Quickie Reviews #1

Sons of Anarchy – Season One

This is one of the most underrated shows on TV, in my opinion. It probably has a little too much testosterone for most women, but if you’re a guy that likes violence, this is your show. Just like Grey’s Anatomy is a soap opera for women that claim they don’t like soap operas and Downton Abbey is a soap opera for boring people, Sons of Anarchy is a soap opera for men. The storylines get a little complicated in later seasons, but in the first season, it’s all about badassery and men grimacing at each other.

If anyone out there has seen The Shield, this is by the same creator, so you know a little bit about what you’re in for. Jax is a character with amazing depth, and that only grows as the season goes on. Charlie Hunnam (Jax), Ron Pearlman (Clay), and Katey Sagal (Gemma) are all freaking fantastic as the dysfunctional ruling family of Charming, California. I’m not going to go into plot details (even though this season is five years old) because if you haven’t seen it, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. It’s on Netflix, and if you don’t have Netflix, I just don’t want to be friends with you anymore.

Positives:
-very well written characters

-outstanding performances by the leads

Negatives:
-could have used a slower learning curve into the motorcycle club vernacular
-needed more Opie in the first several episodes

Score:
9.5/10

The League – Season 4

I’m not doing a review for the earlier seasons (at least not now) because it really isn’t necessary for you to have watched anything that comes before. Obviously, you should watch everything because it’s hilarious, but you can jump right into season 4 on Netflix and be totally fine. And you know my feelings on people that don’t have Netflix… The basic premise is that there are four friends (and one of their wives) that live in Chicago and they have a fantasy football league. And they’re all horrible to each other. That’s it, that’s the whole show, and there doesn’t need to be anything more than that. If you’ve seen It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia you know kind of what to expect. This show is basically Seinfeld turned up to 11 with some sports thrown in. But that’s not to say that it doesn’t stick out from those other shows, because this one deals with more adult things like whether or not to circumcise your baby, if sleeping with a really hot chick is worth all of the mental abuse, and if you should start Matt Stafford or Drew Brees on Sunday. It’s fantastic, and the seasons are all super short, so it’s an easy one to marathon on a Sunday when all of the games are blowouts.

Positives:
-when this show is on point, it’s one of the funniest on TV
-Rafi, Rafi, and more Rafi

Negatives:
-needed more football in this season
-not all of the plot line jokes pay off

Score:
8/10

I saw this one a while ago when it was in theatres, but I figured it was still worth writing a little something about. It’s weird because when I was walking out of the theatre after seeing this one, I found myself disappointed. I mean, I knew what I was in for when I’m going to see a movie about giant robots punching giant monsters in the face. But honestly, there was a little too much of giant robots punching giant monsters in the face. And by that I mostly mean there wasn’t enough variety in the fighting. When your robot has a sword the size of the Empire State Building attached to it’s arm, wouldn’t you want to lead with that instead of waiting until you’re about to die to use it? But after a few days of thinking about the movie, it was easier to appreciate it as a genre film, which is precisely what it was intended to be. Yes, the dialogue was super cheesy and the characters were carved from action movie stereotypes, but that was all on purpose. Pacific Rim was making fun of those big, explosiony films that dominate the summer box office, as well as making fun of the anime stories that all of these kinds of films originate from. And hell, even at face value, it’s still better shot, better directed, better acted, and better animated than any of the Transformers movies.

Positives:
-a lot of fun if you know what you’re in for
-Jaeger and Kaiju designs are awesome

Negatives:
-more Charlie Day, please
-doesn’t really do anything new for the genre

Score:
8/10