Saturday, August 30, 2014

Star Trek VIII: First Contact

I recall a bit of buzz online and from talking to a couple other friends that today's Star Trek film I am covering, 1996's Star Trek VIII: First Contact (trailer), ranks right up with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn as their favorite of the first ten films. Somehow, I managed to go in with an open mind and come out with this easily surpassing Generations as the best Next Generation crew movie yet.

I have not seen the two episode special of The Next Generation, "The Best of Both Worlds" where Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) is captured and assimilated into a new villain race called the Borg that is able to capture and transform its victims into their collective. Essentially, they are space zombies. First Contact brings the Borg to the big screen, with the gigantic cube that is a Borg ship engaging in a huge star battle against an armada of Starfleet vessels. When it looks like Starfleet is going down, the Enterprise intervenes to save the day, but not before a Borg escape ship leaves and creates a time travel vortex as it approaches Earth. The Borg time travel back to April 4, 2063 (hey, that happens to be my 80th birthday!) in hopes of altering history and preventing humans from launching their first space vessel that makes first contact with extra terrestrials. That does not happen as the Enterprise easily disposes of this escape vessel, but not before the Borg are able to beam aboard the Enterprise and start to assimilate her crew.

It is here where the film splits into two parts. For about two thirds of the film is the main arc in what boils down to be a space monster movie where the Borg are slowly taking over the Enterprise. The side story is Riker (Jontahon Frakes, who is pulling double duty as the film's director), Troi (Marina Sirtis) and a now visor-less Geordi (Levar Burton) leading a team to make sure that legendary pilot Zefram Cochran (James Cromwell) goes through with his historic first warp drive flight that is the catalyst for first contact so that history is not altered. This side story is a more light hearted affair from the grim takeover transpiring on the Enterprise, and provides some much needed and appreciated breathing room and chuckles.

Interesting notes of the cast include Data (Brent Spiner) still having the emotion chip that was introduced in Generations part of him, but now being able to enable and disable it on his own accord. This plays a vital role later on when the film introduces the Borg Queen (Alice Krige). There is a well shot zero gravity space combat scene where Picard, Worf (Michael Dorn) and Hawk (Neal McDonough) tear up the Borg on top of the Enterprise. It is worth going into the special effects got exponentially better in the two years since Generations. The aforementioned dogfight against the Borg ship is a dazzling showpiece of warfare that at first glance looks like it came out of a Star Wars film. The Borg outfits also got a significant leap in quality since they were last seen on Next Generation.

Like all the other films covered so far, First Contact is packed with a plethora of extras. Minus commentaries, there is nearly four hours of extra features, with almost an hour of them new HD extras for the BluRay. Continuing my tradition, I watched the first 15 minutes of the film with the original DVD commentary from Jonathon Frakes, and the final 15 minutes with new commentary from screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Anthony Pascale. I wished Frakes had someone to bounce off of on this commentary, as he seems mostly reserved here, sporadically chiming in with a fact or anecdote from the production. Lindelof and Pascale are way more involved and into the film from what I caught of their recording as they are just nonstop passionate about what they are discussing and then surprisingly come to a abrupt halt the second the end credits start up.

Among the ton of original extras included I would suggest checking out Making First Contact, which is a insightful 20 minute look at how Frakes wound up as director and a look at all the new guest stars of the film. The Story is a fascinating what could have been 15 minute piece on how the original draft of the film had Frakes' and Picard's roles reversed. There is a very well made 20 minute tribute on the life and career of series composer Jerry Goldsmith that is essential watching for any Trek fan that has identified with Star Trek's vintage scores. Finally, there are three separate features totaling 40 minutes apiece that are all about the Borg, and how they evolved onto the big screen and their lore throughout the Star Trek universe that provided a very entertaining and informative watch.

All the new HD extras are quicker watches, yet still worth watching if you are not already burnt out by the extra feature overkill (once again, 1.5 speed playback on PS3 is my friend!) by now. There is a short, but must watch interview with an astronaut recorded on the International Space Station and how Star Trek inspired his life and career. Finally, there are two extras that are part twos from new HD extras introduced in Generations of an interview with Brent Spiner and a roundtable with four critics dissecting and analyzing First Contact. I try not to touch too much on the extra features on the movie releases on this blog, but it is almost impossible with these feature packed Star Trek releases. Believe me, of the extras I discussed in the previous two paragraphs, I only covered just about half of the main extra features, and then there are still the regular mainstay trailers, photo galleries and interactive library computer that have been in every release in the BluRay set so far. You are definitely getting your money's worth of content here.

