What Under the Dome Can Learn From Prison Break

Prison Break was originally conceived as a two- season TV series about a group of incarcerated guys that broke out of a high security prison. Unfortunately, the series eventually ran for 4 seasons with each of the last two seasons being really terrible. Why did it happen? One word: greed. The network (Fox) got greedy and chose to extend the show. without a concrete or properly fleshed-out plan for a good story.. Never mind that the series is making a comeback in what seems to be another poorly-conceived attempt at story telling.  What does all this have to do with Under the Dome? Quite a lot.

A Short Review of Person of Interest: Season 4

The fourth season of our favourite show wrapped up about a month ago. Ergo, this review is a bit belated. On the whole, Season 4 was a disappointment. It was supposed to be The Machine vs Samiritan. Instead, what we got was The Machine playing a defensive game mostly by hiding. Also, there were way too many filler episodes. It seems the writers and producers had a good idea but just didn’t know how to execute it properly. There were a lot of inconsistencies.  So I guess trimming the upcoming fifth season to just thirteen episodes is a welcome development. If it will be the final season is unknown at this point. Here’s a quick rundown of the major problems with Season 4.

(i)        Shaw’s character has been built-up and portrayed as a cold and precise killer. I would call her the grown up version of Hit Girl in KickAss. So I found it odd that she couldn’t successful shoot Martine at the beauty parlour (despite the superior firepower that she was packing).

(ii)       All of a sudden, Root is now an exponent of hand to hand combat. Where did that come from? Meanwhile, Martine who has sometimes been portrayed as a kind of black ops agent couldn’t do better than to engage in a girly fight with Root. The writers even went further to portray Root as an expert of sorts with the ease with which she snapped Martine’s neck. This is all very inconsistent.

(iii)      The Machine’s dialog at the end came across as very awkward and completely out of character. A Machine that had hitherto refused to (or accepted not to) talk with Harold is now calling him father. I’m not sure what to make of that but certainly, I was neither impressed nor amused.

(iv)      The episode with Carter was in my opinion, one of the worst. It served no real purpose. It neither added to nor moved the plot forward in any way. It seems the writers just wanted to cash in on Taraji P. Henson’s fame on Empire.

(v)       Also, I have to wonder why Samaritan didn’t fix the blindspots / deadzones in the city’s surveillance.

(vi)      Fusco has heard a Machine being mentioned twice now. It’s becoming unrealistic that he hasn’t asked what it is. – First in the Season finale of Season 3 during the blackout after he steps out of the anti-riot vehicle. The second time is in If Then Else episode of Season 4.

I shall miss Elias, excellently played by Enrico Collantoni. He was one of the very good characters, much akin to Gus Fring of Breaking Bad. Scarface Anthony also got some well-deserved character development. Even Reese commented that he never knew his name.

And let’s not forget where Season 4 ended: Finch, Root, and (a probably wounded) Reese were literally walking towards and shooting at Samirtan agents. A situation where the trio were both outnumbered and outgunned. I’m wondering how this will be resolved.

The season definitely had some great episodes though. I think many people would agree that the best was If The Else. If Shaw’s character had been killed off here, it would have been a glorious and befitting exit. Dominic got schooled by Elias. Despite his knowledge of strategy and big talk, he fell for a cheap ruse. I shall miss both characters though. I would have preferred their conflict to endure another season or two.  My favourite episodes:

(i)            Episode 1: Panopticon

(ii)          Episode 3: Wingman

(iii)         Episode 4: Brotherhood

(iv)         Episode 6: Pretenders

(v)          Episode 8: Point of Origin

(vi)         Episode 9: The Devil You Know

(vii)        Episode 11: If-Then-Else

(viii)      Episode 12: Control-Alt-Delete

And to Jonathan Nolan, CBS, Varese Sarabande and Ramin Djawadi: PLEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSEEEEEEEE, release the soundtrack (score) already. Both for Seasons 3 and 4. We need something to tide us over till the next season debuts. And whilst on the subject of musical scores, it would be better if the scores/soundtrack compilation for any TV series is released within a month after the end of each Season.

Peace.

Au revoir Detective Carter

Whether life imitates art or art imitates life, one thing is evident: some of us fail to learn from our costly mistakes.

While Finch's genius and intelligence are unquestionable, he has failed to learn from a costly mistake he made earlier. His ego got in the way of sound reasoning and it resulted in the death of his best friend, Nathan Ingram.

One would have thought that he had learnt from that mistake. Alas, his ego prevented him from acknowledging the obvious truth. Had he listened to Root's logical suggestion, Detective Carter would still be with us today.

