It's Harry Potter Day

Intro/Overview

Okay, so it's not actually Harry Potter Day because such a thing does not exist. However, it is both Harry Potter's and J.K. Rowling's birthday today. Also, Pottermore has a new update so... there's that.

Pottermore Update

So... Pottermore released an update today... or yesterday... or something close to now-ish. I went through and clicked through the new chapters and the old chapters. The updates include a new navigation page, site layout, progress bars, and a couple new chapter moments in the Sorcerer's Stone section.

I'm neither impressed nor unimpressed by the new navigation page. I do like the new layout and the new chapter navigation. I didn't really have a problem with the old chapter navigation; in fact, I think that the old chapter navigation was much more slick than this one is. And by slick, I mean better looking.

I really like the progress bars. As I went through the new/old chapters, it was nice knowing whether or not I'd missed mousing over something. I'm a little annoyed that the progress bar counts animations as well as pick-up-able items, but meh. There were a surprising number of people in the comments under each section who complained up and down about hating the new navigation and hating the progress bars. While I agree that the chapter navigation bar could use a button that makes it collapse, I wasn't all that phased by it. The progress bar was actually what made me go down and check the comments. If I couldn't find something, I'd check the comments to see what it was. Easy peasy.

The new Prisoner of Azkaban chapter sections were awesome. It was great seeing that Lupin as a werewolf was actually portrayed as a werewolf and not as an emaciated naked mole rat with fangs. I enjoyed the new information and insight into werewolves and Remus Lupin himself. There was actually some in-depth information about Remus that shattered some of the fanfiction canon I've been exposed to, but that's par for the course with fanfiction.

I also really enjoyed the couple of new moments we got in the Sorcerer's Stone section. Each one actually added something to the experience and didn't shuttle you right off into wand selection and sorting. In fact, there was actually a moment for Ollivander's shop, which was cool. I like the movie version better, but seeing the place in need of a few candles was nice.

Overall, I feel that this Pottermore update has done more for the site than any of the others. I actually spent a good portion of my day running through the site again in order to fill up my progress bars. I will say though, the really blatant and obvious marketing for the "Book of Spells" game took me out of the experience. Yeah, the little trailer video was kind of cool and kind of entertaining, but I don't think that's a good way to market the thing. Mind you, I knew about "Book of Spells" when it was announced so... maybe I'm not the target for that advertising.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY AND JO!

Love ya, Jessie.

Happy Thirty-Third Neville!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM!

Yeah... so I'm a big Harry Potter nerd and this was on my calendar. So I bring you a completely useless blog post simply wishing Neville Longbottom a happy birthday from an alternate universe.

(I'm a nerd, sue me.)

Neville Longbottom turns 33 today according to the Potterverse timeline.

Rememberance of the Daleks

Intro/Overview

After my last review, I essentially spent a lot of time watching The Justice League and puttering about on the interwebs. Tonight, however, I watched Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks for the first time. So this evening, I have a sort of mish-mash of initial reaction and review for that.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks please leave the blog and return later. I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews. However, I'm not too worried about it this time because this particular story was originally shown in the eighties.

Doctor Who - Remembrance of the Daleks - Review

First off, I'm not a fan of the Daleks. Consequently, I didn't really pay all that much attention to them while they were on screen. That said, most of what they did on screen was shoot at various humans and at each other. Also, as a fan of "New Who" I was unimpressed by the Daleks being able to float up the stairs. I know that this was the first story in which they did so, but after seeing lots of Daleks floating around menacingly it gets rather old.

I was also unimpressed by Davros. Mind you, I knew he was going to be in this story so I spent most of the time waiting for him to show up. I originally thought that the seated figure hanging out with Ratcliffe was Davros, but that was debunked when the little blond girl turned out to be the one in the chair. I was floored by that particular moment, by the way. However, the fact that Davros actually turned out to be the "Emperor Dalek" was odd. I hadn't been expecting it, but I also wasn't particularly surprised. Like I said, it was odd.

I did not find any of the military people interesting or particularly competent. I didn't at all like Sgt. Mike. He felt to me like a rather wet blanket and then like a desperate man who wasn't very good at being desperate. I did, however, quite enjoy the female cast members. Ace was awesome, as usual. Her smarts coupled with her brashness made me grin a lot. I liked Professor Rachel. She reminded me a bit of Liz Shaw. I thought Allison was just there to be window dressing, but at least she didn't scream obnoxiously.

I quite enjoyed The Doctor tricking everyone left right and center. I'm not sure exactly what he did to Ace's bat, but I enjoyed the aftermath of him leading the Hand of Omega out of the funeral parlor. I thought his deception of Davros was particularly clever. Of course he'd go ahead and blow up Skaro this time around. That Davros actually thought The Doctor was just going to let him get away with such a powerful weapon was amusing, to say the least.

