Brother Review: Top 5 New Tv Shows

The Top 5 New Shows of This Tv Season

(2012-2013)

Reviews by: Russ Milheim (Kappa)

Go On5.) Go On - This show hit as a surprise.  It’s a comedy about Ryan King, a sports talk radio host who starts to go to a support group to try and get past the death of his wife.  Here’s the catch: it’s a half hour comedy.  Now the best comedies (at least in my opinion) out there have a perfect balance of comedy and serious emotional moments.  That is what Go On is trying to achieve.  While it hasn’t fully reached it’s potential, it has certainly done a great job so far.  It is a very entertaining and funny show and it hits those emotional beats very well, causing it to be touching at times.  Some outstanding examples are the surprise of Ryan’s wife appearing as a ghost to him, and getting a glimpse inside of Danny’s head to see how he copes.  Every group member gets a moment and it’s quite wonderful.  If it is hopefully renewed, I have a feeling season 2 will vastly improve upon the structure that has been built by season 1.

Status: Not yet renewed, but likely to be          Channel: NBC

Bates Motel4.) Bates Motel - Coming from Cartlon Cuse, a former writer for LOST, Bates Motel focuses on the infamous Norman Bates from Psycho (1960) before he became the killer he is.  While the show serves as a prequel to the movie, it’s more influenced by it rather than a direct prequel.  The show not only focuses on Norman, but on his unique relationship with his mother, and how that shapes who he becomes.  It’s very entertaining to watch the dynamics play out between the characters.  The show also provides a very good amount of mystery and suspense that, oddly enough, doesn’t seem out of place or tacked on.  The most recent episode really showed how the show can excel at keeping you on your toes, and keeping you guessing, as well as being able to provide unexpected twists.  The show is not predictable in the slightest (excluding the obvious future for Norman), which is a very good thing, something that is becoming  harder to come by these days.  If you want a very entertaining and eerie story about the formation of a serial killer, then Bates Motel is for you.

Status: Renewed! Prepare for another season of craziness!           Channel: A&E

Arrow

3.) Arrow - At first, Arrow was good.  It has some of the best choreography I’ve ever seen in a TV show.  Not to mention it followed DC Universe’s Green Arrow.  But besides that, there wasn’t much to it (besides Deathstroke looking unbelievably badass in every shot he was in), with many of the villains introduced being severely under developed.  That’s not to say it never had it’s moments, with the brutal fight between Green Arrow and the Dark Archer being a prime example of this (seriously – great fight).  Sometimes there is an episode of television that makes a show better than just good.  It makes it great.  And that’s what happened after the brilliant episode “The Odyssey,” which took place almost entirely on the island where Oliver Queen was stuck for five years.  After that episode, the show maintained a high quality (for the most part) every single week, with every episode becoming more focused and improving characters within the show.  After “The Odyssey,” Arrow became a must watch show.

Status: Renewed!           Channel: CW

The Americans2.) The Americans - Never thought there would be a show where you root for the Soviets did you? IntroducingThe Americans, making the FBI look like assholes…understandable assholes. The show follows two Soviet secret spies planted in the US during the Cold War and their attempt to gain information from the US.  The information introduces you to extremely complex characters and dynamics.  It’s a very unique show, one that is exploring an area of complexity rarely done on television.  It’s a very dark, serious, and down-to-earth show; so if you are expecting laughs, this is not your show.  But you don’t need laughs to be a great show (as the number 1 show on this list will prove). The Americans is a perfect example of not needing big action sequences in order to make great drama and tension. It goes behind the enemy lines and shows you that they are people too, just like us. It is certainly one of the best period shows on television as a whole.

