REVIEW: Dead of Summer, Episode 105
The fifth episode of the only season of Dead of Summer is entitled “How to Stay Alive in the Woods”, and it has Joel as centric character. This was definitely an episode that raised a lot of questions, but also that answered a few old ones.
In flashbacks to Joel’s early life, we find out that he used to have a brother, Michael, but he killed himself when Joel was still young because “He’ll never leave me alone”, at least this is what he wrote with his own blood on the wall. It was later confirmed that Michael was hearing voices, and he believed that killing himself was the only way to make them stop. We also found out that someone glued a camera to Joel’s hand in a very early stage of his life. But the fact that he wanted to be a film maker isn’t really the reason why he carries a camera in his hand almost 24/7. He does that because, like his brother, Joel started hearing voices and seeing things that weren’t there, and his camera allows him to see what is real and what isn’t. But the man he sees isn’t just some random someone, but Holyoke, also known as Tall Man, the guy who has been haunting the Camp since the beginning. This was definitely a great and really unexpected twist, but it sure wasn’t the only one in this episode.
In present day, Joel continues to see Holyoke and right from the beginning of the episode the ghost asks him to kill Amy, or someone else will die. Joel of course continues to believe that none of this is real, but we can see that he is afraid of himself and of what he might do, because, when asked, he refused to be alone with Amy. Everyone else starts to realize that Joel is acting weird, but of course that no one suspects the truth.
Do you remember last episode when I said that Joel and Deb had sex? Well, maybe not. This episode made us realize that most of the scenes which we saw from his perspective didn’t exactly happen as he thinks they did. Deb said all they did the previous night was go for a walk, she showed him what is inside her box, she told him about her friend Keith and that is it. A short while after this, Joel realizes that things work differently in Camp Stillwater, so he can’t trust his camera there.
In the meantime, Styles continues with his investigation in cults related to the lake, so he and Jessie go to the cabin in which we saw Holyoke play the piano right in the beginning of the series. There, they find a hidden door on the ground, inside which there is a doll, a tape and a cufflink with the initials JS, Jack Sykes, which means that Garett’s dad was investigating these exact same things.
Closer to the end of the episode, after losing the one thing that allowed him to distinguish reality from his imagination, Joel decides to tell everyone about everything, from his brother’s death, to Holyoke asking him to kill Amy. But when Jessie arrives with an old photo of Holyoke everyone starts to understand that in Stillwater there is a lot more than what meets the eye. When Anton walks in, he tells everyone the man he saw when he arrived was Holyoke. Jessie is still a bit skeptical about all this, but now no one can say that this is just in their heads. There is definitely something big happening, and even though we knew this from the beginning, the counselors start now realizing this too, which means that from now on, things will start to be very different.
But of course that none of this changes what Holyoke said, and with Amy still alive and kicking, he made good in his word. Right in the end, Cricket was going to meet Alex to watch the Blood Moon when someone pushed her and she fell on a bear trap, dying immediately. I have to say that this part doesn’t seem very realistic. Sure that there are bear traps in the woods, but when the Camp reopened those traps should have been deactivated, because there are kids around.
Nevertheless, this was a great episode. It had great twists, and it was definitely a change compared to other previous ones. The death at the end was also very surprising, because it gets to a point where you don’t think that anyone major will die, but you should be warned that in Dead of Summer no one is safe. I am giving this episode an 8.6/10.
Episode 6 is entitled “The Dharma Bums” and it will have Deb as centric, making us realize why she decided to reopen Camp Stillwater.
REVIEW: Stranger Things, Episode 103
Stranger Things continues with episode 3 of this first season, entitled “Chapter Three: Holly Jolly”, in which the search for Will Byers continues.
After finding a piece of clothing that could be Will’s (but that we know it isn’t) in a pipe that leads to the Hawkins National Laboratory, Sheriff Hopper and two other police officers go to this place to investigate. Hopper isn’t very hopeful they will find Will in there, but he wants to be sure. After knowing that there is a camera which is filming the other end of the pipe, he asks to see the recordings, but Hopper isn’t at all satisfied with what they showed him because he knows those recordings aren’t from the night of Will’s disappearance. What is most frustrating about this, is that we know they seem to be wasting their time going there and talking to those people, because one: they’re not going to tell them anything; and two: what they are hiding isn’t Will, but the fact that Eleven disappeared on that same night. Unfortunately, Hopper doesn’t know neither of these things, so he goes to the library to try to learn a bit of this lab’s history, finding out that the facility is rumored to make experiments on children.
