Posts Tagged ‘Amazon Prime’
DARK/WEB, Chapter 5 A No Spoiler Review
EAT. PREY. LOVE.
New interesting character introduced in this episode. Her name is Kim Rider, she is an online friend/love interest of Molly Solis’. (This involves the 8 chapter story arc, not the individual stories).
Kim Rider
My review is the 5th in 5 days, well, almost…I took Sunday off. If you have not read my introduction to this series, I highly recommend you read my first posts, all four, but especially read the 1st one. Click Pilot.
Rider is helpful in explaining the overall arc of the series. She is connected with Molly Solis, emotionally/relationally and also happens to be fluent in computer hacking and understands a little more of what Molly was dealing with right before she disappeared. Rider becomes a teaching character, someone who can explain a couple of mysteries and ask better questions. She’s also lovely, black and British.
The story that Molly’s group of friends encounter is itself another gruesome tale. You can judge by the title which is the first line of this post.
Now that Kim and Molly’s high school friends, Ethan, Sam and James are together on the scene of Molly’s home in Texas, there is finally a concerted effort to figure out how Molly is in trouble. Sometimes this setup feels a little cheesy and contrived, but there are a few real and funny moments.
Also, I need to note:
This episode includes gore and even though it isn’t super explicit, the suggestion is true horror.
DARK/WEB No Spoiler Review of Chapter 4
8 posts of 8 episodes in 8 days.
DARK/WEB is an Amazon Prime series. Here is my overview of the pilot. To read, click Chapter 1.
I have watched half way through DARK/WEB. Chapter 4 furthers the overall narrative arc. Zach Sullivan is visited by Molly Solis’ friends. They also go to visit her house in TX. She had been living there until she disappeared.
This chapter also adds another hint, another one of Molly’s stories sent to her friends. The story is more mysterious, mystical and spiritual, involving an illegal, dark/web for profit organ transplant operation.
I won’t say too much about this chapter to avoid spoilers. It’s not nearly as disturbing as Chapter 2, but my sense is the creators of this series are wanting the audience to ponder what evil exists on the dark web…the actual dark web.
I confess…as much as I resist watching this series, I know that many aspects of it are true and because of that, the overall narrative is disturbing to me.
Hat tip to Roxy Shih, a female Asian American director who is brilliantly putting this important story before our eyes. This visual of the man sitting in the warehouse with the light coming through the high windows is particularly gorgeous. Notice the crucifixes in the shadows. Excellent symbolism.
DARK/WEB A No Spoiler Review of Chapter 3
My favorite episode so far. This is the 3rd post of 8 in 8 days.
The beginning sequence of this chapter is outstanding, will terrify you, make you nervous and curious and might even make you laugh.
The larger arc is filled out in this episode, with another friend of Molly Solis being added to the mix. To read my previous reviews, click The Pilot
James Woodsley, this friend of Molly’s lives in Madison, WI (my current hometown…so shoutout to my people). James is also sent a short story by Molly. This is viewed in the first moments of the episode.
I can’t say too much more because it will spoil the surprise, but I do want to comment of 4 aspects of DARK/WEB I am appreciating so far:
- Outstanding casting. Multi-ethnic. No stereotypes. I noticed this particularly in the pilot…how various characters were cast to upset stereotypes.
- DARK/WEB is a HORROR/SCI-FI series, so be warned. Like the film Alien follows the haunted house script a uses many of its tropes (down to the solo female facing the monster in the end), this series too uses horror tropes. It is both futuristic and horrific. These episodes have caused me moments of terror and disturbed my sleep. Not everyone likes this…so this is a warning. From lonely dark streets where the character walks and keeps looking behind his or her back, to darkness, to phones that never quite connect with 911, it’s all there in DARK/WEB. I will reiterate, Chapter 2 was especially horrific.
- Roxy Shih, a woman and person of color is doing a brilliant job in the directing, nominated for an Emmy (see below). I’m appreciating her deft touch and so far the writing is very tight. I remind you, these episodes are short…at least they are by film and tv standards, so the creators are accomplishing a lot when they make the audience laugh, cringe and freak out, all in the same 1/2 hour. That doesn’t happen accidentally.
