AGENTS OF SHIELD - POSITIVES AND MINUSES "Laws of Nature"

The season premiere of Agents of SHIELD has come and passed and it was a very good premiere. It showed up Daisy in all her powered glory , A new Inhuman menace and questions were answered (some of them). So I decided instead of a regular review, I am going to give + and - to certain parts of the episode. So (spoilers if you haven't watched yet) and here we go!



+ The open. I liked how we went straight into the action as Joey, a newly powered inhuman, is being chased after by a mysterious government unit. As Joey is cornered by the unit, you suddenly see them being blown into the air and then their car as Daisy, Mack and Hunter appear to rescue him. This did a good job of showing Daisy's powers and her newfound confidence as a leader. 

+ Joey. It was great to meet a new inhuman but that was the least important thing about him. He is one of the first openly LGBT characters we have seen in the official MCU and I was also so glad that it was treated very casual. It also did lead to a good comparison he makes to Daisy as they talk about whether they should reveal the presence of Inhumans to the world. I would be really happy to see more of Joey in the future. 


+ Constance Zimmer's Rosalind Price. Constance is a terrific actress (as anyone who has watched UNReal this year saw) and she is a great addition to the show as the yang to Coulson's yin. I don't know if I want to see them get together (I think she's too good for him) but I do like seeing her interact with other parts of SHIELD and to see more of Rosalind and Coulson's trying to outsmart each other. 


-  Grumpy Cat Mug. Geez, Coulson stay ahead with the times. Can't wait till we see Phil asks Daisy one time "WHY YOU LYIN?" sometime next year.


+ - Hunter and Bobbi  It was nice seeing Bobbi and Hunter again but I would have liked to have seen both in action. It is interesting to see Bobbi playing Simmons's role but her character is made for action and I can't wait to see Mockingbird back in the field. 

As for Hunter, he got to be team player for both Daisy and Coulson and it was fine. However he made his intentions known that he was going after Ward. Hopefully he kills him


? No May. It sucked not to see Melinda May in this episode but to be honest she wasn't missed too much. 

+ NO WARD. 

+ - LASH. I thought he looked pretty cool but I wouldn't have also minded if they had kept the character more mysterious for a while. But in any event , It will be fun seeing them fight this big inhuman monster.

+ Tension - We saw this in a couple different scenes between a couple different characters. First was between Coulson and Rosalind as they sized each other up basically in their first confrontation on a train. Clark and Constance look to have tremendous back and forth repertoire as it looked like two chess masters sizing up their next move. Excellent subtle work by both.

The other one was between Mack and Lincoln in the hospital where Lincoln is working now. You could feel the tension between the two as Lincoln refused to help Daisy and Mack in helping Joey. I am looking forward to seeing Daisy's love-interest and Daisy's Lieutenant try not to beat the hell out of each other. 



+ LEO FITZ   Iain was the MVP of the episode by far. From the moment we first see him, doing his best James Bond impersonation in a nice looking suit and shades, we knew Fitz was a man on a mission. That mission is to find out what happened to the love of his life, Jemma Simmons. (which he admits to the person he is trying to trade information to). After a great scene, Fitz escapes with what he wanted and goes back to the lab. 

There him and Coulson talk about everything that has happened and mostly to try to help Fitz. The best scene of the episode happens next after Fitz's finds out that the message he risked his life for just, what was suppose to help figure out the thing that captured Simmons, all it said was "Death". So Fitz's takes a shotgun, shoots open the case containing the monolith and starts pounding on it. He screams from his soul "DO SOMETHING" 

Iain's raw emotion in these scenes as he is the only one who is still trying to find Simmons and he is pouring his heart and soul out to find her. He will not give up but that final moment of him hitting it is all of his anger and frustation let out. One of Iain's best scenes in the series. 

+ and -  Simmons location revealed(?) The episode's end tag reveals Simmons on a unknown planet looking like she is being chased by something. I like we got to see Jemma though the - is only from a worried fan's POV as we wonder where she is at and what is happening. Hopefully soon we can get all the answers.


So overall a good and exciting premiere which opens up a few new storylines and continues a couple more for next week. Hope to see you all there!!

LOST

11 years ago today , Lost debuted on ABC on a Wednesday night. Created by J.J. Abrams, Jeffrey Lieber and Damon Lindelof , and then later showrunners Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, this show told the story of the passengers of the crashed Oceanic Airlines Flight 815.  For six seasons, this show was able to give us wonderful characters to root for and get to see grow and ones that infuriated us and we pitied. In those seasons, we got polar bears, time travel, smoke monsters and a little glimpse of heaven. So in honor of one of my all-time favorite tv shows, I am going to name 4 of the best moments of the show.