Meanwhile, we continue to watch Joyce’s struggle not to go crazy, but that seems to be a mission which failed, at least that is what most people think, but we know better. After realizing last episode that Will can make the lights flicker, Joyce buys lots and lots of Christmas lights and hangs them around most rooms of the house. Joyce spoke to her son for a few moments, learning that he is alive but not safe. However, she quickly realized that wasn’t going to work, because to find him she would have to ask more than yes or no questions. That is when she hangs the lights in a wall and draws letter near each lamp, just like an Ouija board, but a lot more ready for Christmas. When she puts her “board” to work, Will just tells her to RUN, and that is when, for the second time, the wall seems to want to give birth to a monster, making Joyce start running for her life.
At the same time, in the aftermath of the previous episode, Nancy looks for Barb, at first not all too concerned, but getting more and more worried as time passes. Even though they don’t care at all about her friend, Nancy continues to hang out with Steve’s friends, and I have to say that they really piss me off. I really don’t know why she continues with them, or better, yes I do, it is because of Steve but, even though he is not as irritating as the other two, he is just as much of a jerk. I am glad Nancy finally realized this, closer to the end of the episode, when she just gets up and walks away from them.
Lastly, after Eleven said she knows where Will is, Mike, Lucas and Dustin ready themselves for an adventure after school: they are all going to Mirkwood to finally reunite with their friend. As I have been saying, I really love the chemistry between Mike and Eleven, and I totally ship Meleven (not sure of this is the official name, but I like it), so I don’t have to say that I loved the scene in which Mike gave Eleven his watch so that she would know what time to meet them. After school (and also after another session of bullying: I really hate those two annoying bullies), the gang prepared to find Will. While on the way, my Meleven heart continued to beat really fast, because Eleven saw an injury Mike had, thanks to the bullies, and it was really cute that Mike didn’t want Eleven to think he “was such a wastoid”. Shortly after, the gang reached their destination, everyone was surprised that they stopped at Will’s house, not having any idea what was going on. While there, they heard the sirens of the police not far away, so they chased after them. I think it is safe to say that everyone was surprised with what they found at the lake: Will’s body. After this, we saw what is, in my opinion, the best scene from this show so far: Mike yelling at Eleven, and then getting home and starting to cry.
This episode was, as usual, a really great one. Lots of great scenes from Joyce, just like last episode, and then that amazing scene in the end made this episode the best one so far. But that is what Stranger Things does, it only escalates, so ready yourselves for what is to come. I am giving this episode a 9.0/10.
The forth episode is entitled “Chapter Four: The Body”, and maybe Will isn’t quite as dead as it seems, so don’t miss it.
REVIEW: Midnight, Texas, Episode 109
Midnight, Texas returns for its second episode this week, this one being the ninth of this first season, and it has “Riders on the Storm” as its title. It is definitely safe to say that this was a very Fiji episode.
The episode had some flashbacks to Fiji’s early days in Midnight and these were very enlightening, not just to Fiji’s past, but to witches and magic in general. Flashbacks begin with Fiji’s arrival in this strange town where she went to stay with her aunt, Mildred. This aunt definitely had dug into Fiji’s past and that allowed her to say with some certainty that Fiji is a witch, just like her. Throughout the flashback scenes, Mildred trained Fiji to control her magic, which comes from emotions, while Fiji found a love interest, Jeremy. Mildred warned Fiji to be careful about this little crush, because she is too powerful and so she most protect her heart from strong emotions. Fiji didn’t listen, which led to her accidently killing Jeremy when they were about to have sex. This totally explains why Fiji doesn’t want to be with Bobo. She has been trying to protect him from herself.
In present day, Colconnar’s rise is closer and closer, so he sends a spirit to make Fiji surrender to him willingly. This spirit brought with him a sandstorm which made everyone evacuate. It was later revealed that the spirit was in fact the Jeremy from the flashbacks, and that was definitely a great choice, because he reminds Fiji that no one is safe around her. Today she is protecting everyone, but tomorrow she might accidently hurt them all (and she almost did).