Lastly, here are the Emmy’s DARK/WEB has been nominated for this year:
- Outstanding Digital Drama Series
- Michael Nardelli, Tim Nardelli, Mario Miscione, Allison Vanore
- Outstanding Directing Team for a Digital Drama Series:
- Mario Miscione, Michael Nardelli, Roxy Shih
- Outstanding Main Title and Graphic Design for a Live-Action Program
- Justin Martinez, Tim Nardelli, Mario Miscione, Michael Nardelli
- Outstanding Light Direction for a Drama or Digital Drama Series
- Vasiliki Constantinou, Lars Lindstrom
- Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for a Drama or Digital Drama Series
- Jonathan Hartman
- Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Drama Series
- Rene Heger
- Outstanding Guest Performer in a Digital Drama Series
- Graham Sibley
DARK/WEB No Spoiler Review of Chapter 2
Hacked
Today marks the 2nd of 8 days in a row of posts. For your orientation, read yesterday’s post which introduced Dark/Web, the 8 chapter (episodic) series on Amazon Prime, to read now click Pilot.
Today’s chapter implied a gruesome scene, so be warned. Though it wasn’t visual gore, the hint of it might trigger some, especially women who have been victimized by violence.
For others, able and willing to view evil head-on, this review is for you.
Molly Solis is drawing her friends together to solve a mystery around the dark web. She is sending them messages via email. Each message is a story. The viewer has met Molly in the pilot during the first few minutes. She appears on video camera, in trouble, though not helpless. The audience does not know much more than that, though they see her capitulate to some kind of authority, despite her protest.
In the first chapter, Ethan, a reporter and old highschool friend of Molly’s reads a story emailed to him by her. The action on screen quickly cuts to the “episode”, which shows the story as it unfolds. The first story is about a ride-sharing app gone haywire.
This second story is called Hacked and comes to Sam, who happens to have dated Ethan recently, though they are currently broken up. Sam is another highschool friend of Molly’s.
This story is about Misty, a young woman working at a burger joint. She is the drive through operations person. When a famous music star drives through to buy burgers, flirts with her, allows her to take a selfie with him and posts this on a platform called Flash, our heroine becomes instantly famous. Her social media account explodes with likes and loves and comments. In this fictional world, not too unlike ours, Flash determines whether you are a worthwhile human. When your ranking goes up, as it does for Misty out of this incident, that makes makes her popular by society’s standards. Following this happy event, Misty’s phone is hacked and a reckoning ensues. Bad actors zero in on her to take advantage of her popularity.
DARK/WEB, Amazon Prime Series. A Review of the Pilot
In the next eight days, I will watch one episode per day (episodes are called chapters in this series and there are 8 total). I will review each one briefly.
Today I watched the first chapter. This story had a few layers. I read a little about the series on IMDb and Wikipedia to orient myself….here’s the IMDb link if you want to do that too.
Is this really Amazon Prime’s answer to Netflix’s The Black Mirror? Some say this is the model for DARK/WEB, but there is an overall story arc that connects all of the chapters, so not exactly like The Black Mirror. I’ll know more in a few days and can report then.
This series is one season only. As of now, there is no indication that a season 2 will be made.
Written by Mario Miscione, Boman Modine and Michael Nardelli, the story begins with a mysterious set of images and screens where a young woman is obviously being harassed via the internet to do something (we don’t know what) she does not want to do. It then cuts to the apartment of a recently laid off reporter by the name of Ethan Neary. He is obviously in a bad spot, sleeping on his sofa, drinking too much, his apartment a mess. He has missed a number of calls from a high school friend (Sam Daniels) who has been trying to contact him. Sam is anxious about repeated emails that have been sent to her from another old high school friend, Molly Solis. Ethan has received messages as well. Is this really Molly? They are both worried about computer viruses, therefore reticent to open the file, but Ethan decides to open the attachment, which reveals a short story that he ends up reading aloud over the phone to Sam…the read aloud cuts to new action, but with different characters.
At this point, the story being read becomes what the audience sees on the screen.
Chapter 1 of DARK/WEB is about a rideshare driver who experiences a glitch in the app supposed to help him perform his job. Now, instead of simply giving him directions, it talks to him about who all the people are he is driving. He’s driving late at night to make ends meet for his young family and it turns out many of the people he is driving are awful folks. The rideshare app knows details about their evil and begins directing him to do certain things to stop these people from exerting their power in ways that will hurt others. You can imagine where this might go.