For a person who only previously directed about a dozen assorted Star Trek television episodes going into his feature film directorial debut, Jonathon Frakes did a fantastic job with Star Trek: First Contact. It finds a great new direction to take the series in on the big screen by bringing in the whole 'space zombie' dynamic that is the Borg, while mixing it just the right amount of comedic relief to keep everything well balanced from beginning to end. As I stated in the intro, it blows away Generations, and has me excited for what is to come from him next seeing that he is also the director of the next film.

Star Trek Film Ratings

Star Trek: The Motion Picture - 5.5/10
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn - 10/10
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock - 7.5/10
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - 9/10
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier - 6.5/10
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country - 7.5/10
Star Trek VII: Generations - 8/10
Star Trek VIII: First Contact - 9/10

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

The Best of WCW Monday Nitro - Volume 2

Ask almost any wrestling fan and they would likely say the "Monday Night Wars" between WWE's RAW and WCW's Nitro from 1995-2001 were a great time for the business, and when the recall button on their television remote became their best friend. WWE did a (mostly) commendable job of reminding us of the good of the Nitro days with a solid collection of matches and moments, with a host that actually gave a damn in Diamond Dallas Page to help introduce various segments. DDP returns to hosting with the sequel put out by WWE, The Best of Monday Nitro Volume 2 (trailer). Unlike the Ultimate Goldberg Collection, where you had very little to no set up or narration, it helps exponentially when you have a host like DDP who is obviously tied to the product being a former main player during Nitro's run and has many tales to entertain you and help set the table for the upcoming segment. Make sure to pay attention to his touching tribute to the "Macho Man" Randy Savage when he shares a great Thanksgiving memory he has of the king of madness.

I lost track of how many people told me they stopped watching wrestling shortly after WCW Monday Nitro went off the air in 2001, even by that point the show and WCW itself was severely lagging behind the then-WWF for two years. Point being the competition brought out the best in WWE. I was a WWE fan first and foremost and always put RAW first, even when Nitro was killing it in the ratings from mid-1996 to early-1998. However, when Nitro expanded in time and its first hour ran unopposed to RAW that was always when I tuned in, mostly because that first hour primarily featured a lot of WCW's unmatched high flying cruiserweights and undervalued midcard talent. It comes as no surprise that shortly after WCW went away and when WWE started to rest on its laurels, and also after an awful WCW-invasion storyline, that the WWE lost a sizeable chunk of its audience that never came back.

This home release follows the same format as the first volume, as the assorted matches and moments are categorized chronologically, with DDP stepping in every few scenes with a WCW memory of his own to introduce the next segment. Just like last time, most of this installment's content is from the 90s, with only a handful of moments and matches on the collection once Vince Russo took over booking in late 1999. Actually, Vince Russo is nowhere to be found on the disc, which is probably for the best. Also, I would recommend the BluRay release, as it has nearly two hours of extras, bringing a grand total of eight and a half hours of content.

I am not going to march match by match what is on here, but there is a lot of good to great matches and moments, just understand unfortunately since WCW was giving away a lot of marquee matches on television, that usually came at a price with guaranteed outside interference or other types of tomfoolery for a not-so-fan-favorite finish. However, I will try to quickly mention a noteworthy segment or two for each year featured in this collection. Off the first Nitro, there is a match that also happened to be the final match on the last Nitro with a pre-Crow Sting against Ric Flair. 1995 also saw the infamous moment when WWF Women's Champ, Alundra Blayze returned to WCW as Madusa again and threw the title in the trash on live television.

I forgot when watching the first year's worth of Nitro segments that former Four Horsemen, Steve "Mongo" McMichaels was one of the announcers and how terrible he was before he switched to becoming an active wrestler. I have no idea why, but for a couple of segments he is shown holding a pet Chihuahua. The best Mongo announcer moment is during the Sting/Flair match when Lex Luger showed up in the middle of it making his surprise WCW return and then announcing colleague, Eric Bischoff demanded to know why he was there, and being that the first Nitro took place in the Mall of America, Mongo nonchalantly justified him being there for stopping in to grab a bite at the latest hot restaurant chain, Hulk Hogan's Pastamania.

