REVIEW: American Gods, Episode 102
Like the pilot, “The Secret of Spoon” starts with a little sideline scene, but that still fits completely to the story. A few centuries ago, in a boat full of slaves, a black man prays to his God for help, and in fact a God appears, but probably not the one he was praying for. This way we meet Mr. Nancy, short for Anansi, African trickster God. Like any other God (as we saw in the first moments of the last episode), what Nancy wants is death, sacrifices in his name to keep his belly full. What I like about tricksters in shows and movies (at least in the good ones) is that they usually trick people by telling them the truth, and that is exactly what he does. He tells those soon-to-be slaves all about their not-so-bright future once they get to America. And that makes them burn the ship, killing all those aboard. Pleased, Nancy manages to get back to shore, in a spider form, ready to continue with his tricks.
But Nancy isn’t the only God we meet in this episode. When Shadow goes shopping for Wednesday, he crosses paths with Media who is Mass Media and Entertainment personified. This time she appears as Lucy Ricardo from I Love Lucy. Even after unplugging all the TV’s in the store, Media is still there and she is focused on hiring Shadow, welcoming him to the “winners team” saying that Wednesday is “old news”. I love when she says that the screen is the altar and what people sacrifice to her is time and attention. There are definitely a lot of differences between old and new Gods, but it is really interesting to think about it and realize that maybe sacrificing attention may be better than sacrificing lives. When you sacrifice a life, it may be a powerful sacrifice, but that’s it. But when you sacrifice attention, you do it today, tomorrow and you also did it yesterday. This may prove that the New Gods may have an upper hand. Or not.
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It was also nice seeing how old-fashioned Wednesday is, which could not be in any other way. It was hilarious when he threw the phone off the car window and when he said they would not be using highways, ever. In this episode we also have one of the first clues to Wednesday’s real identity. When Czernobog gets home, he calls him “Wotan”. I am not going to talk about it here (at least not now) because I don’t want to spoil those people that want to find out who he is in the context of the show, but if you do want to find out about it, just google “Wotan”, and you will find it easily.
We are also introduced in this episode to the mysterious Zorya sisters (who come from Slavic mythology). If you, like me, had never heard of them don’t worry because who they are and what they do is explain in the next episode (pretty close to the beginning if I am not mistaken). Apart from these, we also meet Czernobog, who, as a cow killer, also doesn’t like modern tools very much (the details in the explanation he gives are beyond weird and scary, even for someone whose name can be translated as “Black God”).
Czernobog challenges Shadow to a game of checkers and they eventually make a wager that is only worthy of the “Black God” himself: if Shadow wins, Czernobog will go with Wednesday and help him on his quest, but if Shadow loses, he gets to smash his head and brain with a hammer. I think this is the moment Shadow kind of starts to believe the things around him. After seeing Media he was a bit reluctant about the whole thing, but then he sees Czernobog’s hammer bleeding and he just gives up on trying to find a reasonable explanation for everything, because “The world is either crazy or you are”, like Wednesday said.
I think it is also nice to reflect about the title of this episode, because unlike the premiere’s title, this one is not as much straightforward. While Czernobog and Shadow are playing checkers, the “Black God” starts singing a song and after a little digging I found the lyrics:
My love made the sweetest coffee with no sugar at all
She only stirred with her spoon and it was done
Now my drink is bitter, the secret of spoon forgotten
When my voice breaks on this song, remember all love gone
And drink the bitter coffee
And drink the bitter coffee.
We see earlier that the Zorya sisters can read the future through what stays in the cup after one drinks his coffee, and that is what she does with Shadow. But after saying she will do it, Wednesday gets a spoon and mixes his coffee, maybe making it impossible for Zorya Vechernyaya to read his future, and therefore, that secret is forever lost to the spoon.
Overall, this episode was great. It was nice being introduced to new characters, especially knowing that each one has a meaning of its own. This way, I will give it a 8.3/10 (I don’t want to overrate it, because it is only going to get better and better).