Overall, I found Remembrance of the Daleks to be incredibly long and drawn out. Maybe that's just my "New Who" sensibilities speaking, but by the end of the second episode I was glancing at the clock above my TV. There was just a lot of running around almost aimlessly at times. Even the Daleks seemed to have nowhere to go. There just wasn't the kind of expediency I would have expected from an "action movie" as Stephen Moffat likened it to in the intro. 

Housekeeping

I've added a countdown to the page. It's for the beginning of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Season 4. Interestingly enough, the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special is on the same day. I'm excited.

I would like to tell anyone who's just now found the blog that I'm on a sort of semi-hiatus until September when the actual TV shows start up again. I'm going for quality posts over quantity here so... yeah. You'll hear from me when you hear from me.

Love ya, Jessie.

Hemlock Grove Review

Intro/Overview

So apparently I didn't have as many episodes of Hemlock Grove left to watch as I thought. I pretty much blew through those yesterday and so I have a review for you today. So much for slowing down, eh?

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the entire first season of Hemlock Grove, please leave the blog, watch it, and then come back. I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews.

Hemlock Grove - Review

What. The. Fuck.

I sincerely have no idea what I just watched. Or rather, I have no idea what the hell that was. I'll attempt to explain.

I completely understand the werewolf stuff. That all made sense. It was twisted, but it made sense. All of the werewolf stuff was explained within the confines of the universe.

I understand the upir stuff... mostly. I don't get the purpose of the baby or even what happened to the baby. I thought the way they handled the whole upir thing was interesting. It reminded me of the living vampire vs dead vampire thing from Kim Harrison's Hollows novels. I'm not sure where the caul thing comes in exactly, but it was creepy, weird, and gross.

The parts I have problems understanding circle around the science-y stuff. That's never explained. They didn't even attempt to explain it. I get that it was supposed to be a kind of magic/science melding thing, but I don't understand in the least. I thought the scientist guy was attempting to make another "Ouroboros" child, but then that was sort of dis-proven by the upir reveal at the end. Still not sure exactly what was going on with the "Ouroboros" thing and that bugs me to no end.

As for the rest of the show... I liked it. I'm glad it was portrayed in a more realistic fashion than other supernatural shows. Sure it was gross at points, but I didn't mind that given the context. The supernatural has been gross since its inception, I'm just glad someone decided not to sanitize it or overload it for once. I thought keeping the audience in the dark as to what exactly was going on until the end was actually pretty brilliant. We were kept completely in the dark just like the Roman and Peter were. It was frustrating at times, though it was awesome to get a payoff when things were revealed.

I'm not sure whether or not I would actually recommend Hemlock Grove. I'd say you have to judge for yourself whether or not you want to watch it. It's not a show that explained itself right away. It's not a show you should watch if you're squeamish. It's a show you have to stick with for payoffs. Not fore everyone, but if you're interested, I'd say check it out.

Love ya, Jessie.

Pair of Fives

Intro/Overview

Hey there, it's been a while, hasn't it? I've been running around Houston like a chicken with its head cut off and then visiting family in Dallas. Meantime, I've finished both Fringe and Merlin. I'm going to go ahead and review the fifth Seasons of both shows today.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen all of Fringe or all of Merlin, be aware that I'm horrible at keeping spoilers out of my reviews.

Fringe, Season 5 - Review

I'm really pleased we got to see the dark future from that one episode in Season 4. I loved Season 5. I loved Henrietta. I loved September. I loved seeing older Broyles. I want to gush and gush about this season and how awesome it was. I'm extremely glad Fringe went out on a giant high rather than dragging out forever and ever like some other series I could mention.

All of that said, I do have some issues with how some stuff was handled. I did not at all like Peter almost turning into an Observer. I understand he was grieving and all, but you don't just stick unknown tech from the bad guys into your head! I think I yelled at him through my computer screen for the entirety of those episodes. Peter is generally smarter than that. Hell, he yells at Walter about that kind of thing! I was so annoyed with him.

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about Walter randomly reverting to his previous persona. That didn't seem realistic to me, even in the admittedly unrealistic landscape Fringe has built for itself. Largely, though, that's just a niggle I had.

My last issue is timelines. Honestly, I didn't think about it while watching Fringe, but the entire timeline the Observers are working with is messed up. Unless they're jumping time tracks, there's no way they could be getting things from the future or even going back there, especially after that radical of a timeline change. Like I said, I didn't really think about it while watching and I know that "time is more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-whimey...stuff" but it bugs me a little in hindsight.

