REVIEW: Dead of Summer, Episode 103
Dead of Summer continues its first and only season with a Cricket centric episode entitled “Mix Tape”, which means that it is time she starts seeing things that aren’t there.
In flashbacks we find out that writing on walls of Camp Stillwater isn’t Cricket’s first attempt to pass on a wrong image about herself, because she used to do the same in her school. Why? It wasn’t very clear the reason why she used to do this. Apparently she wanted boys to think she is up for anything, but the truth is that she isn’t. Maybe she thought that people would like her more, but if that is the case, then she doesn’t like herself that much because you should want people to like you for who you are and not for someone you occasionally pretend to be.
But the most uncomfortable and shocking scene in these flashbacks is yet to come: after Cricket found out that her dad was having an affair with the neighbor, she goes to tell her mom but she already knew. She knew, but she didn’t do anything about it and she also didn’t intend to. “Women like us, sometimes we gave to settle”, and so that is what she is doing. Even though this shows takes place in the 80s and we are now in the 21st century, this is, unfortunately, still something very real. And someone ignoring their significant other while they are having an affair is probably the best case scenario, because there are definitely worst situation in which people simply decide to settle. The most unfortunate of all this, is that people like Cricket’s mom will always exist, no matter in what century we are nor how much progressive the world is.
In present day Cricket continues with her “wall art” in an attempt to get Alex to notice her, but instead of him, she caught somebody else’s attention: Damon’s. Even after she ignored him the first time, Damon didn’t give up and, for him, the second time was the charm. Of course Cricket only went out with him to make Alex jealous, and her move definitely worked because Alex and Damon ended the night fighting. After this, they were both in a cabin making out, and that is when Cricket finally realized that she doesn’t want a simple hook up, but something that would last a lot more than one night; she wants a Mix Tape. And a mix tape was exactly what Blotter had made for her before he left, making Cricket regret ignoring him while he was still in the Camp.
Meanwhile, Joel and Deb continue bonding and I have to say that I love seeing them together now. It was great watching them interact with each other and talking about old movies and how they love them. Jessie and Garrett also shared a few moments together and it was also sweet when they went back to a bench they had carved when they were at the camp. Near the “Townie and Braces” these two almost shared a kiss. Unlike Jessie and Garrett, Drew and Blair actually kissed (finally).
But even though love is in the air, there is no rest for the wicked, so Damon and his gang continued with their ritual and in the end of the episode we found out why he was so interested in Cricked: he thought she was the one they needed, but turns out that is Amy because she is the one who was at the lake when they started performing whatever it was that they were doing.
Of course that when bad guys don’t take a day off, good guys can’t either, so Garrett continued to try to find out more myths about the lake, and by doing so he found out the name of the “Tall Man”: Holyoke. I really do admire Garrett’s persistence and dedication to this case. If all cops worked half as hard as he does, I am sure the world would be better than it is now.
Overall, this was a good episode, but I feel like the show so far isn’t getting better, out of the contrary. I liked the pilot because, as I said before it was mysterious and creepy, but that seems to have lost its way. The show will get better closer to the end, but it is a shame that it is a bit stopped now. I do like how they are developing the characters, because I think they are really well written, but they were able to develop Amy and still make her episode creepy. Because of that loss of goosebumps, I am giving this episode a 7.1/10.
But as I said, the show will get better, so stick around for my review of the forth episode entitled “Modern Love”, which has Drew as a centric character.
REVIEW: Dead of Summer , Episode 102
Dead of Summer takes another step in its season with the second episode entitled “Barney Rubble Eyes”, in which the campers arrive to Stillwater, making all things even weirder.
Like last episode, and like most episodes in the future, we saw some flashbacks, this time telling Alex’s story, and it surprisingly started in Russia. The episode begins with his grandfather telling him that if Alex wants something in this world, he is going to have to take it, because this world bears no gifts. This is actually not a bad advice, and Alex made into its life mantra. We even saw him applying it: when he started working at a Dry Cleaning shop he found out that his boss was having an affair with another employee, and so he threatened he would tell his family about it if the Boss didn’t let him take a few shirts every once in a while. And this makes the mystery of the shirts, presented in the last episode, solved. Of course that this was a smaller mystery and no one actually thought it was connected to THE main mystery, but it is a nice way to start.