Meanwhile, Joe and Manfred keep working on a plan to close the vail. Knowing that that isn’t the first time the vail opened and that once a man named Catori was able to close it, these two, with the help of Revered Emilio, go dig up the body to try to find out how he did it. Unfortunately, all they found was a bag of nothing, and when they came out of the cellar, the storm had already arrived.
After making sure that everyone, including Creek, had evacuated Midnight, the heroes of this small town used the vampire bus, featured in the third episode, to escape, leaving only Manfred behind, while he searched for Mr. Snuggly. I really have to say that this was definitely not the brightest idea they had, because there were wraiths everywhere and he couldn’t get to a car. Fortunately, Creek was smart enough to not listen to him, and so she came back to see if they needed help, giving Manfred and Mr. Snuggly a much needed ride.
After Manfred and Creek caught up with everyone else on the bus, they realized that they would never be able to escape the sandstorm because it was following them, or more specifically, it was following Fiji. They stopped in a building with no windows to try to work out on what to do next, and that was when we all learned why Colconnar is after Fiji specifically: she is a virgin witch, those are very powerful, and power is what this demon is after. Of course we later started understanding the reason why Fiji is a virgin: after what happened to Jeremy she was probably never able to start seeing anyone again, until Bobo of course.
In an effort to find out how to stop the upcoming apocalypse, Manfred and Fiji put together two ancient spells from both their ancestors, forming a new very dark spell. But of course magic, especially dark magic, comes with a price and this new spell required a life. This is the part where I was starting to grow very concerned, since I didn’t want anyone in that room to die. After Reverend Emilio volunteered, Mr. Snuggly decided to step up instead and gave himself to the spell. It was very nice seeing that everyone was just as surprised as I was (or maybe even a bit more) to find out that the cat talks. Glad to know I am not alone.
But apparently Snuggly wasn’t good enough for a sacrifice (not sure why), and the spell took Manfred instead. In the afterlife, the psychic was able to speak to Catori and he told Manfred what he needs to do. Or at least I hope he did, because we didn’t hear him saying much, since, even though there was no one around, Catori whispered it to Manfred’s ear. Right after this, he woke up.
But of course no one knew Manfred’s death wasn’t a permanent thing and, seeing that Colconnar was right, everyone around Fiji dies, she surrendered herself to him in an effort to save everyone else’s life.
This was definitely a great episode. It was very intense, the action moved quickly and, as I said, the flashbacks gave us a very important glance into Fiji’s life. This is, in my opinion, the best episode so far and so I am giving it an 8.8/10.
What isn’t as amazing is that the season is very close to the end. Episode 10, which will air next Monday, is the season finale and it is entitled “The Virgin Sacrifice”. Even though I said this episode was the best, I am expecting the finale to be even better, so I hope I don’t come out disappointed.
REVIEW: Dead of Summer , Episode 104
Dead of Summer is once again back, this time with episode 4 entitled “Modern Love”, an episode that focused on Drew.
Back in the pilot we learned that Drew was having secret showers away from everyone because he wanted to hide the fact that he is a girl, so in this episode it was time for us to find out more about him. We saw that ever since he was little, Andrea wanted to be a boy. His mother found it cute at first, but after a while, she realized that Andrea actually meant it. Maybe a few months after taking him to a therapist, Andrea told her mom that his name was going to start being Drew, but the mother definitely didn’t take this lightly. I think it is understandable this mother’s position. Even in today’s society it can’t be easy to accept something like this, now imagine in the 80s. When this happens with a friend, maybe it would be easier, but this is this woman’s child we are talking about, the person who knows him from moment 1 and this isn’t really something parents wonder along the way. But unlike most parents, Beth grew to accept Drew and that was when she snuck into a party and saw him laughing and dancing, realizing that he was so much happier when not wearing a skirt. But even though she accepted Drew’s birth that doesn’t mean she accepted Andrea’s death. I am not sure what happened in the end of the flashback scenes, but Beth left a note in the back of a picture of Andrea saying that she doesn’t accept her daughter never existed and seeing Drew every day was a reminder of her lost. I don’t think she killed herself because they would have probably showed her body, so maybe she left. But if that is the case she is a terrible mom, just abandoning her son like that.