On the other hand, it's only realistic that one of the main characters would buy the farm at some point. The team has had one too many close shaves to keep getting away. That being said, I'm glad it wasn't Fusco. I love his character. Who would have guessed that Det. Carter would be joining Officer Lasky and Agent Donnelly pretty soon!

A Shortage of Perfect Trilogies

Hollywood has become infatuated with trilogies. Once a movie or a movie character shows a cult following, the studios almost always turn it into a franchise. The reason behind this is not far-fetched. They get to give fans more of the first movie and their characters and of course, they get to make more money from the budding franchise. There are those times when the decision to make a trilogy is not motivated by the above reasons but by the source material. That is, if a novel is adapted for the big screen, it follows that subsequent sequel novels will also be adapted except if the first movie failed to perform at the box office. That being said, it seems delivering the perfect trilogy has for the most part, eluded Hollywood.

This Cartoon is Better Than The Dark Knight Rises

There is a cartoon; a brief animation clip. It is actually the trailer for a video game. It is just five minutes long. A little under five minutes actually. This cartoon is the trailer for Batman: Arkham Origins. And it is better than The Dark Knight Rises in many ways. How could a five minute cartoon possibly be better than a movie? Well, it is everything the movie wasn't: dark, gritty, sensible and awesome. Not to rehash, but that travesty called The Dark Knight Rises was not the sequel / conclusion that we deserved neither was it the one that we needed. And it has good sound editing too.

Enjoy.

Abuse of the Flashback Technique

The flashback is a literary plot device that allows the depiction of events that occurred before the beginning of the narrative. Its primary purpose is to clarify a hitherto unexplained part of the plot and its secondary purpose is to add a bit of suspense and mystery to the literary work. Over time, it has been employed for other purposes such as depicting a false account of events as narrated by one of the characters. In the very recent movie, Vantage Point (2008), it was used to depict accurate but different perspectives of the same event thereby creating a sense of mystery. It has also been used in many TV series but of late, I feel the technique is being over-used, abused and excessively relied upon.

2 Guns Trailer: 2 Much Revealed

I just watched the trailer for 2 Guns, the movie starring Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg. And I have to say: it looks promising. Think of Bad Boys (not the rubbish sequel). What I don't get is why many trailers decide to give the whole movie away. Too much has been revealed. I ignored many trailers of The Dark Knight Rises because of this. 


With the 2 Guns trailer, I already know too much of the plot as well as a major part of the denoument. What do you think? Do you think it reveals too much?

Can Finch Still Control the Machine?

I should start by saying this: if you do not watch Person of Interest, the TV series starring Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson, then this article is not for you. It will make little or no sense to you. If however, you are one of the fortunate people watching this show, then by all means keep reading.

The Machine. The omniscient and omnipresent Machine. I have used a capital M for the Machine for two reasons. First, I consider it a major character in the show much like Finch, Reese et al. The second reason it deserves such respect is because of its abilities. Not so much its computational abilities but its conscious abilities. When the Machine becomes common place, then it will be called the machine. Remember back in the day when the internet was called the Internet.

Letter to the Writers & Producers of Touch

Season 1 of Touch was top notch and devoid of sappy writing. The second season started on a high but I have begun to notice changes right from the fifth episode. The writers are beginning to resort to cheap tricks to prolong move the plot forward. Last week’s episode was going rather well right until the point at which Amelia was on the pier waiting for her mother only for Mrs. Norborg to arrive just in time to abduct her again. This was all too convenient for the Norborgs. It’s the kind of cheap writing that was prevalent in Passions; remember when Chad was trying to find his mother.

If I Were In Charge of the Oscars

Now that the dust from the recently held 85^th Oscar Awards has settled, I would like to point out what I believe to be flaws in the selection and eligibility process. 

Lincoln De Jure

Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, starring Daniel Day Lewis as the titular character (if I may use the word character) has been critically acclaimed. It has received several nominations and won several awards in several categories. But is the movie that good?

Why Skyfall Is Not the Best Bond Movie

It is imperative for me to begin this piece by declaring that I have watched every Bond movie; official, unofficial and spoofs. That is my bona fides that allows me to ponder the question of whether Skyfall is indeed the best James Bond movie ever made.

A Quick Look at the Fringe Finale

Fringe, everyone’s favourite sci-fi show has ended. So how was the finale? In one word, functional. However, looking at the whole season makes it obvious that the show’s writers and creator didn’t really have anywhere to go at the end of the fourth season. All season 5 was about was avoiding the observers and trying to defeat them. All the weekly fringe cases and events that were the mainstay of the series were absent from the final season.