Stay tuned for my next review of episode 103 entitled “Head Full of Snow”.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 102
After an episode of questions (a pilot episode tends to do that) it is nice having an episode of answers. In “Trust Me” we find out what Jafar and the Red Queen are up to: they want to gather 3 genies in order to change the laws of magic. It also doesn’t take long to know what these laws are because Cyrus explains them to Alice in a flashback. Cyrus says he can’t kill people (this is only a genie rule and not a law of magic), can’t bring back the dead, can’t change the past (this one is not so strict anymore as you might remember from season 3B of “Once Upon A Time”) and can’t make people fall in love. These are the 3 rules these villains want to be free of, each for their own personal reasons, I’m sure, and those reasons won’t probably take long to be revealed to us.
What is interesting in a villain team up is that they are all constantly trying to be the leader and that is why they usually fail. In the beginning of the episode it is clear that Jafar is the most powerful one and that the Red Queen is just a pawn in his game. He is simply using her to find Cyrus’ genie bottle, making her promises along the way he doesn’t intend to keep. After all, as the Red Queen says, “promises were made to be broken”. But Jafar underestimated the Queen of Wonderland and it doesn’t take long for her to make a stand. She sends Jafar on a wild goose chase, while she and the Rabbit (who she has an upper hand on) go to where the bottle is actually buried, making herself now much more than a pawn in the chess game that is starting to take place.
But Jafar is not the only one making planes, because Alice also makes some of her own. She wants to make 3 harmless wishes (since magic, wishes included, always comes with a price) and then Cyrus will be back to his bottle, which she intends to have by then. But most planes are made to be tossed to the trash and this one is no different. First Alice and Will find a very big lake and, needing help to get through it (since Will can’t swim), they call a fairy, Silvermist. But she isn’t very willing to help (given her past with Will, which she is not as “move on” from as she said) and eventually throws them both into the lake. As luck would have it, they landed close to a little island (convenient, right?) where they rested while trying to come up with something that would allow them to continue their journey. But turned out that they hadn’t used all the luck they had for that day, and the island they were in wasn’t really an island and more of a gigantic turtle. Alice not being one of subtlety, demands the turtle to take them to their destination.
But turned out Alice simply wanted to see who they were up against, because the place they go to wasn’t where the bottle was buried. After finding Jafar digging, Alice and Will go to the place the bottle was actually buried but only find a hole in the ground. The bottle had been taken already. And that is when a message from Cyrus arrives. Cyrus asks Alice to leave Wonderland while she still can’t, but he didn’t have to bother because everyone knew (maybe even Cyrus) that she would never do that. Instead Alice sends him another message: “I’m coming for you”.
This episode also introduced two mysterious character: Anastasia (who is “a tale of heartbreak” for Will) and another prisoner that is trapped in the same dungeon as Cyrus. Keep them in mind because they will be important as the story develops.
I feel like in this episode, in contrary to the previous one, the flashbacks were a little pointless and didn’t add much to the story (not only this episode’s story, but the entire season’s). The only thing that could be called “relevant” we learned in the flashbacks were what the laws of magic are, but that could be easily explained in the present. This being said, I’m glad there weren’t a lot of flashback scenes. They are important and very explanatory in some episodes, but not in this one.
But it was still a good episode and I will give a 7.5/10.
Also keep in mind that Alice isn’t the only one “coming for you”. I will too, so don’t forget to check my upcoming review of episode 103, “Forget Me Not”.
REVIEW: American Gods, Episode 101
As a book lover and a fan of “American Gods”, I know that this show is based on a book with the same name. But as a book lover, my “to-read list” is close to infinite, so I didn’t read this one yet. But I will. Hopefully before S2 starts.