Of course that when there are creepy mysteries there has to be children around, and so, as I said before, the campers arrived and in the midst of them there was a very peculiar kid, Anton. Like Alex, Anton is Russian so, for this and other reasons, he reminded Alex of himself. As the episode unfolded, we could see that Alex identified himself in that kid more and more, but he didn’t want to say anything to him while there were other people around, probably because no one knew Alex is Russian. But in the end Alex helped him, which was great: he told Anton he should change his name to something a bit more american and even helped him stand up to the mean kids.
But reminding Alex of himself wasn’t the only thing Anton was up to during the episode. On several occasions, this kid spoke to someone he referred to as “Tall Man”, who is actually the ghost we saw in multiple occasions during the pilot. Of course that no one believed him, and they all started to think about living people that Anton might have seen, and so Sykes started pointing fingers to Damon, a character we only met this episode.
Another episode, another death. Even though everyone thought Anton’s mystery was solved, Alex and Blotter still lost sight of him in multiple occasions, so someone had to go down for it. Because Alex wanted to keep the job, he drugged Blotter with his own stuff, so Deb would think he was stoned all the time. Deb fired him and, on the way home, Blotter found the Tall Man, looked back and we only had time to hear him scream. Even though we didn’t see his body, I am sure he is dead.
One thing this episode did really well was pairing people up, of course not simply in straight lines, but also made some triangles. Alex and Amy seem to have started something real, but now Amy knows it was all a bet. Amy and Sykes also made a connection last episode, something Jessie isn’t very happy about. Cricket is now going after Alex. Summing up: things are very confusing to what it comes to romances. The ones that seem simpler are Blair and Drew, who seem to have made a connection, however small. Aside from all these, there is also a little blue bird between Joel and Deb, but for now it seems like the chemistry is mostly in Joe’s side, even though he knows she is hiding a few things.
All things considered, Dead of Summer is developing its story slowly for now and that seems to be a plus, because overwhelm the audience with a lot of mysteries right in the first couple of episodes would definitely have had an even worst impact. I think these two episodes so far have been kind of equally good, but because last episode was a bit scarier, I am giving this one a 7.3/10 (a little less compared to the previous one).
The third episode is entitled “Mix Tape” and it will have Cricket as centric character, promising to also answer a few mysteries.
REVIEW: Dead of Summer, Episode 101
When the fall is over all you can do is rely on summer shows to keep yourself entertained. As summer shows come and go, Dead of Summer was a very enjoyable one. It is creepy, sometimes scary, the characters are really well developed, there is a big mystery that ultimately makes sense, and not to mention that it is also very surprising, especially closer to the end. This now being the era of anthologies (at least that is what it looks like because there seems to be a new one at every corner) this show didn’t really add anything special to the world of television. If it had been done a few years earlier it would probably had been more successful and thus it would have been renewed. Dead of Summer was, in my opinion, a show with potential but which was cut down before it had the chance to make an impact, which unfortunately happens a lot. Who knows if this show would have been able to turn into the new American Horror Story?
“Looks can be deceiving” can definitely be this season’s mantra and we kind of start to see that in this first episode, entitled “Patience”. But of course that what is deceiving in this pilot is just a taste of what’s to come, because it isn’t even comparable to some plot twists that we will see throughout these short 10 episodes.
The main plot of the show happens in 1989, when a woman known as Deb decides to reopen a summer camp, Camp Stillwater. Deb was kind of a sideline character in this episode, so let’s move on to the people who weren’t: the counselors. The first one we meet is Amy, who is not just a newbie to Camp Stillwater, but to summer camp in general. Everyone else is in for the ride mostly for some nostalgia of the good old days. She has a bit of a hard time fitting in at first, but by the end of this episode she is a lot more into the camp spirit.
