Review: iZombie 1.6 - Virtual Reality Bites

I truly look forward to this show every Tuesday. The show is nothing what I expected, and I think a lot of new comic fans would agree. To put it in one sentence, I expected was some typical over sexualized zombie to fight with her friends and fall in love with total losers while failing at life, but what I got was an average girl who was at the wrong place and now has to deal with seclusion while solving crimes and turning not to hurt the people she loves. Liv may be one of the most relatable characters on TV right now...well besides for the obvious reasons. I just love her strong female character role. And she doesn’t necessarily have to be strong at all times in order to prove that she is awesome. She has her vulnerable moments. Plus not to mention that they show her eating junk food and being a real woman. Thank god for cheese puffs! The handling of her as a female protagonist is exactly what we need on television. This episode opened a lot of doors for Liv. In particular, her love life. I am jumping around the show a lot right now, but let’s focus on Lowell for a moment. The two get to chill with each other, and it is was adorable. Not only can they relate on a eating brains level, but they also talk about their struggles relating to the switch. Then when the night closes, Lowell makes his move, but Liv still clearly tied to Major rejects the kiss. So sad.

But now we jump into the case, Clive finds a famous internet hacker dead in his basement. Liv picks up two traits of his which is online gaming and this dizziness. The dizziness comes on in social situations, hence why this dude was never seen outside of his house. So now it is time to figure out who killed this recluse. Liv eats his brains, which is disturbing to say the least. I always get a little queasy at these moments, but this man’s brain was nasty!

We jump around a lot in this episode, which again I think is an advantage about the storyline. Major is having problems finding Jerome still and decides to search tons of YouTube videos that were taken at the skatepark. Obviously this all relates back Blaine and dictatorship. We don’t learn anything new about Blaine, but Liv and Ravi soon will. As far as an antagonist goes, I think Blaine is a great start. Although his character is a tad predictable, how Liv will deal with it is not. Plus with Major being tied up in it, there may have to be some explaining or hard core lying going on. So having big questions about the turnout, makes Blaine this great rival and really creates this good zombie vs bad zombie plotline.

By far the best part of this episode was Liv’s gaming skills. This show makes me laugh. Like hardcore laugh and I find myself quoting the show, which is tough to get me to do. And when she picks up these WOW abilities while guzzling down pop and making cheese stains on her sweatpants, well it made my night as I’m sure it did with everyone.

Although I like to give away some information of the episode, and I don’t want to give away everything. The episode was great through and through. Liv and Ravi were hilarious, Blaine was even creepier than last episode, and Lowell may have gotten his kiss in the end.

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Score: 4/5

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iZombie 1.6 - Virtual Reality Bites Air Date: 4/12/15 Watch iZombie on CW, Tuesday 9/8 C

My Top Rack: Sony

Recently, I am not the biggest fan, along with most superhero fans, of Sony. After their butcher of Spider-Man, it is hard to have hope, but you have to give credit where credit is due. It is rumored that Sony is making a female superhero movie, and I couldn’t be more excited! It is about damn time that someone has stepped up to give females what we want. I know this move was driven by the fans and may even suck, but I don’t give a damn! I am stick of Kevin Feige telling us that timing isn’t right for a female lead. That’s just another way of saying, “Females can’t make us money.” For whatever reason, it was just noted that GOTG had the highest female audience of any Marvel movie. So suck on that! Sony thank you for actually growing a pair...of tits that is, and deciding to make a lead female superhero movie.

My Top Rack: Halle Berry in Extant

Extant premiered last night on CBS, and like most people, I was intrigued to see how the first episode of this show played out. Was the show unbelievably awesome?... No. But Halle Berry kept me glued to it. Berry plays Molly Woods who just returned to Earth from a 13 month mission in space. When she returns, life is a little off, but she is getting the hang of it. Her husband, John, and son, Ethan, are all adjusting to the changes as well. The show starts off fairly calm, but then major plot twists are dropped. Spoilers Ahead!

The marriage isn’t as happy as it seems. Unable to have children, John creates a robot that Molly and him take on as their son, Ethan. One minute Ethan is cute and adorable and the next he is creepy as fuck. The whole show is based in the future and does do a good job of blended normal life experiences with a science fiction element. We also learn that John isn’t exactly Molly’s first choice. She was in love with another man. His death is a mystery for now, but John is well aware that Molly is still attached to this man. On top of all this, Molly finds out that during her examination back from space she is somehow pregnant. The mission was completely solo, so Molly asks her friends with the pregnancy record to hide the information for a bit so she can figure everything out. She still has many evaluations to go but for now she puts on a smile and thinks her boss, Alan Sparks, believes her. In actuality, Molly is being watched by them for 13 hours of missing tape footage. We get small flashbacks of why Molly would lie about the missing footage. We get snippets of what is on these missing hours, and it makes for one hell of a ride.

My only concern for the show is that too many questions will be posed without any answers. This always seems to happen to these type of shows. The first episode was a good teaser, but you can’t continue to tease us without some clarification.