The pilot, entitled “The Bone Orchard”, begins with the main character, Shadow Moon, an ex-con, in prison. He makes a phone call to his wife, Laura Moon, and we find out he is going to be released 5 days after, but Shadow is not all too happy about it because he has a strange feeling that something bad is about to happen. After that, Laura replies with a really interesting quote: “Waiting for the sky to fall is going to cause more bother than the sky actually falling”. Sometimes we worry too much about something that turns out didn’t deserve that much concern and that is what this quote is all about.
The next day Shadow wakes up to find out that his wife had died in a car crash and so they will release him a few days early. And that is when the action begins. He goes to the airport but finds out he has to wait a day to get a flight to the town he lives in. When the time comes, Shadow enters the plane and, because of a mistake with the sits (his was taken) he finds himself in first class, next to a very strange man who calls himself Mr. Wednesday. There, they have an interesting conversation about belief and faith. Wednesday asks Shadow how he thinks the plane flies: for technical reasons or because people want so hard to believe the plane will continue to fly instead of crashing that that is exactly what the plane does. In a show about Gods (old Gods and new ones) it is to expect that faith and belief will get to be an important subject, and the show doesn’t disappoint in that area, since there are some deep conversations about it, and also some scenes that relate to it, like for example the scene we meet the Goddess of Love. This scene was, in my point of view, very weird. I won’t describe it because I wouldn’t even know where I’d begin. But it became obvious that Bilquis was feeding on that man’s belief and worship.
Shadow wakes up on the plane to find out that, because of the storm, the plane had to perform an emergency landing and so he decides to continue his journey by car. He stops in a bar (maybe to stretch his legs) and, call it fate, he finds Mr. Wednesday once again, but this time he isn’t alone. Shadow meets a man who calls himself Leprechaun but, apparently, others call Mad Sweeney. Wednesday offers Shadow a job and, to prove that he will never take it, Shadow shows him a coin and says that if it is heads he will work for Wednesday, but if it is tails Wednesday must stop bugging him with that. After rigging the coin to make sure it is tails, Shadow tosses the coin, but apparently his con tricks have seen better days, because this time it wasn’t tails, meaning that Shadow found himself a job.
After finally getting to Eagle Point and after finding out that his best friend also died in the same crash his wife did, Shadow attends Laura’s funeral. There he finds Audrey (his friend’s wife) and she tells him that they had been having an affair for a while then and that is why they were together in the car. When the funeral was over, Shadow was walking to the motel he and Wednesday were staying in, and he found a very strange object that attacked him. Afterwards, Shadow founds himself in the strangest limousine where he meets a boy (the first New God we find in our screen: Technical Boy, God of technology). After not answering his questions, the God of technology orders his faceless minions to kill Shadow. And that is where I stop understanding what is going on. Technical Boy’s henchmen start beating Shadow, tie a rope around his neck and hung him in a tree. Then there is blood everywhere, the faceless guys start being ripped in half by an invisible force and the rope that was linking Shadow and the tree gets cutted allowing him to survive and fight another day.
Since the devil’s in the details, here are some I liked:
- Maybe it is unfair to describe the very scene of the episode as a detail, but I don’t know what else to call it. In it we see that Gods have been around for a long time and that they love sacrifices in their name;
- Before finding out his wife was dead, Shadow has a dream where he is in sort of a forest full of bones and skulls (maybe this explains the title of the episode). In the dream, Shadow is slapped by a tree. Since trees are supposed to represent life, I feel like the dream means Shadow is about to gets screwed over, since it is never a good sign when life slaps you in the face. It was from this point on that the actions started and that Shadow’s life began to turn in unimaginable ways;
- It was also nice (especially for the ones that are rewatching the season, like me) to see that during Laura’s funeral there was a malfunction in the machine that was lowering her casket, almost like she didn’t want to stay dead.
It was a good start to the show, but I feel like the synopsis they gave to it and to the book has a few spoilers since there is nothing in this episode (or even in other episodes to come) that suggests that this is a show about old and new Gods in the eve of a battle. But it is in fact a great idea to a story, because if what makes a God is people’s belief in him, then Gods we worship today are completely different from the Gods that used to be worshipped. Nowadays we tend to believe more in what we see, so things like information, technology, media… We don’t exactly worship that in a God like way, but we don’t have to.
