Jessica Jones – Season 1 Review

Jessica Jones

Jessica Jones will undoubtedly be compared to Netflix’s other Marvel show, Daredevil, but it actually reminds me of Heroes more than anything (or at least, those brief moments when Heroes was sorta kinda good). It doesn’t pack the same gritty gut punch that Daredevil did. Its pace is slower, its tone brooding, and its story full of detours. I mean, seriously, Jessica’s quest to find the villain, Kilgrave, is frequently derailed by other people’s desires, to the point where you start to wonder if this Kilgrave guy is even much of a threat.

When Kilgrave is used correctly, however, he is a scary bad guy. But like Sylar from Heroes, Kilgrave works better as an offscreen threat. The first few episodes where we only see Kilgrave’s brainwashed victims are terrifying. Jessica Jones shows the dangers of mind control better than anything else I’ve seen, and some of the things Kilgrave makes people do are absolutely horrific. Alas, once we get to know the man and his motives, the show almost grinds to a halt. Fortunately, things pick up again in later episodes, and the show ends on a strong note. I just feel like the journey there could have been condensed.

One theme that was particularly interesting, though, was the exploration of the show’s secondary characters and how they were affected by the actions of the heroes and villains. Any other show would have simply shrugged off the death of a non-important character, but Jessica Jones continues to follow the consequences of this “collateral damage.” Hell, there’s even a support group for Kilgrave survivors! Things like that help keep the superhero stuff grounded. And I guess that’s ultimately what this show is: the realistic comic book story that Heroes failed to be.

Master of None – Season 1 Review

Master of None

I guess the fad now is to give a stand-up comedian a television show where they play an alternate version of themselves wandering around LA or New York, trying to be more poignant than their stand-up act lets on. Master of None definitely feels like Louie and, to a lesser extent, Maron and Legit. I’m already liking Master of None more, though. While I don’t really care for Aziz Ansari’s stand-up routine, I do like him as an actor and, considering we’re almost the same age, find him more relatable. But even if he was ten years older, I would hope that Ansari’s enthusiastic personality would still be a thing. It’s much more enjoyable watching him react to a bad situation, because his delivery, even when he’s “sad,” is energetic and fun.

For instance, one of my favorite exchanges is when Ansari tells a story to H. Jon Benjamin’s character, whose response is, “That’s a pretty boring story. I wouldn’t tell that to anyone else.” And Ansari replies, “Yeah, I could feel it going south as I was saying it.” I feel like every other show would have turned that into a big argument or sticking point for the characters, but Ansari’s Dev self-deprecatingly shrugs it off and moves on. Unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of other laugh-out-loud moments in the series. Sure, most of it is at least amusing, but Ansari and team are clearly striving to wax philosophical and fight social injustices with this project. Which is fine. It doesn’t have to be hilarious. I just hope future seasons don’t turn into an all-out drama like Louie has become.

Can I back up for a minute, though, and say how great it is that H. Jon Benjamin has a recurring role? It’s always fun to see him outside of cartoon voice-overs. But the rest of Dev’s friends and co-workers aren’t nearly as endearing. His main band of friends in particular didn’t work for me. It wasn’t that they were dumb characters but that the actors’ performances felt forced, like every one of them had been miscast and was now stuck trying to make the best of it. I’m not sure it was a good idea to use Ansari’s real life parents as Dev’s parents, either. His father seemed to enjoy the role, but his mother always looked like she was reading cue cards. Regardless, despite the overall weak cast, it’s a fun show, and I really hope we see a second season next year.

Jane the Virgin – Season 1 Review

Jane the Virgin

Jane the Virgin is notable in that it has the first love triangle that I’ve actually been able to tolerate. This isn’t just about a girl trying to choose between a vampire and a werewolf. The circumstances (being accidentally artificially inseminated) create an environment where… yeah, I could see how it would be difficult to know who you’re meant to be with. And so I don’t mind the back-and-forth there. I just hope it doesn’t drag out for the entire lifespan of the series. But it’s not like that’s the only plot going on. Jane the Virgin is full of drama—occasionally overdoing it at times—so the pregnancy is often in the background of everything else going on.

The best way to describe this show is that it’s a Spanish telenovela made for American audiences. The situations are ridiculous, sure, but the characters are believable and likable. And while there are many attempts to tug at the viewer’s emotions, the overall tone is fairly lighthearted. In fact, it kind of reminds me of Arrested Development. The narrator is jokey and meta, there are many cutaway gags, and the writers obviously delight in coming up with clever ways to transition between scenes. Plus, the ensemble is great. Gina Rodriguez is an extremely talented actress, though my favorite character is Rogelio, whose Hollywood-like buffoonery helps balance out the constant cry sessions from the Villanueva family.