On the up side, besides for Ethan played by Pierce Gagnon, and his creepiness, Halle Berry takes the cake. She plays the role of a reluctant mother, a clever liar, a badass science nerd, a nervous wreck, and a lover perfectly. She is so cool in this show and women can relate to her problems. This show may tank, but for now take some time to enjoy Halle Berry and all her glories plus a cool hair-do in Extant.

17 Minutes of Guardians of the Galaxy with Samantha Roehrig

Going to see the free sneak peek of Guardians of the Galaxy I only went for the free poster, but my curiosity got the best of me. I thought I could give an inside scoop, man I have never felt so much like Wendy Williams. Anyway, the 17 minutes was filled with snapshots of the movie. We got to see each character entering the Klyn, the big house. Then we move on to the group planning their escape out of jail. Although the plot made sense, it clearly skipped over some scenes to give you a full story within the 17 minutes. I think these characters could have been thrown in anywhere and it would have been fun. The group is addictively hilarious. So let’s go through them. Star-Lord:  Our main character obviously takes some time to become the main character. He felt more of a background guy. He can definitely make the transition though and will no doubt be the funny strong backbone of the cast. Plus Chris Pratt is ripped! I didn’t mind the shirtless scenes at all. Seriously, workout before seeing this movie and you will feel better about your life. Or just skip the extra nacho cheese.

Gamora:  Although she doesn’t go shirtless... fingers crossed, she is a bad-ass. She has a chip on her shoulder and all females will immediately fall in love with her. She is everything you wanted to see in a female character and will no doubt continue to kick ass throughout the movie. She has the ability to jump further and slow down her movements in a Matrix-type way, so that is cool.

Drax:  I was most surprised by how his character played out. For some reason, he is the last to join the group, but enters upon Star-Lord’s request, or rather that he owed Drax. But what was so cool about Drax is how funny he is without trying to be. He is quirky and not the meathead you expect. Ok maybe he is a bit of a meathead, but he doesn’t know it which again makes him adorable. Yep I said it. Drax the Adorable.

Groot:  Although at first, like Star-Lord, I was annoyed by Groot never saying anything but “I am Groot” it quickly grows on you. Ha, grows on you! But for this character it is his behind the scenes actions that make him so funny. He is the most lovable character which is the part that surprised me in a good way. He and Rocket make the perfect pair and when Groot doesn't listen to Rocket that is what makes it so much better. The only thing weird about him was when they would do an up-close shot, he looked a little too fake for me, but I can get over it.

Rocket:  These 17 minutes were like Rocket-time and Marvel knows they have a hit with this raccoon who doesn't know he is a raccoon before we even met him. He was our main speaker and plot mover. Bradley Cooper’s voice is perfect and I honestly forgot all about him, so it wasn’t distracting knowing who was behind the mask. Anyway, Rocket is going to be everyone's favorite sarcastic dude. He was the clear leader of the group but again I think he can step down when the time is right. I didn’t feel like he looked fake at all. I really can’t wait to see him in some more action scenes.

I honestly didn’t know if I would like this movie just because Guardians of the Galaxy is not well-known. But the blend of characters and the funny backdrop of it all will definitely pull you in. The 3D was cool, but I will probably opt out since the characters took most of the enjoyment not the visuals. That isn’t to say the whole space thing is bad. I didn’t see a lot, but from the looks of it, it was cool. The action is going to be intense with so many new gadgets and Gamora’s moves. Looks like James Gunn was a good choice for the movie, so go see it. I think it is worth the money and will have you laughing and quoting lines from the start.

As a treat you can enjoy the new extended trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHUBlv5_K8Y

My Top Rack... Emma Stone As Gwen Stacy

I wanted my first pick for this article to be a big one. It took me some time to see what female made the cut and I kept going back to one character over and over. Emma Stone. Why do I feel this need to put my Sunday’s best on also while holding a six-pack of Bud Light Lime every time Emma Stone is on-screen? I don’t know. But this is what she does for me. I fell in hard for her while watching Easy A the 1st through 10th time. So then I went on this spree of watching Stone movies with my Funyuns and grape pop. I went through Superbad and Crazy, Stupid, Love. Then I got to see her in The Help. This is when my crush turned into a real life romance all built up inside of me. I know what you are thinking; that is just gas. And yes it was, but once that passed I still had this feeling called love. Oh and before all of this she brought us some zombielious goodness in Zombieland. So yeah she has been in my heart for a while. I can also speak for a lot of my friends when I say she is in their top five. Also I have never heard of anyone passing up marriage or a one-time fuck in order to kill her in the wildly fun game of “marry, fuck, or kill”. If that is reason enough that you are cool then I have grown too old to know what cool is.

Now that you can see what an awesome gal she is, you can see why I wanted to give her the title of My First Top Rack for her character of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-man. A lot of dumb things have happened to these films. Unlike most I enjoyed the first film; the second film is going to be a whole other level though. Adding some pretty terrible members to the cast and Marc Webb revealing some bullshit picture everyday has been painful as a Spider-man fan.