The special effects in this show are also really good. In this episode this is more present in that last scene, since it doesn’t have many more, but the rest of the season is full of amazing scenarios. We also get to see some great things in the opening of the show (no wonder the show is nominated for Emmy of Outstanding Special Visual and Outstanding Main Title Design).
This was a nice episode, but it wasn’t the best of the season, so I will give it an 8.0/10.
Stay tuned for my review of episode 102 “The Secret of Spoons”.
REVIEW: Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, Episode 101
I don’t really like to compare shows, since one of them always gets downgraded, but I think it is inevitable to compare a spin-off and its main show. When Once Upon A Time in Wonderland started, Once Upon A Time was in its 3rd season (which is, in my opinion, one of its finest) and so I feel like OUATiW was a bit ignored by the fans. Maybe it would have been smarter to make it into a summer show, but what is done is done. In the end I was a bit sad it was cancelled but ultimately not too surprised.
Like the pilot of the main show, “Down The Rabbit Hole” begins with the words “Once Upon A Time”, which in itself often represents the beginning of a great story. There is also something in the beginning of the episode that reminded me of an amazing quote from OUAT. When Alice gets home, she tells her father what happened to her and how she visited a wonderful land (see what I did there?) and, even though he is at first a bit reluctant whether to believe her or not, he doesn’t in the end, which brought me back to 117 of OUAT when Jefferson said to Emma, who was also a non-believer: “Everyone wants a magical solution for their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic”. I think this quote kind of sums up the world we live in today, because even though some of us want to believe in something else other than what we have, there are always the ones that will constantly make sure we go back to believing only in what our eyes can see and that is exactly what cuts off imagination and creativity.
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It was also incredible to see that Alice is not a damsel in distress and that she can take care of herself very well when we see that, on her own, she took care of all the employees of the asylum when Will came to her rescue (which turned out to be the other way around).
After the asylum we finally leave our world (not completely, but at least until the end of this episode) and enter Wonderland. I think they built this new world very well, because we are told in Lewis Carroll’s tale that nothing makes sense there. It is true that the special effects and the scenarios behind the characters are awful and evidently fake in some scenes, but it is still nice to see the Wonderland nonsense: dragonflies that are actually mini-dragons, a marshmallow lake, food that makes you smaller and drinks that make you bigger… and that is only some of the few things we see in this premiere, because more nonsense things will continue to arrive to the screen throughout the season.
While we see Alice talking to Dr. Lydgate (who also makes an appearance in S6 of the main show), we see some flashbacks of this young girl going through some adventures trying to prove to her father she is not crazy. While in this, she accidentally meets a guy who is destined to become her true love: Cyrus, the genie. Even though their love seems impossible (since genies are always changing masters and lands) they start having a lot of adventures and have an almost immediate Happy Beginning.
But of course there cannot be heroes without villains and this spin-off introduces two: The Red Queen (who had to be a regular villain, of course, since she is the trouble bringer on the original story) and Jafar (who shouldn’t belong here, since he is in the wrong story, but somehow fits completely). It is always nice seeing a villain team-up. Heroes join forces all the time, so why shouldn’t villains do the same? In the last scene we see Alice and Cyrus together, these villains go to distance to make Alice think her genie is dead. The Red Queen throes him into the Boiling Sea (right after he proposed), while Jafar catches him with a flying carpet (Alice doesn’t see this last part, of course).
The end of the episode is also something I thought was nice. Alice goes to the Mad Hatter’s looking for Cyrus (who was allegedly seen there) but finds nothing but lots and lots of hats (at least inside the house). About to lose hope and control over her tears, she goes outside and finds a necklace that belongs to Cyrus, making the assumption that if it survived, maybe Cyrus did too, right? And that brings us to the best quote of this episode: “When you really love someone, you don’t need proof. You can feel it”. This quote Alice makes is actually a repetition of what Cyrus says in flashbacks when they first meet, but I thought it had more impact in this last scene then on the previous one, maybe because this times Alice is referring to someone who will always believe in her, no matter how absurd she may sound.