I hope you like the nWo theme and entrance, because it is featured in nearly every match once they emerge about a year into the Nitro run. It did bring back memories of high school when the nWo shirt was ubiquitous and how damn cool of an entrance the nWo had. There were a few interesting montages featured throughout the collection of something that made Nitro stand apart from RAW was that every episode seemed like a party. Whether it be between the Nitro girls dancing away, DJ Ran all up in your area, the featured fan Nitro party of the week to the annual spring break out tour that featured Nitro in a college town hotbed with a ring surrounded by swimming pools, this all combined to make WCW seem a pretty happening product to be a fan of.

Goldberg's debut match is on here as he makes Hugh Morrus #1 of his legendary undefeated streak. Another borrowed match from the Ultimate Golderg Collection is his US Title win against Raven that I was really fond of, and the spot where the "fans" throw Raven back to ringside when he tries to escape still has me popping. I forgot how much I loved Public Enemy in WCW and singing along to their catchy entrance theme, and they actually have quite a fun hardcore brawl with the Steiners. There are a couple of good cruiserweight bouts, but no real standouts from the handful included other than a 6 man tag, and an interesting back and forth bout between Dean Malenko and Jushin Thunder Liger.

Some matches should not have been included, like a match up between Roddy Piper and Bret Hart with Mad TV sensation Will Sasso playing a vital role in the match. I got a kick out of Kanyon being a surprise last second entrant in a tag match, only to be instantly annihilated and disposed of in a candidate for worst hot tag moment ever. There is an unfortunate way past their prime World Title contest between the Hulkster and Macho Man in 1999, which mostly consists of them primarily trading punches and kicks and is many leagues under their Wrestlemania V classic. There are several tag matches with many different incarnations of the nWo, but since the nWo was constantly switching members and once the Wolfpac split happened, it made it a bit confusing to keep track of in the grand scheme of things. Our only match featured from the year 2000 has Sting taking on the one and only Vamprio in a House of Fun match, and well, you are just going to have to buy this to see for yourself why the match got its name.

The collection wraps up with Booker T taking on Scott Steiner for the World Title on the final Nitro in 2001. The BluRay extras actually have a couple pretty solid matches that unfortunately have cruddy interference finishing sequences. First Goldberg and Sting have a surprisingly good match with far better chemistry than I remember between them, and there is actually a really good tag match with the oddball tag team of Ric Flair and Goldberg against Hogan and Nash. Remember the loveable Ralphus? Remember how much fun Perry Saturn had donning drag? Remember Buff Bagwell shilling yogurt at ringside? Well, you are granted this amazing hat trick as Chris Jericho takes on Big Poppa Pump from an early 1999 encounter.

If WWE does do another Nitro collection, I would like to see just a few more of those awful era 2000 and beyond matches, or at least some more montages and interviews acknowledging it. I still would like DDP hosting, but maybe occasionally have another former WCW star guest host with him to have a good back and forth reminiscing session to mix it up a bit. If you were like me and have many great memories channel flipping during the Monday Night Wars, then it is well worth going out of your way to relive a lot of those moments with The Best of Monday Nitro Volume 2. Not every moment or match featured on here is a winner, but the good outweighs the bad, and now some of those not so great moments are a little funny to relive in hindsight.

Past Wrestling Blogs

For All Mankind
Goldberg Ultimate Collection
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
RoH Supercard of Honor V
RoH Supercard of Honor VI
Warrior Week on WWE Network
WWE Wrestlemania 28
WWE Wrestlemania 29

Monday, August 11, 2014

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

A movie that came out in 2013 that resonated with me stronger than most is today's movie I am covering, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (trailer). When I sat down with a couple friends at the beginning of the year to do our annual top 10 films of the year podcast, of the roughly 65 movies I saw of 2013 at the time, Walter Mitty ranked in at #2. When mentioning this film to other people, it is usually greeted with a resounding "meh," and on rottentomatoes.com it weighed in at a mediocre 51% rating. Despite its high ranking on my list, I still have a few grievances with it, but enough prefacing, let us get on with the blog to find out what made me give it the benefit of the doubt.

Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) is a middle aged man starting off his birthday in a horrible way when he discovers his longtime job at Life magazine is at jeopardy when it announces it is shutting down the magazine and will go through significant downsizing as it transitions into an online only platform. He gets the news from new transition manager Ted Hendricks (Adam Scott), who Walter instantly despises. When Walter loses the negative for the final cover of Life that arrives from legendary photographer Sean 'O Connell (Sean Penn), it sends Walter on a journey overseas to track down the iconic photographer with the help of his office crush, Cheryl Melhoff (Kristen Wiig).

I have not been a huge fan of the traditional Ben Stiller style of comedy he is known for. The only movie of his that somehow won me over was 2004's Dodgeball. Before that, I would have to go all the way back to his breakout directorial success with 1994's Reality Bites. Like Reality Bites, this one tends to be more of a serious film, minus all the fantasy bits. There are several parts throughout the film where Walter "zones out" and goes off to fantasy land where he is either sticking it to Ted, or finding a super macho way to win over Cheryl. A few of these fantasies actually have some really good CG and special effects, but they happen too frequently and overstay their welcome early on.

I get why Stiller went in this direction however as these fantasies are a character flaw of Walter's getting in the way of standing up to Ted and winning over Cheryl. As the movie proceeds and he ventures overseas to track down Sean, Walter starts to break out of his shy shell and the fantasies happen lesser and lesser until he overcomes them to track down Sean and find what he is looking for. I think Stiller could have got the same message across with a smidge less fantasy scenes, and it looked like he already trimmed down a couple from what made the cutting room floor on the deleted scenes on the disc.

I guess this film won me over because I loved the message of it so much, and there are some pretty impactful scenes that struck a chord for me. I can relate a lot to Walter over my years with a lot of things holding me down, and to take the courage to break out of your shell and overcome those hurdles to ultimately get where you need to be is a message the movie gets across splendidly. It also helps that Walter has a strong support group in the form of his mother (Shirley MacLaine) and sister (Kathryn Hahn) nudging him in the right direction throughout.

There is about an hour of extras on the disc. Make sure to check out the previously mentioned deleted scenes as there are some extended/alternate takes on the fantasy scenes that did not make the cut worth going out of your way to see. There are several mini behind-the-scenes features totaling just over a half hour. The more entertaining extras touch on the production of the fantasy scenes, while others provide insight on what it was like casting and filming in Iceland. Also make sure to check out The History of Walter Mitty as it goes into the 1939 origin for this film off a short story from a 1939 issue of The New Yorker I previously had no idea about. I am a little bummed there is no commentary track from Ben Stiller, but this is still a pretty decent smattering of extras all around.

It is a little difficult for me to give a gushing recommendation to Walter Mitty after seeing the lukewarm reception it got from my friends and other critics. I guess this is one of those films that jumped out at me in a special way than it did for barely anyone else. Usually that is the case for a couple movies a year for me, and if overcoming personal struggles to achieve life's goals may seem like an interesting concept to you, then I think you cannot go wrong with The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs

3
21 Jump Street
Bounty Hunters
Captain America: The First Avenger
Faster
Field of Dreams
The Fighter
Ink
Running Films Part 1
Running Films Part 2
Source Code
Veronica Mars

Friday, August 8, 2014

2013-14 TV Season Recap

It seems in the last few months I wrapped up watching the latest seasons of the following eight television series. Revolution was the only one that started back around the traditional season premiere time of back to school season and lasted until the beginning of summer while almost the rest either had short consecutive eight to ten week seasons or like in the case of The Following and Psych, only lasted from the beginning of the year until around May. So here are some quick thoughts about the several shows I kept up with that ran during the last year. And to keep up with the school year theme I will attach a letter grade to each show after my synopsis for their season.

Revolution - I am both bummed and relieved that NBC cancelled this show after it recently finished up its second season. If you forgot the premise, it takes place 15 years in the future after a worldwide blackout transpired which set the world back to lanterns and horse buggy technology. A lot of people from Lost worked on this, and Lost's own Elizabeth Mitchell is one of the main characters on the show too. The first season had a few lulls, but I was on board by the end of the season, and I liked how it borrowed heavily with a lot of the Lost's trademark flashbacks for storytelling to introduce you to the characters and what happened in the 15 years leading up to the start of the show.