Overall, I really enjoyed Fringe. The last season was like the last couple chapters of a good book. I did not want to stop watching for anything. I highly recommend that anyone who hasn't watched Fringe should go do so. It's brilliant.

Merlin, Season 5 - Review

So here's the thing, if you've ever been told the legend of King Arthur and Camelot you know what's going to ultimately happen at the end of the story. It's actually kind of annoying because, throughout the telling of the story, you're waiting for things to happen. When they don't or take an extremely long time getting there, you begin to get disappointed and you just want it to end already. That's what happened for me with Merlin.

Season 5 essentially takes us from post- Arthur and Guenevere's wedding to Arthur's eventual death. Because I knew going into Season 5 that it was the last season of Merlin, I spent much of the time wondering when exactly Arthur was going to die. That said, most of the suspense was taken away because a) I knew Arthur was going to die and b) I knew how he was going to die. Therefore I was quite annoyed it took as long as it did. Yeah, it was realistic for Morganna to make tons of attempts on Arthur's life, but the fact that a) it took so dang long to get to the actual death and b) no one was taking the constant threat to Arthur's life seriously bugged me to no end. I was ready for Arthur to just up and die by the middle of the season.

I wasn't at all pleased with the return and knighthood of Mordred. Yes, I knew he had to return in order to kill Arthur. Yes, I know that Mordred was a knight of the Round Table. Neither of these things mean I had to be happy about it. There's also the fact that you know he's a villain from the outset, even if the character himself didn't. Merlin's suspicion of him is, yes, founded mostly in prophecy. However, the viewer's suspicion of him is founded in the root legend. It makes all of his goodness, as it were, completely ridiculous.

I was also incredibly annoyed that Morganna was back. She annoyed me throughout the Season. I was even more annoyed when she showed up again in the last episode. I had honestly thought she'd died on the battlefield or at least that she wouldn't be showing up again. Morganna honestly went from being one of my favorite characters to one I wished would just go away in a matter of a season. Keeping her around as long as they did was annoying at best.

Speaking of the last episode, the entire last two-parter was too drawn out for my liking. This goes along with the whole "Arthur's going to die" thing. The fact that he stayed alive as long as he did was ridiculous. I also didn't like that Merlin was transformed into his older, more classic, self for the battle. That had me rolling my eyes. Yeah, it's classic but the Merlin of this timeline usually had to use an aging spell to look like that. 

My overall thoughts on Merlin as a whole are this: Merlin really would have been better served being a shorter, more adult, more realistic series than it was. It spent way too long getting where it was going. The villains were largely laughable and those that weren't were so annoying by the time they were disposed of. The only reason I stuck through the series was because I'm personally interested in Arthurian Legend. Seeing how things happened through another storyteller's eyes is kind of a thing in that regard.

Housekeeping

Now that the summer has really started up for my TV watching, I'm going to be slowing down a lot on blog posts. I know I said that before, but then there was the SyFy "spring" season so... yeah. I'm really slowing down the blog from here to September.

I am currently planning to hunt down Primeval: New World on my own to watch and I'll probably review that when I finish the series. Now, though, I'm off to finish watching SeaQuest DSV and Hemlock Grove.

Love ya, Jessie.

A Semi-Rant About Pods

I don't normally talk about serious topics here on Pleiades. However, I've been really annoyed with all of the flack Tide Pods have been getting. Most of the flack comes from consumer error rather than the actual Pods themselves.

It should be common sense to keep laundry detergent of any kind OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. Apparently, some consumers of Pods need to be whacked over the head with a big stick reading "KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN" because that bit of common sense has left their brains. Apparently a large enough number of Tide Pods consumers kept their Pods where their children could reach them and so the "dangers" of Tide Pods got media attention. With a warning label clearly stating that they should be kept out of reach of children, there should have been no danger in simply having them around for use in the laundry.

Flash forward to today... well, a couple days ago. There I am, happily scrolling through my Facebook feed when I come across an article about Tide Pods. This one has to do with a two year old supposedly squeezing a Pod and getting the detergent into his eyes. Okay, my problems with this are as follows:

1. The mother in this story apparently ignored the warning label.
2. The mother states in the article that "Two-year-olds will be two-year-olds and help mom with laundry." I understand helping out, but why the heck is your two year old having anything to do with the detergent? He's two! My mother never let us near the laundry detergent until we were old enough to understand what it was and how to handle it properly. That's not at age two, people!
3. Of course the little balloon of detergent is going to pop when you squeeze it. I can tell that just from looking at them.
4. The mother also says to let your kids do dishes, not laundry, because the pods are dangerous. I got news for you, lady, dishes can be plenty dangerous and they have pod-things for that, too.
5. The mother also says that her Pods are up really high now. They should have been there in the first place.