This is where Emma Stone comes in. First, Stone is just down right hot. She has sex appeal in each scene. She is about the only thing that keeps me coming back to this franchise right now. Secondly, she comes across as the girl next door and manages to gracefully steal the scene from her counter partners. The Mary-Jane story had been told, so in starting this movie we needed a new female in Peter’s life. Gwen was the perfect idea since she was his first love. They couldn’t have picked this better in my opinion. She offers that girly look of being the Captain's daughter, and then she turns into that intellectual powerhouse with Peter, and turns out to a badass gf to Spider-Man. She brought everything I think Gwen needed for the movie.

It is hard to look upon this new set of Spidey movies and not want to cry yourself to sleep, but behold Emma Stone. Put on your different lens for Stone’s character. She lights up the camera and is a true professional for me in this movie. The future's looking bright for her and if that happens to include me seeing this awful movie hitting screens then so be it. I will enjoy her role and hope that she can bring some beauty to an otherwise electric rhino of a movie.

Review: Nickelodeon’s TMNT - Season 1 - Booyakasha!!

Well as you all know I am obsessed with TMNT. I even have a tat of the turtles. Yep, I am that crazy over these mutants. With TMNT wrapping up its first season August 8th, I thought I would reflect on my affection for this cartoon. Also, I will be typing this entire review with two fingers and a thumb in honor of them. Maybe my review will be bias but talking to several people under the age of 10, I know this cartoon is good. I thought I would run down the general basis of the show and then give you guys some episodes that are must watches.

The turtles had two main villains during this first season; the Kraang and Shredder. We open the cartoon with the turtles celebrating their birthday and every year Splinter tells them of how they came to life. Splinter bought the turtles at the pet shop and followed a strange man down the street. This strange man was selling ooze. Splinter gets spotted by the dudes and tries to fight off the men. They all end up falling into the ooze and mutated into what they are today.

After the party, the gang begs Splinter for a chance to go above surface. He finally lets the Turtles and that is where this story begins. We get introduced to tons of characters. One of my favorites is Karai, Shedder’s daughter. She is complex and with how the finale ended will have a huge part in the ongoing series.

The show is a little gross, which for me, hits on the adults watching this show. You really can’t have mutated turtles and it not be gross in some ways. I like how Nick doesn’t shy away from showing us the disgusting parts. Like when a giant salamander sucks down one of the Kraang’s brains. Totally rad.

Must watch episodes:

“Never Say Xever” I like this episode for the simple fact that there are pizza dumplings. It makes me crave this delicious treat and wonder if any restaurant serves these.

“TCRI” This episode is probably my favorite. It was sad though. Leatherhead, who was given the ooze due to experiments by the Kraang, helps the Turtles to break into the Kraang’s headquarters. The episode revolves around opening Dimension X. It is so unfortunate how this story ends but just shows how this cartoon hits every nerve in your body. Mikey is really the star of this episode and is most likely everyone’s fav character. Plus Mikey is the one who befriends Leatherhead against all odds. He really is so sweet in this series. “Like a ninja do.” (which will make more sense after you watch this episode)

"Cockroach Terminator" We get to see a different side of Raphael in this episode; a frightened ninja whose biggest fear is cockroaches. It is so hilarious to see Raph so scared and Mikey making fun of him instead of the other way around. I love their relationship in this series. It is definitely a family dynamic. Plus the Cockroach is nasty. It even grossed me out…but of course that only means it was totally bodacious at the same time.

“Baxter’s Gambit” I always love when the villains and heroes must team up to fight an even bigger threat. The turtles must team up with Fishface and Dogpound in order to be released from Baxter Stockman’s House of Fun Death Trap. The visuals in this episode are so awesome. It could have been a set for a Saw movie. I also think it is a funny episode because the Turtles, Fishface, and Dogpound never give Baxter any credit for anything. They call him a different name every single time they refer to him. This episode is so entertaining visually but also shows the didactic relationship between heroes and villains. It is cool to see how they can work together.

“Showdown Part 1 &2” Clearly the last two episodes of these seasons have to be good in order to keep the audience coming back and these episodes were dynamite! The Turtles must stop the Kraang once and for all in opening the portal to Dimension X. They must save the world and April gets kidnapped, her father is being brainwashed, and Karai is here to whoop some butt. If that isn’t enough for you Splinter and Shedder showdown: enough said.

I could go on but I think the whole series is brilliant and with the second and third seasons in line I hope the perfection continues. Next season already has some pretty big surprises lined up; including Casey Jones coming into the show, Raph’s baby turtle turning into the giant Slash being voiced by Corey Feldman ,the original voices of the 80s TMNT show will make voice appearances, and I am assuming so many more mutated beings. The only downfall is I don’t quite understand why the show waited so long in-between episodes. And when I mean long I mean months. I guess kids these days just don’t care about consistent episodes.

The show just has such different elements of fighting crime and a funny dialogue. It is everything the Turtle fans could have hoped for. The animation is sweet and each character has their own habits that you will get used to. Not to mention the theme song is particularly awesome and somewhat based off the theme song from the first Turtles TV show. So go watch the damn show and hold on tight to your sai.

Score: 5/5

Channel: Nickelodeon

Broadcast Day: Saturday

Season 2 Begins in September