The grandmother character kind of bugged me, though. While her somewhat judgmental religious beliefs are probably true to many Latina families, it doesn’t always make for good TV. At least Jane felt more like Charlie Brown in that, despite her best efforts to be a good person, things didn’t always go her way. It’s easier to root for a preachy underdog than a preachy overdog. But my bigger complaint with the grandma is how she only spoke Spanish while every other character only spoke English with her. The creators clearly weren’t afraid to include Spanish dialogue, so why water it down? Why treat it like a Star Wars cantina? The show embraces so much culture already, they didn’t need to stop at 90%. But then I don’t mind reading subtitles, so I’m sure I’m the exception here.

Splatoon Review

Splatoon

I really wish I liked Splatoon more than I do. It’s such a great idea, like a third-person shooter Battle Painters. And if any other studio had been behind it, I think it would have turned out great. Alas, Nintendo just doesn’t know how to make a good online game. Wait, I take that back. Mario Kart 8 was superb, so I really don’t understand how they messed this up. Oddly, you have to choose your weapon (i.e. character class) before you join an online game. You can’t see what other players are choosing, which makes it impossible to create a balanced team. Then if you decide you don’t like the weapon you chose, you have to exit the lobby and join a new match. So ridiculous…

Oh, but that’s not the last of it. When you join a friend’s game, you won’t always be put on the same team. My brother and I tried to play together several times and were only on the same team maybe 20% of the time. Team assignment seemed to be completely random. It wouldn’t even try to balance out the levels of each player. I’m kind of late to the Splatoon party, though, and most players are already at Level 30+. That means they have access to better weapons, which is frustrating. It takes too long to level up, earn gold, and buy/unlock new stuff. I’m already running out of patience at Level 7. I hate most of the guns, anyway. Because we’re dealing with paint, most weapons have a very short range. Only the paint roller has been fun to use, but, going back to my previous point, it can be annoying if everyone on your team chooses a roller.

I think the only way to really enjoy this game is if you have enough personal friends to play with. That way, you can set up a private match and circumvent the daily arena restrictions (yes, every day, you only have access to two arenas for some dumbass reason). That would also let you lay down some ground rules and allow for better coordination with teammates. For lone gamers, however, I just can’t recommend this, despite how much I want to support the game’s originality. The single-player mode may be a nice consolation prize, but the meat of the game is the online mode, and it is just way too unfriendly for anyone who has ever played a good online multiplayer game before.

Klischée – Touché Review

Touché is an album from yesteryear and one I’ve already listened to a hundred times, but that’s why I feel the need to gush about it. It’s the rare album where I not only like every song but haven’t gotten sick of listening to it so many months later. Of all the debut electro swing albums I’ve heard, Touché is the strongest. For other groups like Caravan Palace and Swingrowers, they didn’t hit their stride until their second release. But Klischée was amazing right out of the gate. And yet nobody is talking about them! At least, in my many hours of scouring the Internet, looking for “best of electro swing” lists, their name has never come up. I only knew of their existence through the publisher’s website, Freshly Squeezed Music.

I guess I shouldn’t sing their praises too loudly, because Touché could very well have been a fluke. This is the perfect example, though, of using swing as your basis and then layering your own energetic voice on top of it. It’s not overly “electronic,” nor is it overly “big band swing.” They’ve struck a sublime balance with a good ratio of vocal to instrumental tracks. The tone, however, does feel a little darker and more serious than other swing artists. Well, I hate to call it “dark,” because that might give the wrong impression. Everything is upbeat and danceable, but it doesn’t come across as sugary sweet. You could listen to this in any mood, and it would feel right. Maybe that’s why I haven’t taken it out of rotation yet. And I hope I never have to.

Yoshi’s Woolly World Review

Yoshi's Woolly World

The last time Nintendo tried something like this, we got Kirby’s Epic Yarn, which didn’t work all that well and was basically a Kirby game in name only. Yoshi’s Woolly World, on the other hand, feels like a true Yoshi sequel. In fact, I’d consider it the successor to the N64’s Yoshi’s Story. The mechanics are almost identical, after all. But where I remember Yoshi’s Story being overly simple and easy, Woolly World is actually challenging at times and makes a good effort to introduce new gimmicks in each level. That combined with the wool theme keeps the game interesting and feeling fresh throughout. Granted, Nintendo didn’t learn from all of their mistakes in Epic Yarn and still included sections where Yoshi transforms into a vehicle. These are dumb, obviously, but aren’t as frequent and aren’t nearly as painful.

The most important part of the game, however, is that the whole thing can be played co-op. I’m such a sucker for co-op that the original Yoshi’s Story would have probably been one of my favorite 64 games had it featured a two-player mode. My wife and I had a great time overcoming obstacles the “co-op way,” though Woolly World starts to suffer from New Super Mario Bros. Wii syndrome where players keep accidentally hindering each other. Every time one of us jumped on a bounce pad, it would drag the other player off the screen, thus killing them (where “kill” means they turn into a flying egg). In that regard, co-op may actually be the harder way to play. But if you’re a fan of 2D platformers, you’ll like this one no matter how you approach it.