So the big "moral" of the story is: Keep Pods as far away from your children as you possibly can. In fact, don't buy them if you can't trust yourself or your kids to handle them properly. If you are going to have them around, do the smart thing and talk to your children about the dangers of ingesting laundry detergent of any kind. Don't EVER let small children do anything other than help you sort, fold, and shove laundry into your machines.

Also, don't blame other people, products, or companies for your user error. It's not their fault you did or didn't do something.

If you would like to read the article I talked about here, here's the link: http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail.cfm/laundry-pod-dangers/?id=150483

Love ya, Jessie.

The Broken Truth Hurts

Intro/Overview

I spent the last two days going to The Houston Aquarium and Space Center Houston as opposed to sitting at home on the computer all day. I've put my pictures up on Facebook, if you're interested. Link in the bar up there.

Both days we were joined by groups of kids from various daycares. Let me just tell you how incredibly annoying it is to be in enclosed spaces with giant groups of daycare kids. Yesterday we went out to have lunch and I could see three separate groups of kids from where I was sitting out in front of the Space Center.

Anyway... tonight I have some possibly brief reviews for the Season Finales of Defiance and Warehouse 13.

Defiance - "Everything Is Broken" - Review

Can I just say how much I honestly did not care about this episode? I was lost pretty much immediately. I can't exactly put my finger on why that was, but "Everything Is Broken" was by no means an episode I ever want to watch again.

We got some payoff with Irisa, but that was really vague and nonsensical. And then she dove into the machine-thing/ship/whatever it was and Nolan's suddenly alive again. Yay?

Detak won the election, but I had no doubt that he would end up deposed either by the end of the episode or by the first episode of next season. What do you know, I was right. I can't say I'm sorry to see the Earth Republic guy dead.

The only remotely interesting parts of the episode for me were the scenes between Stahma and Kenya. Stahma really had me going. I was just as surprised as she was when Kenya pulled the gun on her. As it stands, I'm really annoyed with Stahma and I want to know if Kenya is actually dead or just hidden away somewhere. I didn't think that was very clear.

Yeah... that's pretty much what I thought of the Season Finale. Let me know what you thought in the comments.

Warehouse 13 - "The Truth Hurts" - Review

I'm so annoyed at Pete right now! Was he just not getting bad vibes off Paracelsus or was he just that desperate to save Myka? And where the hell did this attitude about Myka dying come from? Last episode he was okay, this episode he's getting duped by Paracelsus because of it. He really should have known better. I really wanted to smack Pete over the head with something while he was doing what Paracelsus said.

I did not at all enjoy the scenes with Nick and Sutton. I was right there with Claudia when she called Nick out. I was really distracted by Sutton's hair. All it needed was a lot of bleach and he'd be back to looking like Spike... And honestly, I couldn't care less about the pair. I wish they hadn't been in this episode at all. Maybe there would have been actual story development rather than their filler.

Which brings me to the cliffhanger. I did not like this cliffhanger at all. The battle between Paracelsus and Claudia should have happened in this episode. The outcome of the non-existent battle should have been the cliffhanger. Or, perhaps, Claudia beating Paracelsus and becoming Caretaker should have been the big end-of-season thing. But no, of course not. Why the hell not?! Apparently lead-in for next season. I'm not happy with it. It was not at all satisfying like Season Finales should be.

Let me know what you thought in the comments, if you would be so kind. I need someone to rage with.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Truth Hurts - IR

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen tonight's episode of Warehouse 13, please leave the blog and come back later. Initial Reactions, like live Tweets, contain spoilers.