In present day, Camp Stillwater knows exactly what Drew has been through, and so it haunts him through Andrea, or more specifically, with the exact same girl who was on the photo in the back of which his mother wrote her goodbye letter. With Drew started to act in a strange way because of this, everyone starts to admit that they have been seeing things ever since they arrived. It doesn’t take long for them to start pointing fingers at Deb, because Joel found a mask at her cabin that was similar to the in Cricket saw in her dream. Looking through Joel’s videos, Alex, Amy and Cricket find out about a box she holds a lot of times, so they decide to break into her cabin to see what is inside it. But ultimately Joel was a lot more lucky than they did, because Deb showed him the thing that was inside the box: a book entitled, “Dharma Bums” (which is the title of episode 6), and it was given to her by someone she loves very much. She said all this right before they kissed.
While Drew’s secret showers continued, in this episode they started not being so much of a secret anymore, because Jessie found out that he was actually Andrea. Trying to get the upper hand, Drew dug into a letter Jessie had received and found out she has a court day coming up. If she says he is Andrea, Drew will tell Deb about it. But Jessie doesn’t give up so easily and afraid to be exposed, Drew left camp. Fortunately, for once, Jessie did the right thing and tried to make up for what she did and talked to Drew, not only convincing him to stay, but also to tell Blair who he used to be. Taking her advice, and Blair’s too actually, since he said Drew could trust him, he came clean, which made Blair run away. A lot of people really hated this, but I think that it can be understandable. Blair thought he knew what Drew was going to tell him, he thought he was going to say he is gay, but that was not at all what he heard. Afraid he was going to say the wrong thing, Blair preferred to run and measure his words before saying them out loud and risk hurting Drew. At least this is how I see it.
This was a good episode, and I felt like it was a rise compared to the previous one. It didn’t really develop the main plot (the camp’s secret I mean), but I found Drew’s struggle throughout his life really enjoyable to watch. I am giving this episode a 7.2/10.
Next episode is entitled “How to Stay Alive in the Woods”, it will explain a few things about Joel, so don’t miss my review.
REVIEW: American Horror Story, Episode 702
American Horror Story is back again this week with episode 2 of seven 7 entitled, “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”, in which the line that separates reality from illusion continue to be very thin.
It seems that we finally found out what Kai is up to and what he wanted to achieve when he attacked those Hispanic people last episode: he is trying to do what he advertised last episode, which means, he is trying to raise fear. A group of Hispanic people attacking a poor and defenseless man for no reason can definitely be scary. Of course this isn’t exactly what happened, but it is the only thing people know to be true. The fact that he got out of there with a broken arm was of course a plus, because people will look at him and think “Oh! Look at that poor man”, and this is exactly what he wants people to think. His goal now is to take that (convenient) empty chair in the city consul and make good in his word to spread fear.
The episode started exactly where it left off last week, after Ally saw a clown by her bed and started running and screaming. Of course that when Ivy got there, there was nothing, which makes them both wonder if Ally is crazy. “I think there might be something wrong with me. I don’t know what’s real anymore”.
It is also clear that this whole clown craziness is starting to affect Ozzy, because clowns is all he seems to be dreaming of, including of course, Twisty. This all appears to be coming from Ally, and Oz seems to be a little afraid of her, since he made it seem like he doesn’t want to be alone with her. Of course that Winter isn’t exactly a comfort zone because she really freaks me out in some scenes, and I am sure I am not the only one. She started talking about fear in this episode, so I think that Kai managed to recruit her to his little coven.
And speaking of recruiting and crazy, Ally and Ivy now have new neighbors: Harrison and Meadow Wilton, two best friends who didn’t find anyone to spend the rest of their lives with, and so decided to marry each other. It appears to me that these two are a part of all this crazy, especially when Harrison started talking about bees. As we all know, bees have been a significant part on the posters and teasers of this season, and so here they are. According to him, a hive is the perfect community, because every member of the hive is 100% committed to a single task, with no complaints. And while watching this scene, my mind kept screaming “Cult” because this is definitely a great allegory for it.