Status: Renewed!          Channel: FX

Hannibal1.) Hannibal - The brutally wonderful Hannibal.  This show was a huge surprise.  NBC held it until midseason and refused to release any footage of it until a month before its air date, so one knew what to expect.  The moment I finished the pilot episode, I was blown away. It is certainly one of the best pilots out there (not quite reaching the heights of last year’s Awake, but still amazing nonetheless), and each episode is better than the last, excluding the minor missteps in the most recent episode.  As you can guess, the infamous Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs (1991) is the primary focus of the show. It is set before he is caught and known to be the cannibal killer that he is. It follows agent Will Graham as he is assigned with Hannibal to get inside the head of killers in order to catch them.  Hannibal also serves as Will Graham’s therapist and every scene that they share is just so great. Their chemistry is perfect,and they play off each other wonderfully. It isn’t just their chemistry either; every character plays well with everyone else and watching the dynamics play out, especially with the prior knowledge the audience has that Hannibal is a killer, is just fascinating.  The show has a very distant, scary, and edgy look to it that is just awesome and works so well.  The gore on the show is something that shocked me as well. I was awed that this stuff was being shown on broadcast television. In other words they stretch the boundaries as far as they possibly can. Not to mention the creativity and originality the writers have when it comes to crafting the killers for Graham to catch is unreal. I really hope the writers of this show are getting constant psych evals.  If you haven’t guessed, I really like Hannibal, and if you haven’t seen it, you really need to.

Status: Not yet renewed.  It’s unbelievably uncertain.  Here’s to hoping!          

Channel: NBC

Honorable Mentions:

Last Resort - This was so good! Sadly, no one watched it and it got canceled; therefore a lot of the plot got rushed to a conclusion, and the potential that that the series had got squashed.  However, the conclusion was enough to be satisfied and to give the best ending to the show it could get. I would recommend it if you have the time.

Status: Canceled           Channel: ABC

The Following - While it is a very entertaining show  and has some of the most disturbing scenes in it (prior to Hannibal that is), what kept me from putting this on the list is it’s predictability and unbelievable logic gaps.  Like, you REALLY have to stretch your suspension of belief to enjoy the show.

Status: Renewed for Second Season          Channel: FOX

 

Brother Review: Take Shelter

Take Shelter

A Review by Ruby Orth (Kappa)

Take ShelterTake Shelter first grabbed my attention by the score written by David Wingo, a simple but entrancing intricacy of repetitive notes and progressive dramatic tone. What made me watch the film was the concept. The entire plot of the film is centered around the conflict of the validity of these apocalyptic visions an ordinary man continually sees. Stunning performances from the explosive duo Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain add up for a film that quietly builds and then implodes in the viewers mind. Both a psychological and interpersonal thriller, this film is one of the better of the 2011 year. It focuses not only on the internal conflict but also explores the external factors reality brings to the table. Dramatic, daring and emotional this is not a film to overlook.

Overall rating? 8. For fans of Donnie Darko but only in the sense of doubting the protagonist sanity due to one of the best performances of Michael Shannon’s career to date and impressive dialogue.

Brother Review: The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines 

A Review by Ruby Orth (Kappa)

The Place Beyond the PinesDerek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines is a emotional view of the threads that tie together a father and a son. The film begins with a bleach blonde Ryan Gosling establishing himself as the lone wolf grungy motorcyclist who finds that he has fathered a child with a local woman in one of the towns his carnival frequents. The birth of this child is the catalyst in which the film begins and continues over time to develop another character, a cop, who is almost ironically seen as the antagonist. Years pass and Mike Patton’s score casts a gloomy, dramatic tone to the storyline interspersed with sweeping shots of upstate New York hills. This is not a film that splits it’s guts out for the viewer to see; this is a closed body of cinema that one must dissect a little in order to get to the heart. The resonance is subtle, an everyday action that in the circumstances of the plotline becomes monumental. I had extremely high expectations for this film, having watched and been intrigued by the trailer. However, there were several places where, in the two and a half hours, this piece could have ended sooner and maybe even been better for it The casting for this film could not have been better, starring Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper and newcomer Dane Dehaan (Chronicle); each character was developed to a point where it should seem improbable for the time allotted, and only complimented the spot on location. All in all, this was worth the wait.

Final Verdict:  7.5. For fans of understated films meant for chewing over for a few hours after the credits.