But everyone has secrets, and sweet Amy is no different: in flashbacks we found out that, while trying to sneak out of a party with a friend, Margo, because Amy couldn’t pull her back up nor hold her hand forever, Margo fell to her death. Camp Stillwater knows about this, and so it uses it against her in multiple times. While trying to restore electricity and later while she was just thinking by the lake, multiple creepy hands start reaching out to her. This is what Camp Stillwater does, it finds your most terrifying moment and makes you relive it time and time again.
But Amy was far from the only counselor we met in this episode. We also met: Jessie, who seems to be the camp Bitch; Drew, a boy who turned out to be a girl in the end; Alex, who seems to steal shirts; Cricket, who wants people to think she is way more naughty than she actually is; Blair, who actually doesn’t seem to be hiding much; Joel, who seems to live with a camera in his hand; and Blotter, who seems like the “consequences be damned” kind of guy. Even Deb seems to have some secrets of her own, because people with nothing to hide don’t usually go unbury boxes in the woods during the night. Aside from the camp people, we even got to meet Deputy Sykes, also known as Townie, who really seems to be interested in this new mystery surrounding Camp Stillwater.
Some people may think that it is too soon for bodies to start piling up right in the pilot, but the Dead of Summer writers beg to differ. Aside from a dead deer, Amy found the body of the Gardner of the camp, Dave, when she was swimming in the lake. This took her and Sykes to his cabin where they found lots of creepy pictures of dead people and a map that made the lake look like a beast. Apparently not everyone was OK with them finding it, so they burned down the cabin with Amy and Sykes still inside.
This was, in my opinion, a good pilot. It was full of mystery, some action, some creepiness. What is really interesting about this show is that each episode will focus on a different character, allowing us to see the story through their perspective, to see a glimpse of their past stories, find out how they decided to join Stillwater again and also discover what they are hiding.
Now looking at this episode in an isolate way, I will give it a 7.5/10. I don’t want to aim too high, because, even though this episode was cool, much better ones are coming.
Dead of Summer is just getting started, and so are my reviews. Episode 2 is entitled “Barney Rubble Eyes”, and it will be Alex’s centric, so don’t miss it.
‘Cloak and Dagger’ Trailer Teases a Change in the Origin Story
Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger dropped its first trailer, and we’re here to fill you in and break it down!
Cloak and Dagger are a superhero duo appearing in the comic of the same name published by Marvel Comics.
Cloak a.k.a. Tyrone Johnson (played by Aubrey Joseph) has the ability to open a door to the dark dimension and send people into it, including him, which let’s Cloak teleport himself and others. The character has a hunger for light, which can be alleviated by either consuming the light of victims sent into the dark dimension or light produced by Dagger.
Dagger a.k.a. Tandy Bowen (played by Olivia Holt) has the ability to create “light daggers” that travel wherever she wishes. Her daggers can also cure certain people of drug addiction and drain living beings of vitality.
The TV show will follow Tyrone and Tandy, two teenagers from very different backgrounds who acquire superpowers while getting involved in a romantic relationship. Tyrone and Tandy’s powers work better when they’re together.
Here’s the trailer:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5hrFVQiGyk[/embedyt]
From what we have so far, the biggest change we’ve noticed is the origin story,
Cloak and Dagger originally got their powers after they were experimented on (Deadpool style) by a criminal chemist who was developing a new synthetic heroin. The duo were the only ones to survived and managed to escape the facility.
In the trailer, however, it seems like they get the powers from some sort of car/water accident where Tyrone helps Tandy escape, to then have them not see each other again until they’re teenagers.
In the description showed above, and based off the trailer, it seems like the powers of Cloak and Dagger will be stronger when they’re together. This would be another change from the comics.
We could also find an interesting easter egg in this trailer: Roxxon Corp (a Hydra-like oil corporation that is very prominent in the comics).
Bonus points for having an awesome shot and a clever easter egg in one frame.
The upcoming Freeform series is set to air in 2018.