This is American Horror Story, so the craziness never ends. Short after coming back from the new neighbor’s house, the alarm in the restaurant was activated and Ally went there to check it out. Even though I was expecting something crazy would happen, I really wasn’t prepared for what Ally found: a body of one of their chefs hanging in a hook next to animal meat. It didn’t take long for the police to start pointing fingers at Pedro, a Hispanic, because of an argument they had earlier that day, and, let’s face it, because of the fact that he is Hispanic.
Later in the episode, Ally and Kai had their second meeting when, while advertising his campaign door to door, he gets to the Mayfair-Richard’s house. While Kai talked to Ally, one of the problems of politics, and other fields of course, was exposed: Kai started speaking in numbers and, when Ally asked him where he got that information from, he answered Facebook. There are definitely a lot of information out there, but the thing is that some (not to say most) of that information isn’t based on facts, but in people’s opinions. People say whatever they want, and that is their right, but we shouldn’t really support important issues with intelligence we find on Facebook, and other social networks of course.
But the most intense scene of the episode is yet to come: closer to the end, electricity went down. After being left alone with Ozzy by Winter, and after learning, from Harrison, that that was probably a terrorist attack, because it happened in multiple states, Ally started freaking out. I actually doubt the veracity of this. As I said, I think Harrison is part of the Cult and this is just another scheme to scare Ally (Maybe he also heard of the terrorist attack in Facebook!!!). But this doesn’t change the fact that Ally trusts the neighbors, not much, but probably more than me, and that was exactly where she was going to when she opened the door, saw Pedro and shot him.
This was definitely a great episode. It was very intense from the beginning till the end and I really loved it. This season isn’t what I thought it would be, but I am really loving it, even though only 2 episodes aired. I am giving this episode an 8.8/10.
Episode 3, “Neighbors from the Hell”, will air next Tuesday, so don’t miss my review.
REVIEW: Midnight, Texas, Episode 108
Midnight, Texas continues with its season, and now gets to its final few episodes. Yesterday’s episode was the eighth and it was entitled “Last Temptation of Midnight” and with the vail being more and more fragile, both supernatural creatures and humans start to feel the effects of this.
The episode introduced a new supernatural creature: a faceless monster who can wear anyone’s face, quite literally actually. I think I don’t have to say that it was on its way to Midnight, because that crosses the line of obvious. But turns out that this monster is working for the Demon who is trying to ascend in Midnight, and so, on its way to that town in Texas, it kills multiple people and wears their faces as a disguise.
Meanwhile, Manfred continues to refuse to go back to Midnight, even after Xylda said that she told him to go there, not because he would be safe, but because it is his destiny to save it. This actually seems to make much more sense because if Midnight is a beacon for supernatural creatures, and if Hightower had powers, it was just a matter of time before he found Manfred, not to mention that he actually did. When fate calls upon you, there is no way you can run, and Manfred learned this in a very rough approach, when his RV died in the middle of nowhere.
I think the relationship between Xylda and Manfred, their bond as grandmother and grandson, was a bit ignored up until this point, but this episode gave us some flashbacks and I really loved them. And with Xylda’s departure to hopefully a better place, this was definitely the perfect episode to include these flashbacks. Unfortunately, they didn’t get to say goodbye, but like Xylda said, they already had, when she was dying.
At the same time, tensions begin to rise in Midnight. With the demon tormenting Fiji, a woman shows up at her house asking for help with her depression. It was later discovered that her dark thoughts and this woman’s actual attempt to kill herself, were all being caused by the same demon which was tormenting Fiji. The demon feeds on death, and so it is driving the weak to kill themselves. It is a shame that we didn’t get to see this sooner. Apparently the demon has been doing this for some time and the Revered even said that a few days back he had found a few dead bodies. It would have been cool to have shown these bodies in a previous episode and now we would all make the connection between that and this.
But the humans aren’t the only ones being affected. Reverend Emilio, who was a vegetarian, started eating meat, probably trying to prevent himself from easting human meat. For Lemuel, feeding on emotional energy started to not be enough and he began to get hungry for blood, making Olivia have to defend herself against him. It was really amazing that fight scene between the two. I was very impressed by how long Olivia lasted against a powerful vampire who wasn’t pulling many punches. I knew she was badass, but not that much. It was great how the conversation they had last episode popped up, making Lemuel wanting to turn Olivia, which made me realize that she would definitely be unstoppable as an immortal, since she is already such a fighter as a human. Lemuel loves her, and deep down he simply wanted to live with her forever. Is that such a bad thing? Fortunately Fiji made a potion that made people return to their own selves, but nothing was going to take back what Lemuel tried to do, so seems that Olivia broke up with him.
