico Colantoni - Just Shoot Me!, Veronica Mars), managed to take down HR, a bunch of crooked cops who have been running the town. She finally captured the head honcho and then just had the problem of getting him through police blockades set up by HR to the FBI building. Sounds simple right? Well with a little help from everyone's favourite silver fox, John Reese (Jim Caviezel - The Passion of The Christ) she makes it through the blockades only to get stuck in the morgue.

Let's talk about the kiss shall we. Ok, yeah, I knew John had a little crush on Carter but for some reason I never thought anything would come of it... I suppose nothing has come of it but we'll get to that in a minute. I felt a little weird watching it, maybe because John is so calm and unemotional most of the time. Though I'd feel less weird if Shaw (Sarah Shahi - Alias) suddenly got it on with John, they're matched, ha! Also, I just read somewhere that the kiss was unscripted and they just went with it... that makes sense to me.

In saying all that, they couldn't kill Carter off without the kiss and if I knew she was going to die I might have thought differently of it at the time. But I honestly thought they were going to kill John off and have Shaw take over. I never for a second thought that Harold (Michael Emerson - Lost) would let Root (Amy Acker - what hasn't she been in! Dollhouse is one of my favourites) out, and he didn't thank goodness! But I thought John was done for when he jumped out the vent to take on HR by himself, leaving Carter locked in the morgue. But of course, somehow they got through that too, as they always do!

Then I thought maybe Fusco (Kevin Chapman) was going to bite it, especially when Shaw turned up at his place to save his kid and then there was that almost teary explanation as to why she couldn't save him too! Shaw does have feelings! Then Fusco kicked some ass! Very cool, I love it when the underdog ends up coming out on top!

Even after they delivered the HR head honcho to the FBI, I kept my eye out for Simmons (Robert John Burke - Gossip Girl, Law & Order: SVU) and when he didn't show up I was thinking that maybe they would spend the rest of the season looking for him. In fact, I had it all planned in my head; Elias would turn into the big bad again now that HR was out of the picture, John and Carter would have to try stop him from doing too much bad, then Simmons would reappear and they would join forces to take him down. Viola, end of season.. after all this is only Ep 9! But no, John and Carter get caught unawares and shot... I'm pretty sure Carter clipped him in the shoulder still.

So Carter is dead, John is going to lose his cool and beat some people up in the rest of this season. Maybe the Elias/Simmons thing will still play out as I think....but no Carter. *sobs* Poor John. And what a closing scene! The phone ringing, Harold just standing there, John crying over Carter. Wow. So good.

This is one of the hubs favourite shows right now. Love John's dry cool style, as always. Fantastic episode. What happens next though?

4 out of 5 silver foxes...