Warehouse 13 - "The Truth Hurts" - Initial Reactions

• Well that gigantically sucks.
• Was that supposed to be a parallel to Myka's cancer?
• Wonder what Artie was lying about... because he was totally lying according to the look on Jinks' face.
• Well that's weird and oh so bad.
• Why is that anyway? It seems like a ridiculous system... and causes endless badness.
• Is he seriously thinking to leave without Myka? I do not understand. It's not like she's in late stages.
• Oh, hey, thought we were done with them.
• Yeah, Nick, throw a hissy fit and storm off. You might not mentally be a teenager, but apparently he still acts like one a lot.
• And now Pete is having funky visions.
• Oh look, a cancer cure.
• We're thinking Paracelsus is going to use that against the Warehouse team.
• That was a nice freak out, Claud.
• You sound doubtful, Artie.
• Lies, Pete.
• He sounds like he's talking through something.
• What is that, anyway?
• OOOOOWWWW!
• Way to be a little snot. Knew he was.
• Good point, Claud. You're awesome.
• Artie and Claud are so amusing while attempting to deliver explanations.
• He's sending you on a wild goose chase guys.
• Or ya, know, not.
• Ouch.
• Double ouch.
• And now he's immortal.
• All the people are dying. That figures.
• It's weird when the show does the "dun dun dun" for me.
• I'm seriously annoyed that they're still in this.
• This is not going to end well.
• You can prevent bronzing?
• FINALLY! Go AWAY!
• Nope, that wasn't a bunch of padding AT ALL.
• That would sound a lot more convincing coming from anyone but Pete.
• Wait... is Artie Claudia's actual father?
• Ghost-y Leena?
• Yup, prey on Pete's fears.
• She has a sister?! What?!
• No crap, dude. You deserve whatever it is.
• He's got something else up his sleeve.
• Warehouse 13 finales aren't like other finales...
• Really, Pete? You're listening to him? Really?
• That's exactly what he wants, Pete. Don't even.
• This thing about Claudia's sister would have been more heart-wrenching if I felt anything about the sister, which I don't.
• Of course that wasn't going to work. Seriously, duh.
• You fell for that, Pete? WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!????????
• Okay... that's weird, if kind of cool.
• That was interesting.
• Time for everyone else to regroup.
• Okay, this bit might make me cry.
• We're getting a cliffhanger. I can tell.
• Yeah, that sucks gigantically!!!!! Stupid cliffhangers!

What I Look For In A Story

Intro/Overview

My brain sometimes likes to blog in the middle of the night. I wrote this thing and I wanted to share it. It's not what I usually do, but I figured I'd share it anyway. Please don't be turned off by the blocks of text.

SPOILER WARNING

There might be spoilers for The Twilight Saga, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Angel, His Dark Materials, Shrek Forever After, The Hunger Games, Torchwood, Doctor Who, Dragonriders of Pern, and Dollhouse. I say might because I'm not sure exactly what I wrote or if it contains anything that might be considered a spoiler. Just be aware that I talk about a lot of stuff.

What I Look For In A Story

I know I do an awful lot of reviews on this blog. I'm forever saying that I'm really into characters, but I've never really gone into why that is. So I want to talk about the stuff I look for when I'm getting to a story. This applies to books, movies, fanfiction, and TV shows, not specifically to the printed word.

The first thing I look for in my stories are relatable characters. If I don't find a character to latch onto, I don't get engaged. That character doesn't even necessarily have to be the main character or my favorite character. Nine times out of then, the character we as the audience meet first isn't the reason I ultimately stick with a show or keep reading a book. For example: The Twilight Saga. I don't read any of The Twilight Saga books or watch the movies for Bella or Edward or Jacob. I read and watch The Twilight Saga to see what happens with Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett. All of whom get little screen time/book time. My TV show example: Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel. I started watching Angel because the first episode I saw featured Faith Lehane. I went to watch Buffy because I wanted to know Faith's backstory. I kept watching both shows because of Willow, Wesley, Fred, and Faith. I relate to and like these characters more than I like Buffy or Angel.

The second thing I look for is story. You can have great characters, but if your story is crap, you've lost me. I'm not just talking about the play-by-play here, either. To me, a story needs to gather up the characters and desposit them believably into a world that makes sense for them. The world around the characters needs to feel real to me and feel real to them. What the characters do to reach the endgame or come to the conclusions they do needs to make sense with how they and the world around them is established. The storyline should carry the characters through a journey that makes sense. There's a reason I had a gigantic problem with the His Dark Materials series. The world-building was largely great in the first book, but then fell apart in the later ones.

Fanfiction and movies often fall into problems with story. Fanfiction authors manage to disregard certain story elements more often than not. Looking back at my Minority Within Minority story, I was gigantically guilty of this myself. My characters did things that didn't make sense and didn't do things that made sense for how I'd created them. As for movies, the lack of or inconsistency in story can drop me a lot faster than almost anything else. Take Shrek Forever After for instance. I personally felt like this movie didn't need to exist. I get where the writers were trying to go with it, but the storyline was just ridiculous. I loved the first three movies and I loved the characters, but the story of Shrek Forever After didn't work for me in the least bit.

The third thing I look for is whether the story is a sequel or a spin-off or not. Oftentimes, I'll read or watch something because it's related to something else. If the first book in the series catches me, I'll read the second one. I'm actually going to cite a book series that failed to catch me here: The Hunger Games. I read The Hunger Games and have no desire to read either Catching Fire or Mockingjay. I was far more invested in the story once I saw the movie and I'll probably see the next ones. As for spin-offs, I'll definitely check out the spin-offs if I'm love the first thing. The same works in reverse. I watched Angel and Torchwood before I saw Buffy and Doctor Who, for example. I'm also more likely to check out a book or movie or whatever if it's set in the same world as the thing I'm interested in. For example, books by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes and books set on Pern by Anne or Tood McCaffrey. I understand and like the worlds created by the authors and I really enjoy the stories of the people inhabiting them.