Making now the last comparison between shows, it was cool to see that this pilot didn’t end in a major cliffhanger or plot twist, like most pilot episodes do. Instead (like Once Upon A Time’s pilot) it ends with a bit of hope and belief in something that cannot be seen, only felt. In the end of this episode, Alice knows for sure that Cyrus is alive, not only based on a rumor she heard, but also in the love they share (call her mad, but she is right).
Overall, it was a good episode, but better ones are coming our way. That being said, I will give this episode a 7 out of 10.
Hope you guys stick around for my upcoming review of episode 102 of this show entitled “Trust Me”.
Marshmallow Peeps Mystery Flavors 2016
Marshmallow Peeps are an Easter season staple. Peeps are certainly one of the best Easter candies of all time. The ooey gooey sugar-coated marshmallow confections have also made their presence known in several holidays throughout the year.
In recent years, Peeps Brand has been releasing “Mystery Flavors”. This year the company released 3 mystery flavors. They are basically white peeps that showcase a mystery flavor that the company doesn’t already market. The peeps may be color-less (so you can’t cheat and guess by the coloring), their aroma and taste sure do allow for the fun of guessing what the actual flavor could be.
I bit the bullet and decided to perform a Peep taste-test. In the name of science and whatnot… you know? So here are my results.
The instant smell, once I opened the package, of Mystery Flavor #1 was chocolate. It smelled of delicious chocolate. Knowing that the Peeps Brand already has a chocolate flavored Peep, I knew that there had to be more to this mystery flavor.
Upon actually biting into the Peep, I could tell the taste was a complex version of chocolate. My guess is mocha.
Actual Flavor: Chocolate Milk
When I opened the package of Mystery Flavor #2, the smell was immediately known. It’s weird. I always find it odd when a savory item is turned into a sugary confection. So the first aroma that I smelled was sweet. Then came the flavor… popcorn!
It’s been a long time since I’ve had the popcorn flavored jellybean, so I can’t compare it to that. But when I bit into the Peep, the flavor of sweet popcorn filled my mouth. My guess is popcorn.
Actual Flavor: Buttered Popcorn
Mystery Flavor #3 smelled very fruity when I opened the package. There wasn’t really a discernible fruit smell. Once I bit into it, I could taste the cherry flavor. But it was a strong cherry flavor. So it had to be a more complex version of cherry. My guess is black cherry.
Actual Flavor: Sour Cherry
Visit your local Walmart during the holiday season to grab your very own Marshmallow Peeps Mystery Flavor. Heck… grab them all and have your very own taste test!
Burning Glass Might Be What You’re Looking For
Any YA book that starts off with arson and mass murder deserves (at the very least) an honourable mention, with extra points if it’s set in a dazzling fantastical world amidst royalty, secrecy, and magic powers. Did we mention there’s sort of kind of a love triangle happening? Sort of. It’s cool.
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Chosen Ones: Lost Souls Book Review
Social media is probably the loudest and proudest platform for people to express their opinions about the state of the world around them. But what if, in a not-so-distant future, social media, books, art, music, and even expressing one’s own opinion was outlawed? Tiffany Truitt’s young adult dystopian novel, Chosen Ones: Lost Souls takes a look at that reality.
Burned to the Ground (Burn For Burn #3 Review)
You can’t put the past behind you when a vengeful spirit is hell-bent on destroying your future. The final book in Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian’s Burn For Burn trilogy, called Ashes to Ashes, had great expectations to meet after two glorious predecessors (both of which ended with intense cliff-hangers that left the reader slack-jawed and hungry for more). Given how utterly addictive Burn For Burn and Fire With Fire turned out to be, this finale was supposed to dazzle readers with a glitzy, glorious bang. Except it came and went with a pathetic whimper. (more…)