Three things I like about this chapter:
- Quick set-up that indicates a mystery
- Amazingly fast empathy for the main character (the rideshare driver)
- Tension around the craziness he is exposing himself to while driving…so much so…I needed to pause the recording for bit and think whether or not I wanted to see what I imagined to be a gory or troubling end.
I won’t give anything away, but the viewer does become invested in the driver’s wellbeing and that is an indication of good character writing. It happens fast that the viewer is rooting for him. Chapter 1 was worth the 27 minutes. I recommend if you like tension and dystopian/cyberpunk/mystery.
ANNIHILATION, Echoes of Ripley and the Alien Franchise…A No-Spoiler Review of the Film
ANNIHILATION is free for Amazon Prime members, or at least it was at the writing of this post. This film is Rated R, some sex and violence, therefore might not be appropriate for teens.
For Educators: An AP Biology “fun watch” with a discussion to follow about the ideas put forward by the author. Do preview to make sure it’s not too sexy or violent for your students.
Five Reasons to Watch ANNIHILATION
- The film puts forward a non-humanoid portrayal of an alien species invading our planet–always a welcome change in sci-fi land.
- Watch it for the tension, mystery and suspense (on par with films like Alien and The Thing).
- Watch it for the dynamic, mostly female cast. Realistic and flawed characters with agency and intelligence.
- Watch it for the beautifully imagined world. The CGI and other effects are a visual feast.
- I also enjoyed the creepy music. I expect it will make your skin crawl as it did mine.
Lena
ANNIHILATION is based on The Southern Reach Trilogy novels by Jeff VanderMeer. Watch the film and read the first book (in particular), also called Annihilation. To read my review of the first novel, click here. The film diverges enough from the novel, spoilers aren’t an issue. Both stand alone and give the consumer something different. The most important commonality in both is the main character: Lena, as named in the film. She is not named in the book, but is only known as the biologist.
Alex Garland wrote the screenplay based on the trilogy, but focused on the first book. He takes that novel told in the first person, a story relayed by the journal entries of the biologist, and creates something that makes sense for the screen.
In one of the film’s earliest scenes, a comet or asteroid hits Earth, near a lighthouse on the North-Eastern coast of the US. Within a few years (we learn later), an anomaly develops in and around the area where the asteroid hit. It becomes circumscribed by what the government people call, the shimmer.
The story of Lena opens with her sitting in a chair in a mostly empty hospital-type viewing room. She is dressed in scrubs, surrounded by men and women in hazmat suits, many of whom watch her through windows. One man is interviewing her about her journey into the shimmer. She is the only survivor who has returned from inside the shimmer out of a 5-person team. As he questions her, the story unfolds.
The casting of ANNIHILATION is strong, with nuanced performances by Natalie Portman and Jennifer Jason Leigh (as the psychologist and expedition leader).
This film was released on a February weekend in 2018, the weekend following the release of Black Panther. While the Marvel masterpiece sucked nearly all of the movie-going public into the theaters to ooh and aah over that story as well as the graphics and the unfolding of a Wakanda power struggle, ANNIHILATION quietly drew its small and eclectic audience. It left the theaters before the Hollywood press had a chance to say much about it. In truth, even without Black Panther as competition for eyeballs, the film was rated “R”, and therefore would not have attracted the masses.
However, similar to a film like Under the Skin, this story is so creepy and alien, it pushes the imagination. The sci-fi fanatic will adore it…as should biologists, who will see their discipline elevated in a way not often witnessed on the big screen without a virus taking over the world.
If you are a DVD watcher, here is a link for purchase.
I end with a favorite quote:
“Was it carbon based? What did it want? It came here for a reason. It came here for a reason. It mutated everything.”
THE EXPANSE Fans: Take Notice! You Can Stream (Free) All Three Seasons on Amazon Prime, Starting Friday
Frankie Adams as Marine, Roberta, “Bobbie” Draper
In two days, Amazon Prime makes three seasons of THE EXPANSE available to members. This comes in advance of their release of season 4 and fans of the show, across the globe, are celebrating. This series almost came to a bitter and premature end. Firefly fans know exactly what I’m talking about.