I also want to add that I have a lot of patience with slow-burning payoffs so long as they make sense. Dollhouse springs to mind here. A lot of people had problems with Dollhouse for various reasons. I've heard part of that had to do with how slow the slow-burn was. Dollhouse often came off like there was no concrete storyline because it was slowly building the mythology and characters up to their final forms, as it were. We got a glimpse of the characters' final forms during the last and unaired episode of Season 1. People who didn't necessarily enjoy the normal Dollhouse episodes really enjoyed that one episode and wanted more. When they didn't get it immediately in Season 2, they were extremely disappointed. Personally, I loved the individual stories and the slow buildup to what eventually happened. That kind of buildup was necessary to completely get invested in the characters based off the show's concept. If you didn't care about the characters under their "doll" selves, you didn't care about what ultimately happened to them. At least, that's how I see it. Slow-burns in stories give more time to flesh out the characters and the world around them. I like that.

But anyway, I'm digressing. These are all the things I look for in stories... which is a lame way to end what was essentially an essay, but I've always been really bad at endings, if you hadn't noticed... if you had no idea, well... welcome to the blog?

Love ya, Jessie.

Lost and Found Time In the World

Intro/Overview

Happy belated Independence Day to all my fellow United States Citizens. Hope you all had fun eating grilled foods and watching things blow up.

Today I have reviews for the last two episodes of Warehouse 13. I can't promise next week's reviews will come out faster, but I will try to make that happen.

Warehouse 13 - "Lost & Found" - Review

Nick is a little not! Also, why is this the second female recurring villain to have motivations stemming from her child?! Can we not have a strong female villain who is childless? Doctor Who did it quite well with Madame Kovarian. Surely Warhouse 13 can do just as good a job?

I thought Myka had been the victim of an artifact through the episode. The way her constant anxiety over Pete's reaction manifested was really odd. I'm not sure how realistic that was, but it was interesting to see that is wasn't an artifact, just Myka's mind. I'm glad that the anxiety over Myka's cancer wasn't drawn out over several episodes.

I thought the artifact used on Claudia and Jinks was cool. It was incredibly subtle and effective. I'm sad Claudia is bronzed and I can't wait to see how that's going to affect everyone else.

At the time of writing this originally, I've got about an hour 'til we find out what Anthony Stewart Head's character is up to and how they get Claud un-bronzed. I can't wait!

Warehouse 13 - "All the Time In the World" - Review

For an episode where time was supposed to be of the essence, it went rather slowly, I thought. That's not to say there wasn't a lot there, because there was. The pacing was just off, I think, because "All the Time In the World" is the middle part of a three-part story. As such, it's crammed full of exposition, filler, small bits of resolution, and setup.

The scenes between Jinks and Claudia's bronzed self were sweet, but mostly there to kill time. They weren't good at expressing the urgency because I had no doubt they were going to fix Claudia. The scenes with Myka and Pete chasing Sutton around were fun, but there to kill time. Yeah, there had to be some scene where they got Sutton to join them, but the way they did it was ridiculous. I thought the scenes between Artie and Mrs. Frederic had more meat to them, though they were setup for the revelation that Paracelsus was a Caretaker. By the way, have we had any mention of a Keeper before this?

I did not like the runaround in Paracelsus' lair. It figured the entire thing was a trap. I'm still disappointed that Charlotte wasn't a proper villain and adding Sutton to the mix didn't help. I did not like both of them running away upon hearing Nick's yell. I get they wanted to save him, but they were all immortal at that point so it didn't make much sense. I felt like that wasn't realistic for either of them to do, especially after they'd just split up.

At this point, I'm really more interested in what's going to happen next week. My theory is that Claudia's going to become the Caretaker toward the climax of the episode and kick Paracelsus' ass back to the Bronzer... then maybe stick him in an acid bath... or maybe that last bit's just wishful thinking.

Love ya, Jessie.

The Past Bride Wore Prologue Black

Intro/Overview

Ya know how I said I was giving up on those reviews I didn't do last week? Well, I kinda lied. I did them while Defiance was on last night. However, today's just going to be Defiance Reviews and then an Altador Cup Update.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the last two episodes of Defiance, please leave the blog and come back after you've seen them. My reviews always contain spoilers.