Brother Review: The Booth At The End

The Booth At The End

A Review by Branden Leavens (Theta)

I spend a lot of time on Hulu, which loves to run ads for its exclusive shows in the middle of the show you are currently watching. One such ad is how I first heard about The Booth at the End. The premise revolves around a man who sits in a booth in a diner and people come to see him to get something they really want, such as the good health of a loved one or to get a supermodel centerfold for a girlfriend. For this, ‘The Man’ who sits in that booth gives them a task ranging deplorably evil (kill a child or person, kill a certain number of individuals at once) to benevolently helpful (help an old shut-in leave their house, protect a child from all harm, or become a servant of a higher power). Once the task is complete, they receive the thing they wanted, usually as a peculiar, but not necessarily macabre, coincidence. The only caveat on the deal is they must come back to him regularly and tell him how the task is progressing and their feelings on it, which he records in a book.

The Booth at the End @ IMDB The show’s entire ethic seems to be substance over style. If you are looking for Jack Bauer chasing down terrorists in the middle of explosions and exotic locations, then this series will be an incredible disappointment; the entirety of the show is shot not only in a single diner but in that one booth in that one diner.  Each episode is a collection of visits from the various individuals he has deals with as they discuss their progress and their intentions. Dialogue is the vehicle which conveys the story; the wishes and tasks along with their subsequent character impacts are what drive the show. The mystery and intertwining narrative is the main hook for viewers to keep watching.

What I personally loved about the show starts with the portrayal of ‘The Man’ The concept of a demon or devilish character making monkeys paw deals to unsuspecting or desperate chumps has been done to death. The trope of a guardian angel working to make everything turn out for the greater good is just too saccharine to be interesting. This series does not seem to be following either trope as ‘The Man’ is neither malicious nor benevolent; he simply seems neutral yet invested, making him very curious and interesting. Since he is not acting as an obvious stereotype of devil or angel, nor as an uncaring neutral force, that means we are left wondering what he is (something which the story is slowly starting to hint at, but has yet to be meaningfully explained).

In addition to ‘The Man’ himself, the various tasks he gives the individuals are simple yet lead to complex emotions. Someone who comes with a benevolent wish for his child’s life to be spared might be tasked with killing another child. This leads to asking if the individual will go through with it. Not only that, but soon the other characters’ tasks start working at cross-purposes: where it is clear that only one character of the two will be able to complete their task because there is another person who has been tasked to do the opposite.  It leads us to wonder which will succeed and which will fail. Additionally, every character’s story is told equally over each episode and does not truly resolve until the end of each season for the full arc.

The only negative I have about the show is that for a show that started in 2011, it only has 10 episodes which are split into 2 seasons consisting of 5 episodes each. Each episode is a half-hour and the interconnected and addictive nature of each episode means you probably don’t want to stop watching, meaning you could blow through it in a single afternoon. The format works really well for the type of storytelling, but it leaves me wanting more, which I apparently will not get until the summer. It just leaves me feeling like it’s the Half Life 2 of TV shows. The episodic nature of the small seasons should mean more content that is easier and quicker to produce, leading to a faster turn-around schedule and there could be two seasons released each year, but its seeming like it will be 5 episodes a year. Those episodes so far have been amazing so I’m hesitant to complain too loudly, but I’m still itching for a fix. Secondly, it is Hulu-exclusive, which means no one without Hulu can see it. That’s sad, but with Hulu being so cheap, it’s still easily accessible to those who really want to see it.

Final Verdict: Overall, I recommend it to anyone so long as they know what they are getting into. If you are okay with zero action and just dialogue driving an interwoven narrative, then The Booth at the End is probably for you and you should check it out. For a superbly built mystery that enthralled me like the first season of “Lost”; and had me so hooked I watched the entire 2 seasons in one sitting, all without ever leaving a single booth in a diner; I must give the booth at the end a 10/10.

Brother Review: Bates Motel

Bates Motel “First You Dream, Then You Die” (Pilot)

A review by Russ Milheim (Kappa)

Bringing a new definition to “Mama’s boy”

Bates MotelI’m going to start this review by saying that I have not seen the original Psycho (1960).  I know, I know, I’m a horrible excuse for a human being.  That being said, I very much enjoyed this pilot.  The show is about Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his mother Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) as they head out to White Pine Bay to start a new life after the death of Norman’s father.  This new life includes running a newly purchased motel, the infamous Bates Motel.  For those of you that have seen Psycho, this show is more inspired by the movie and its characters rather than acting as a direct prequel.  Thus, it cannot be faulted for continuity errors, especially since this show does take place in modern times.