The second season I especially enjoyed for the most part as I loved how it started off with the main cast split into three different groups for the first several episodes with their own unique story arc while a new government tries to reestablish the USA. For about the first two thirds of the season, it was almost as if they could not miss a beat and I absolutely loved every episode. Things started to break down in the final third act, as the show really starts to go off the deep end in the sci-fi realm with a 'nano-technology' taking over certain character's spirits and transporting their actual minds to a Matrix-esque perfect world. For the first two thirds of the season, it was an interesting side story they gradually touched on, but the more it opened up the more it seemed like an awful SyFy original movie well I did not want to go down in, especially with the nano-tech being revealed as the big cliffhanger antagonist at the end of the second season.

The primary antagonist was at least a good old fashion villain you were glad to see vanquished by the end. It also did not help that shortly after the midseason break, the final third slate of episodes for the season were randomly released with three to five week breaks between episodes which made it really hard to keep up with such a plot-driven show. Oh well, I still would recommend binge watching these two seasons if Revolution makes its way to Netflix streaming down the line, because plot lulls be damned, it is still something refreshing and different than most of what is out there. Revolution Season 2 Grade: B

Psych - I was bummed to see this be the final season of Psych after a great eight year run on USA Network. I was delighted to see the crew get their wish and finally be able to deliver their much anticipated two part musical they have been begging USA to do for the past few years. It was quite ambitious, and minus a few awkward spots, they made it work in the unique Psych universe. For the most part I enjoyed this season, but like all previous seasons there were a couple of dud episodes that did not work for me, namely the penultimate zombie episode with guest star Bruce Campbell was a bit of a disappointment as they tried to do too much.

I was also a little surprised they quickly got rid of the new the evil chief after a couple of episodes that they introduced at the end of the 7th season, but it was great to have a few episodes with Maggie Lawson and Timothy Omundson's characters each having a shot in the chief's chair. Seeing Shawn (James Roday) and Gus (Dule Hill) run a food truck was probably my favorite episode of the season, with Gus investigating a death of a person who almost mirrored Gus's life to a T being a close second. Props to Psych for having a feel good ending and giving each character their respective final moments to shine. Psych Season 8 Grade: B+

The Following - The first season of The Following was a guilty pleasure of mine. After a few episodes I completely suspended my disbelief and accepted the show for being completely bonkers. Each show had absurd cult murders in every episode while detectives Ryan Hardy (KEVIN BACON!!) and Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) were hot on the toes trying to stop the cult led by the out-of-his-mind Joe Carroll (James Purefoy). The second season raises the stakes tenfold, as a new cult emerges, but Hardy and Weston easily dismantle it by the midseason break, only to have Carroll emerge out of hiding with a new cult of his own. The shocking cult murders get crazier and more gruesome with each episode, and I kept finding myself tuning in to see what they would dare to get away with on network television week after week. It had a great final episode of the season, with a nice little tease to see what is to come and leave me wanting more. The Following Season 2 Grade: A

Behind the Mask - I kept seeing so many ads for this Hulu exclusive reality show about the world of sports mascots I told myself I had to watch an episode or two, and within a few weeks I blazed through the 10 episode season, which is pretty fast for me anyways. The production of this show was better than I imagined a Hulu exclusive series would be as it follows a year in the life of the mascots Rooty the Tree (Lebanon High School Cedars, PN), Hey Reb (NCAA UNLV Rebels), Tux the Penguin (Pittsburgh Penguins' minor league affiliate, the Scranton Penguins) and Bango the Buck (Milwaukee Bucks). I really liked how the lifestyle for each mascot differed between the high school, college, semi-pro and pro levels with the face behind the mascot having their own unique personal stories to tell.