Defiance - "The Bride Wore Black" - Review

My big thing this episode was the wedding. I thought it was nice, though I would have liked to see more of it, especially how they blended Castithan and Earth customs. However, I have a niggle about the veil. I completely understand that Christie didn't want to wear the Tilo and her motivations behind that. I liked that Stahma made her a traditional wedding veil to wear instead. My niggle comes in concerning a possible compromise that was missed here. Perhaps if Christie had wore the veil as an actual veil rather than a hairpiece, it would have been seen as more of a blending of traditions rather than something Detak could get uppity about. Yeah, the veil isn't the Tilo, but it could have essentially served the same function.

As for the other events, I'm more interested in the aftermath of what happened rather than what actually took place. We pretty much knew Nicolette was a bad guy. This episode served more to solidify that and to get rid of her. She's dead now so... that line of villainy is over.

It was somewhat interesting to see that Kenya was an abused wife before she became a prostitute. Knowing that didn't really change anything for me except that it made her advice to Christie a bit more interesting. I'm glad she learned from her mistake with Hunter Bell.

I very much liked Rafe in this episode. I like knowing that he's willing to put aside his differences with Castithans in order to make Christie happy.

Defiance - "Past Is Prologue" - Review

Detak's airing of Nolan's dirty laundry reminded me a lot of what's been happening lately with Paula Deen. It also reminds me of how much I hate politics. If people are doing good things now and have essentially paid their dues for what they did in the past, that past should stay in the past. The fact that it never stays buried bugs me a lot. I have no doubt that Nolan has paid his dues for what he did. It's really obvious he doesn't believe as he used to. Irisa is living proof of that. I felt that Nolan made the right choice. I had no idea that Alak's friend was holding a paintball gun until it was obvious to everyone else.

Flipping around from last week's episode, I'm really angry with Rafe. Beating the crap out of anyone, let alone your son-in-law, in order to send a message is barbarically ridiculous.

I thought the weird-machine things what Doc had and was in Irisa were incredibly strange. I hope we get an explanation for them soon. They seemed almost sentient when they began reaching for each other. It was creepy, but really interesting.

Next week looks like it's going to be interesting.

Altador Cup Update

This year saw the fastest turnaround on scores in a couple years. The Altador Cup Prize Shop is now open.

Tyrannia took the cup this year. Altador came in second. Roo Island came third.

Unfortunately, Shenkuu tied with The Lost Desert for 12th place. Hope we have better luck next year or I'm defecting.

Love ya, Jessie.

All The Time In The World

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen the latest episode of Warehouse 13, please leave the blog and return later. Initial Reactions, like live Tweets, contain spoilers.

Warehouse 13 - "All the Time In the World" - Initial Reactions

• Yay flashbacks.
• Well that's an interesting artifact...
• Huh, that was also interesting.
• Yeah... that's not going to end well... especially according to the trailers.
• Nice way to hold people captive.
• Yeah... everyone underestimates people.
• Really, Pete?
• Oh hey, Anthony and James got to work together again. How amusing... especially considering "Tabula Rasa"...
• Yep, gotta make sure we know that Constantinople and Istanbul are the same place...
• Facial recognition software is always fun...
• Yup, that would be part of that argument.
• Lol, James Marsters with a mustache...
• Good thing the Farnsworth is going first.
• Yup, just move to the other side.
• Hello Mrs. Fredrick.
• Of course there would be restricted files.
• I seriously don't like James with a mustache.
• Why do we always have to bring up the email scam?
• Hey, that's cool.
• Aww... Artie gets left out.
• The dog's a Methodist?
• Ooookay then...
• Yeah, that's a nice way to get immortal people out of weird places.
• Ooooohhh.... that's really very not good.
• She knows exactly where he is, I know it.
• Poor Jinks.
• Make you do what, Artie?
• Wow. That's cool.
• Well that sucks gigantically.
• Oh, and it was a stick-on mustache. Not sure if that's worse.
• Makes sense as to why that might be redacted.
• He wants the other half of the stone.
• Nice artifact there, Steve.
• Darn, not a long jacket.
• Hard to sneak up on people in echo-y halls.
• Nice trap.
• Of course Pete and Myka would be carrying the halves of the stone.
• Well that worked fairly well... for a bit.
• I stand corrected.
• Nice light show.
• Yeah... incredibly clever to kill the building on top of you.
• I think they're going to choose to die together.
• Way to have time for dying words.
• That sucks for Charlotte.
• She's the Keeper? Interesting...
• Yay! They got Claud out!
• OMG. Wow. That's really very not cool.

Equestria Girls Review

Intro/Overview

I bit the bullet last night and watched My Little Pony: Equestria Girls. Gotta love people who tape things at the theater and stick them up on YouTube... And no, I'm not gonna lie about how I saw it for reasons that will become clear in my review.