Getting a “ride” from the faceless beast, Manfred returns to Midnight, where the creature plans to sacrifice the bodies it gathered on the road trip in the name of the demon that is tormenting Midnight. And it was finally in this scene that we learned the demon’s name: Colconnar. But even though they stopped the creature from burning the bodies, making them sacrifices to Colconnar, the ground opened and the bodies burned anyway. Enjoying this queue, Manfred called for some spirits to help him and drag the creature back to hell, proving that he does have the power to lead an army against this demon, as the prophecy says he does.
This was definitely a great episode, and I really enjoyed that last scene I described, because it shows that Manfred might actually have the power to stop what is coming, with everyone else’s help of course. I am giving this episode an 8.5/10.
The good news is that we won’t have to wait another week for a new episode, because “Riders on the Storm”, the ninth episode, will air tonight, so don’t miss my review tomorrow.
REVIEW: Stranger Things, Episode 102
The second episode of Stranger Things is entitled “Chapter Two: The Weirdo on Maple Street” and while everyone continues to look for Will, Mike and the others seem to find clues to his whereabouts through Eleven.
The episode begins with Mike, Dustin and Lucas trying to find out what they are going to do with Eleven. Mike really wants to help her, but Dustin and Lucas, especially Lucas, don’t like her very much and they just want to tell their parents about her so they can go back to look for Will. But Eleven doesn’t want any parents knowing about her, so that plan goes to the trash. Even though they didn’t actually start with the right foot, this was the beginning of a great friendship and we start to see that in this episode, especially the friendship between Mike and Eleven, and I have to say that I love them all. These kids are really talented and definitely bring some great things to these characters.
In this episode, we also started to understand Will’s situation a lit bit better, but not too much of course. Eleven recognized Will from a photo, so everyone became eager to found out how she knew him. When asked where he was, Eleven turned the Dungeons and Dragons board upside down and said that that’s where he is, adding that Will is hiding from the Demogorgon. This obviously didn’t make much sense for the gang, but it was enough to freak them out, but of course not enough to make them give up. They will do whatever they have to in order to find Will, no matter how many Demogorgons they have to face. And that is exactly the strength of their friendship.
Meanwhile we got to continue to see Joyce’s struggle with everything and everyone. Of course that seeing your child dead must be a horrible experience, but just losing sight of him, not having any idea where he is or what happened to him must be worse. Winona Ryder does a really amazing job portraying Joyce and even though we started to see that in the pilot, it is much clearer now that she is an amazing actress. A desperate mother will do anything she can to find her lost son, so that is exactly what we are going to see her do this season.
It is obvious from the beginning of the episode that Joyce is devastated and that is even clearer in that amazing scene at the supermarket when she goes to buy a new phone. This scene was really incredible to watch, because it really made me feel the despair and misery that Joyce was experiencing. After waiting all day by the phone, Will called again, and this time he even spoke, only one word, “Mom”, but that was enough to make Joyce a lit bit happier. But it was only after the phone fried again that stranger things started happening. The lights flickered, Will’s radio started turning on and off by itself and something started to come out of the walls. Stranger Things really started to welcome the audience to all kinds of weird in just this one scene.
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But it became clear that Hawking’s inhabitants aren’t the only ones trying to find Will, because those weird scientists(?) are too. When Joyce left to the supermarket they started scanning her house and it seemed like they found something in the same place Will disappeared. We also found out in a shocking revelation that a man who seems to be one of the bosses is Eleven’s father. That I really didn’t see coming. Usually parents chicken out when it comes to making their children lad rats (even parents who usually do that to other children), but this one clearly didn’t get the memo.
Lastly, we also saw Nancy and her “friends” at Steve’s party. In this night Steve finally got what he wanted from the beginning, he simply didn’t know that Jonathan was taking pictures (which definitely crosses the line of weirdness). It was also in this party that a smaller character made major, Barb, disappeared, being this the beginning of a controversial subject. Not controversial in Stranger Thing’s world, but in ours, and all because of Jimmy Fallon.