The show at its core is certainly all about the relationship between Norman and his mother.  Right from the start, there is a very eerie vibe that they give off.  Just watching them on screen makes me want to keep watching; they definitely have just the right chemistry. They hit the jackpot when it comes to the actors’ performances.  Right off the bat, you see how controlling and manipulative Norma is; she seemingly controls everything Norman does.  It will be very interesting to see how this relationship shapes Norman throughout the series into the infamous Norman Bates that we know and love to fear.

It was really nice to see Nestor Carbonell back on TV; I’ve missed him.  I hope that he appears in future episodes.  He was involved in a very tense scene that was very well done.  It was certainly a nail-biter for me!  The pilot also had just the right amount of intrigue and mystery to keep you wondering what was going to happen, and what will happen for the rest of the reason.  I really want to find out what that last scene was about.

I do have a few problems with the pilot, though. Norman made friends pretty quickly, I thought, almost unnaturally quick.  Maybe the town is just super nice, but I still don’t buy a group of girls automatically making you their best friend because you just moved there.  Also, that girl’s advances on him were very quick for a guy that says next to nothing.  I’m guessing the writers just wanted to speed that process up, so it’s understandable.  It could have been a teeny tiny bit slower and less sudden, though.  Another gripe with the pilot is that crazy guy.  What was his problem?  I mean, I’m pretty sure that they got that motel and house fairly.  His violence made literally no sense, although it was certainly scary.  Maybe they are going to introduce things in future episodes that tie back into him to make his actions more credible.

Final Verdict: Bates Motel is a very intriguing and entertaining show that is certainly worth a watch, even if you have not seen the original movie from which it was inspired. 8/10

Bates Motel airs on Monday nights at 10/9 Central on A&E.

 

Brother Review: Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty

A review by Ruby Orth (Kappa)

Zero Dark ThirtyIt’s no small feat to not only take on the greatest manhunt of all time and
consolidate it into under three hours, but to also make it appeal to mass audiences.
However, Kathryn Bigelow (Hurt Locker) did just that. From the first shot, one is
injected with a potent dosage of extended release adrenaline. Based on the tracking-down
of Osama Bin Laden, the main character Maya (played by the talented Academy Award
nominee Jessica Chastain) is merely a center point for the story to swirl around. Not that
this isn’t a plot-driven film, but this is a rare piece in which its characters are only as
complicated as the plot lets them be. Maya is portrayed only in context to the hunt, only
letting glimpses of her humanity be seen as she works tirelessly for a decade to locate
Bin Laden. A long film to be sure at 157 minutes, the time flies as cinematography,
screenwriting and acting mesh together in a perfect blend of a cinematic force. Shot in a
way to capture the brutality of torture but not blatantly show gore, film composer
Alexandre Desplat finds a way to put some beauty behind the harsh concept of this film.
Mainly focusing on piano, pipes and strings; the score is something of a force itself. In
addition to the dialogue, the score acts as an additional aide to evoke the emotion in
Bigelow’s stunning attempt at interpreting the aftermath of 9/11 for the masses with
some semblance of film standards and even those without. Undeniably, this film is a
striking combination of doubt, the question of ethics regarding our enemies, and human
nature in face of an impossible task.

Final Verdict: 9.5/10 because giving it a ten would be too easy. This is a must-see in a sea of excellent films in 2012.

 

Brother Review: A Good Day to Die Hard

Die Hard 5: A Good Day To Die Hard

A review by Max Radbill (Iota)

A Good Day to Die HardNot Necessarily The Best Day to Die Hard.

I walked into the newest installment of the Die Hard franchise very biased. The original film is my all-time favorite movie, and I love all of the other ones. These movies got me into action flicks and into movies overall, so when I heard that another one was coming out, I could hardly contain my excitement. Add to that the fact that I got to see it with my girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, and I couldn’t buy my ticket fast enough. So, was it really A Good Day to Die Hard?

If you’re a fan of the Die Hard franchise—like, a real DIE HARD fan—then you will be disappointed. This movie felt like it wanted to be a Die Hard movie, but wasn’t willing to put in the effort to being a Die Hard movie.