THE EXPANSE (based on books by James S.A. Corey) had been canceled by NBCUniversal’s Syfy channel after season 3. Fans exploded in fury and came out of the woodwork to figure out how they could keep this series going.
The story of how the EXPANSE survived is one worth reading. It includes fans hiring a plane to fly a Save THE EXPANSE banner over the Amazon headquarters as well as George RR Martin and Craig Newmark (founder of Craig’s List), writing emails to Bezos. Bezos and his Amazon studio head, Jennifer Salke, paid attention. Season 4 went into production last year and will be released sometime in 2019. I’ll post the release date when announced.
If you are a scifi nut or you just love great characters, epic story telling and the casting of strong men and women, including a number of kickass women of color and you haven’t already stuck your nose into this series, I highly recommend. For a no spoiler review, see this guest post of THE EXPANSE written earlier this Fall by friend and math professor, John Mayberry.
THE EXPANSE, No Spoiler Guest Review
John Mayberry
I am excited about this post, a first guest post for allscifiallthetime.com, written by a PhD and a math nerd at that…
It is my pleasure to introduce fellow SciFi fan, Dr. John Mayberry, an Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. Dr. Mayberry teaches a wide range of courses in applied math and statistics. He first became interested in science fiction and fantasy after reading Susan Cooper’s the Dark is Rising in fifth grade and found it such a welcome and imaginative escape from the real world that he has been hooked on the genre ever since. He is married with three kids and has enjoyed sharing this love with them through bedtime stories and weekend movie nights.
Here is Dr. Mayberry’s review of THE EXPANSE:
The Expanse made the news last year after its cancellation on the SyFy channel led to massive protests and rallies from fans who wanted more. Their pleas were so convincing that Amazon picked up the show, released it on Prime, and started work on Season 4. Comparisons between the Expanse and Firefly, one of my personal all-time favorite space operas, coupled with its newfound accessibility to us non-cable folks encouraged me to give it a shot. I was not disappointed. In fact, after watching all three currently available seasons in just a few weeks (no small feat for a parent of three little ones), I believe that The Expanse has surpassed Firefly and even (dare I say it?) Battlestar Galactica in the pantheon of epic SyFy channel originals.
The Expanse takes place three hundred years from now in a future where humankind has populated the far reaches of our solar system, thanks to a series of technological breakthroughs in “high-g” space travel. The United Nations controls Earth and “Luna” while Mars is under the governance of an independent military coalition. The outer reaches of the system (referred to as “the Belt”) consists of a series of asteroids and space stations operating on artificial spin gravity. The Earth and Mars depend on the Belt for resources while “Belters” are treated as second-class citizens by the “inners”. Season 1 centers around three distinct storylines that respectively follow a cop in one of the largest belt stations, the crew of a deep space ice freighter, and a high-ranking Earth diplomat as they independently discover evidence of an unfathomable plot to destroy the solar system’s fragile peace. It turns out to run so much deeper than any of them could have possibly imagined.
The show accelerates you into a “high-g burn” from the start of episode one and never really lays off the juice thereafter. BSG, for all its glorious moments, suffered from some pretty lame episodes and character inconsistencies (like Lee’s sudden “you never let me fulfill my dream of being a lawyer, dad” moment), but no episode of The Expanse is wasted on such side plots and trivialities. Everything builds towards major epiphanies that aren’t dragged out indefinitely (like in Lost), but instead brought to fruition within the scope of seasons or even half seasons and then turn into bigger questions and realizations which keep you coming back for more. In fact, at the end of Season 3, my wife and I felt like the whole first three seasons, for all they accomplished, played like a prologue leading up to an even greater space adventure in the seasons to follow.
Underlying the compelling storyline is a charismatic and well-cast group of actors whose chemistry on screen is reminiscent of the Firefly cast at times. The Tarantino-esque convergent storylines woven throughout the show merge in extremely satisfying fashion throughout the series. New characters are introduced with purpose and have important roles to play in driving the overarching plot towards its objectives. Even for sci-fi skeptics (like my wife), the characters and political backdrop of the Earth-Mars-Belter coalition will draw you in and force you to imagine what the future could be like…and whether it is the future we want to build towards or not.