Rooty is really a super shy kid just trying to express himself and land a homecoming date, while Hey Reb is a real life Van Wilder just trying to finish college. Then there is Tux trying to connect with his son he sees only on limited visitations and has his aspirations of landing a pro mascot gig while Bango lets mounting injuries dwell on what could be his final season, but it does not stop him from planning more unique, ambitious and dangerous stunts. Surprisingly strong debut season, and I really do not care that much for reality shows either, so I am glad to hear this got renewed for a second season I definitely plan on being there for. Behind the Mask Season 1 Grade: A

24 Live Another Day - Just like The Following, 24 is another guilty pleasure of mine, and I was thrilled to see it brought back for another season after a few years off despite the last season ending on a fairly conclusive note. Nothing is ever final in the world of 24 however, including its trademark 24 episode real time format. The season is still in real time, but only 12 episodes this time around. This is actually a good thing though because now we have less filler episodes, and each episode has an extra element of importance and feels more snappy than before. While this season has all the same repeating plot devices that nearly every season of 24 has (there is a mole inside CTU, spontaneous villain turns, CTU gets infiltrated, Jack saying "damn it" with great affection multiple times an episode, CTU director is replaced mid season), I cannot help myself but root for the quintessential badass super agent Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland).

Jack is back, this time in London to help prevent what else, but an assassination attempt on visiting US president James Keller (William Devane). Each episode does not fail to bring on the nonstop action, and plenty of evil terrorists for Jack to mow down. Only thing that bothered me was the formerly innocent and good natured Chloe 'O Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is now donning the goth makeup hacker chick apparel as she is now part of an underground wiki-leaks-esque movement. That aside, this is still the 24 you know and love, and you will definitely love the final episodes when a longtime villain finally gets his just desserts in an unbelievable way that only Bauer is capable of. 24 Season 9 Grade: A

Eastbound and Down - In the fourth and final season of Eastbound and Down, Kenny Powers (Danny McBride) is now a retired ball player and not so happily married to his series long chase, April Buchanon (Katy Mixon) and is getting by as a rental car driver. Things take a turn for him as he runs into former teammate Guy Young (Ken Marino) as he lands Kenny a job on his sports talk show. Shenanigans instantly ensue with Kenny's new dynamic on the show, and each episode delivers with its expected over the top comedy that McBride is capable of.

I was a little trepid going into this season thinking McBride's act has grown long in the tooth, and while I could care less for his shtick on the big screen now, I still love it on the series that put him on the map. There are moments where I briefly thought the show was starting to wear thin, but sure enough McBride has tons of great zingers and one-liners that kept me coming back for more FIIIIIXINS! And while it may be over the top like Psych, it found a good serious note to end on, while still retaining its awesome humor. Eastbound and Down Season 4 Grade: A-

WWE Legends House - What a disappointment this ended up being. Legends House is the new reality show being promoted as the flagship of original content on the new WWE Network. Imagine Real World but with retired WWE legends such as Roddy Piper, Pat Patterson, Jimmy Hart and several more and you get the idea. Each episode is horribly scripted with some kind of cringe-worthy competition like the legends playing croquet or being part of a Chip 'n Dales show. There were a couple of minor entertaining morsels in each episode when it appeared the legends were legitimately interacting with each other during the day in between sketches, and it was somewhat amusing seeing how hotheaded Tony Atlas could get, and I can never get enough of his vintage laugh. As much as I pain myself to say it, this was a struggle to get through, and unless you are dying to get the most out of your WWE Network subscription, you should avoid it. WWE Legends House Season 1 Grade: D-

True Detective - Going from the worst to the best of the year next with HBO's new red hot franchise, True Detective. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson headline this show as detectives Cohle and Hart, respectively, as they track down a serial killer going back from 1995 all the way to the present day. Usually it takes me a few episodes to determine if I am on board with a new show, but in this rare instance it only took about 15 minutes because True Detective is that damn good. I love how this is shot as both detectives are being interviewed about the case in the modern day as they keep flashing back to themselves where they were in the case in 1995 and at a few other points as the season progresses.

Both detectives have their unique positive and negative character traits that really shine through as the season moves forward and they inch closer to tracking down the serial killer. This was another instance where I cruised through the season in just a few weeks as I eagerly anticipated each episode. I thought I was burnt out on the detective genre of television series with all the variations of CSI, NCIS and Law & Order over the years, but True Detective is brings a much needed new take on the genre that had me glued in from beginning to end. True Detective Season 1 Grade: A+

Previous TV/Web Series Blogs

Seinfeld Final Season