The plot of the movie was so lame and uninteresting that I couldn’t tell you what it was if I tried. John McClane goes to Russia to rescue his son, Jack, who was arrested for killing somebody, who he was hired to kill, by a man that he is supposed to be protecting….and there’s these Russian bad guys who never get any character development or even names for that matter….and I think they want plutonium or something….and then there’s just really loud action scenes….oh and there’s lots of father/son bickering between the McClanes….and before you know it, the movie’s over.

This was the first film in the franchise to be written as a Die Hard movie—all of the others were written as standalone scripts adapted to the Die Hard universe—but you can tell that writer Skip Woods (whose writing credits include Hitman and X-Men Origins: Wolverine; so basically 20th Century Fox hires him to write movies of which they couldn’t care less about the quality) and director John Moore (who still owes me $12 for sitting through the abortion of a film that was Max Payne) clearly watched the first Die Hard once before making this movie. There were multiple things just ripped off of the first movie, which seemed more like lazy cop outs than actual homages. Shit, there’s one scene that is the exact same shot as the iconic Hans Gruber death scene, and I was mostly embarrassed for the film than anything else.

This movie honestly feels like it was slapped together at the last minute. The script was weak and uninteresting, the plot goes nowhere, and it feels like they tried to hire as few people as possible. While the action was amped up more than any Die Hard before it, and quite possibly any film in general, everything just felt mechanical and lacking in the heart and emotion that made me fall in love with John McClane to start with.

While there were about two million problems with this movie, there were some good things. The action, over-the-top as it was, was really awesome. I mean, yeah, there comes a point where you start to wonder how many windows you can really throw a 57-year-old man through before he dies as easily as the expendable villains, but you really have to check your brain at the door. Bruce Willis is always good, no matter how terrible of a movie you put him in, so he’s very enjoyable here. And I really didn’t mind watching Jai Courtney kick all the ass as Jack McClane. Despite his character being written as an ungrateful whiny bitch with huge muscles, Courtney is likable enough that I enjoyed the father-son ass-kicking.

At a brisk 98 minutes, the movie seems rushed, as if they couldn’t think of more plot to drag it out to the length of all four of the other films. All of the sound effects are blasted as loudly as possible (and I mean all of them; there was one scene where a man played chess, and you would have thought the Hulk slammed the chess piece down), almost as if to numb and distract you from the obvious things missing from this film.

Final Verdict: I feel like this movie could have been called anything other than Die Hard and I might have enjoyed it more. Obviously just a paycheck for those involved, it’s easily the worst of the series, but there are plenty of worse movies out there. Will I see this movie again before I die? Well, honestly I probably will; if for nothing else but the nostalgia and the fact that McClane does utter the legendary “Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker” (where you are practically holding your breath until he does). Do I think you should rush out to spend money on seeing it in theaters? Probably not. Needless to say, I think they could have picked a better day to Die Hard. 6/10

Brother Review: Life of Pi

Life of Pi

A review by Ruby Orth (Kappa)

Life of PiHaving read the book eons before the film was even set in motion, when I finally viewed Life of Pi I went into it as if I had never even read the book. I remembered something about a boy, a tiger, and possibly some other animals at sea. However, within the first few minutes I was drawn into this world I had forgotten. The camera jutted out of the viewer’s heart as if every character was oneself and every perspective was the viewers. It is rare to come across such a film that combines cinematography as beautiful as The Tree of Life (for those who haven’t seen it, think of every shot being as delicate and beautiful as a rose petal) and special effects of James Cameron’s Avatar. Every shot is the visual equivalent of the richest food one has ever tasted, a morsel to savor. Pi, who is played by talented newcomer Suraj Sharma, somehow captures an adolescent edge to a character who must essentially become an adult in an instant. Every aspect of this film, from the magnetic score from Mychael Danna that sucks the audience into the emotion like a high-powered vacuum, to the twist that had the majority of the theater bawling like newborns, is a fiber of a complexly structured hat that slips over the wearer’s eyes for a moment, hiding the rest of the world.

Final Verdict: This is a film that conquered not only mass audiences but movie snobs alike. Keep a tissue on deck and your Visa handy to purchase the score. 10/10