This episode was really amazing, as all episodes of this show will be. All scenes were great, but as I said, I especially loved the scenes with Joyce. It is really incredible to watch her struggle not to go crazy while trying to find her son. I am giving this episode an 8.8/10.
But if you think this episode was full of strange thing get ready because in the next episode (“Chapter Three: Holly, Jolly”) things will get even stranger.
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: Stranger Things, Episode 101
I don’t watch that many shows from Netflix, but Stranger Things is definitely my favorite one from this company. This show is that kind of great combination between clichés and something you have never seen before. Even though it is inspired by some of Stephen King’s works, I don’t think Stranger Things’ goal is to terrify us and provides us with sleepless nights, but else to make us want to binge watch all of the episodes as soon as possible, and then hate Netflix for taking so long releasing the following season. And that is exactly what we are doing right now, because it usually takes about a year to release another season, but this time we will have to wait 15 months instead. The good news is that it is almost over (only about one and a half month away), so in the meantime, let’s take a look back into its first season.
For a show that almost wasn’t advertised (I think they only released a poster and a trailer a few days before the show premiered), Stranger Things was a huge success. Younger generations liked it, probably because it has so much suspense, mystery and science-fiction; while older generations also liked it, probably because it reminds them of the good old days, because I hear that the details (wardrobe, scenarios, relationships…) are really well represented, since that is how things were in the 80s, but don’t ask me about this, because I really wouldn’t know.
Some people ask what the point is of making this show take place in the 80s while it could be done in present day, and for that I have a few answers. Firstly, it seems like much more fun to play Dungeons and Dragons like Will, Mike, Dustin and Lucas were playing right in the beginning of the episode, than playing it alone (or even with online friends) in your computer or PlayStation. Secondly, I think it is a lot more entertaining to mess with the past than with the present. Some weird and unexplained things have happened many times in the past, and I like it when a show/movie tries to “explain” it. Of course that in the end of the day that is still left unexplained, but it really does make you wonder “What if that is what really happened?” And especially when the movie/show has science-fiction and/or fantasy as a gender, that just makes the world much more magical. Lastly, because I think in the past there isn’t such a sense of safe as there is now. Of course that, like before, people can still be kidnapped, murdered, get lost somewhere… but now we all have phones and that is where the sense of safe comes from. If we get lost in woods, our phones have flashlights and it is just a matter of time before we get signal and call help. In the 80s the only phones they had were in the walls and had to be plugged, so they couldn’t just carry it around. Can you imagine if Will and the others had a cellphone? The story would definitely take some different turns.
But anyway, the pilot of Stranger Things is entitled “Chapter One: The Vanishing of Will Byers” and it is definitely an episode full of mystery and suspense. As the title suggests, the episode was mostly about Will, even though he was only in 2/3 scenes. Unfortunately, most people’s favorite character (including mine) was a bit sidelined, but that didn’t make the episode any less great. I am talking about Eleven, of course.
Because it couldn’t happen in any other way, everyone was worried about Will and so everyone started looking for him. At first people wanted to believe that it was nothing, that he would eventually show up, but, even though that happens 99 times in every 100, that obviously does not apply in this case. But not all hope was lost, and there was an amazing scene close to the end of the episode in which Joyce became convinced that she got a call from Will. This was really an incredible scene where we saw a truly desperate mother who wanted nothing more than being with her son again.
Everyone knows that kids who are good students and who play nerd games in their parent’s basement have to be bullied, and so the 4 (now 3) friends are no different. I really hate bullies and I really hope they find out through the Stranger Kids that it is better to be a Nerd, than being like them. What I liked most about this scene was that they kind of don’t care about the bullies, and just think of them as a normal morning activity.
As I said, I really enjoyed this episode. There was mystery, death, action, girls with powers, confident Nerds, not to mention some funny scenes too in the middle of all this. Stranger Things is really a great show, and this pilot sets up Season 1 in a very good way. I am giving this episode an 8.6/10.
Don’t go anywhere because in episode two the Strangers and the Nerds won’t either, and the title of episode 2 is a proof of that: “Chapter Two: The Weirdo in Maple Street”.
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.