Beware my swearing and sarcasm.

Stick around after the review for a very short Altador Cup Update and Housekeeping section.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen My Little Pony: Equestria Girls and are actually worried about spoilers, don't read the following review. It's more spoiler-tastic than my other reviews because I can't properly air my grievances without discussing certain plot points in detail.

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Review

Essentially, Equestria Girls was better than I thought it would be, but it's still crap. There were parts I liked, but they were very much overshadowed by the parts I didn't like.

The first of many things I did not like was Rainbow Dash throwing down an ultimatum and then completely ignoring it because "determination" and stuff... I thought is was fairly obvious that Twilight Sparkle was complete crap at sports in general. Dashie challenging Twilight to a sports-related competition would be like Pegasus Dashie challenging Unicorn Twilight to a flying competition. Good job making Twilight think you weren't going to help because you're a much better athlete than she is, Dash. Good. Job. That entire scene was just there to fill screen time and it bugged the hell out of me.

Sunset Shimmer a) being able to hack all the "Mane Five"'s cell phones and e-mails and then b) no one actually talking to each other about what went on in the texts and e-mails. Apparently the Human-Pony universe does not have great tech security or caller-ID... Not to mention that entire plot point came off as a PSA that may or may not actually have relevance. I don't know, I'm not entirely tech-savvy.

Apparently, though they manage to do it a couple times in the movie, the "Mane Five" don't run into each other in person all that often and are petty enough not to actually talk to their friends about their problems. Nope, not at all advocating talking to people in person over text and email. Nope, not at all.

Also, that "technology 'ruins' lives" plot has been so overdone by now it's ridiculous. I remember watching A Walk to Remember when I was in junior high and bad Photoshopping/Photocopying was used as a tool to break down the protagonist. I'd site other movies that use this method, but I stopped watching high school movies when I was actually in high school so... I can't remember them off the top of my head. I remember seeing the plot a hundred times over, I just can't remember the particular movies so... yeah...

Which brings me to my next thing: Equestria Girls was a high school movie. I'm clearly not the target demographic here, I realize that. I also realize the entire point of the movie was so Hasbro could have a property that competed with Monster High. I'm aware of all of this, but, if you're going to title a movie "My Little Pony: Equestria Girls" perhaps you should have more PONY in it than at either end of the movie. The completely random, would have actually been really weird in real life, totally took me out of the movie dance number in the middle was weird, even if there were ear-headbands and tie-on tails. Still not enough pony. The title might have been better served by the Generation 1 My Little Pony Tales characters than the Generation 4 My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic characters. At least My Little Pony Tales had ponies in school.

The last thing on my "I hated this" list is the big show-down scene at the end of the movie; starting with Sunset Shimmer threatening to kill the statue/portal with a sledgehammer. There was absolutely not tension here because there was no way Sunset Shimmer was actually going to destroy the portal. I also didn't think it was necessary for her to transform into that... goblin-like beast-thing. There also wasn't any point to having Snips and Snails transformed into those things as well. The "Mane Six" transformations bugged me, too. I felt like I was watching Sailor Moon gone wrong. But no, Hasbro had to make sure it was crystal clear that these humans were linked to their pony counterparts by turning them into anthropomorphic representations of their pony counterparts. Gotta make-em look like the toys! ... Yeah... DO NOT WANT.

My little niggle: Celestia and Luna as humans looked terrible. Their pony counterparts are much more elegant looking than the frumpy humans we got. Also, who the hell came up with adding tiny crown-like bits to their hair? It looked so weird!

On the bright side:

• "The Great and Powerful Trixie" was a giant dork.
• Vinyl Scratch's eyes were revealed again... for no reason.
• Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie whether she's pony or human.
• Lots of Luna!
• Scootaloo got to fly with Dashie... also for no reason.
• I was, for some unknown reason, not expecting to see a human Big Mac.
• Twilight sleeps on books.
• Most everyone's characters were mostly intact.

Yeah, the movie wasn't a complete disaster. It wasn't the pony movie I'd been hoping for, but it wasn't complete torture to watch. I will not be buying, or getting other people to buy, the Equestria Girls dolls because they're creepy. I like ponies.

Altador Cup Update

The Altador Cup is over. Final scores have yet to be announced. The Prize Shop has yet to open.

Housekeeping

Hopefully I'll get to watch Defiance and Warehouse 13 tonight and get up Initial Reactions for Warehouse 13. I'm super excited to see Anthony Stewart Head back on American television. Yes, I know he was in Merlin, but that's a British show and so doesn't count.

Love ya, Jessie.