1. The pilot


When the show first starts, we see Dr. Jack Shepherd awake in the middle of a jungle somewhere battered and bruised. He gets up and finds out that he is on a island. At first it looks deserted but then it ends up he has walked right into the middle of a huge crash site.  The next several minutes are chaotic as Jack tries to help his fellow passengers and try to make sense of what's hapening. We even get some getting sucked into  airplane engine before we are 5 minutes in!


This is one of the best pilots I've ever seen as it establishes the main characters and is able to give you so many mysteries right off the top. So many great scenes are here too : Jack and Kate's first meeting, John Locke being badass as hell, our first glimpses at Sawyer, Sun, Jin, Sayid, Boone, Shannon and many more. Another important scene is when Jack , Kate and Charlie, a drug-addicted musician find the pilot of the plane in the jungle. You think the pilot will live but no he is suddenly taken by a unknown force and killed. This shows that do not get used to anyone. That is ends with the immortal line "Guys, where are we?" is icing on the cake.

2. The First meeting with the Others /The Hatch

If you don't count Ethan (that slime) , our castaways have their first meeting with the island dwellers known as "The Others". In the episode , Jin, Sawyer, Michael and Walt are on a raft sailing to get help. They spot a boat in the dead of night during a rain storm. As they wave them down , the find out that the people on the boat have unsavory intentions as they want the boy, Walt. A fight ensues with Sawyer getting shot and The Others over powering Michael and kidnapping Walt. What made them so scary was that not only were they the big bad but also were always one step ahead of the group no matter what they did.  Later we would see why as they were led by one of the most interesting characters on television in the last 10 years, Benjamin Linus.

Meanwhile, at the same time Locke, Hurley, Kate and Jack are investigating a hatch that first Locke and Boone (RIP) found a few episodes before. Jack and Locke disagree on why to open the hatch but both agree to blow up the hatch to figure out what is inside. They set up the dynamite but then Hurley see numbers on the hatch. (the cursed numbers is a whole 'nother thing that would take hours to explain) Hurley freaks out and tries to stop it but Jack is able to stop him and the hatch is blown. It opens and the last shot of the season is Jack and Locke looking down with the camera view from coming inside the hatch. Lost always did a wonderful job of creating suspense , especially for their season-ending episodes whether it was a hatch , a bomb exploding or something else entirely. It was such torture waiting to see what Jack and Locke would find in the hatch, brother.

3. NOT PENNY'S BOAT

Lost always had great season finales and season 3 was probably their best. Charlie and Desmond end up going to a sub underwater to shut off a device that is blocking all radio transmissions. They are able to over come the Others (including a young Regina Mills) and Charlie is able to stop the blocking device. He is then contacted by Penny who tells her that the boat Naomi, who parachuted onto the island, is not hers. Then one of the others blows up the room and Charlie is trapped in the room. He sees Desmond in the window and in his last act writes NOT PENNY'S BOAT on his hand to show Desmond.

Desmond's death is honestly the most painful one ever on the show as we all fell in love with Charlie. We had cheered as he overcame addiction and became a protector for Claire. We felt sad when Charlie lied to Claire about the Virgin Mary statue and we felt happiness when Charlie and Claire reconciled so when he died , we all felt the pain that Hurley and Claire would feel when they found out. Charlie Pace is a great example of having a audience care for a character and then root for him and get our hearts broken when the character dies. Much credit to Dominic Monaghan for his wonderful performance through three seasons and getting us hooked on a song for years after it aired. "YOU ARE EVERYBODY"

4. FLASHFORWARD



For the first three seasons, Lost would do constant flashbacks of every character. EVERY character even the hated ones (Nikki and Pablo, I liked you guys a little) got a backstory via flashbacks. So in the season 3 finale we see Jack, bearded and depressed, stealing pills and going to a memorial service. We all think this is a flashback perhaps but then the final scene shatters that. Jack is watching airplanes flying in a fenced area near the airport. All of a sudden a car pulls up and we see that it is Kate who asks Jack what she wants which leads to a immortal line that Jack says when Kate tells him that she'll never go back to the island. "WE HAVE TO GO BACK!!!"  (Me and my brother always say this line to each other). This  would change the show as now we would get flashforwards as the Oceanic Six got off the island in the end of season 4 while the flashforwards showed what was happening to them after they did.

So I can name many more moments that made this the show I love. "The Constant" which one of the best episodes of tv ever and one of the most romantic scenes ever on television.

 Other moments such as the love between characters like : Sun and Jin, Sawyer and Juliet, Kate and Jack or Sawyer. The back and forth mind games between Ben and Locke. The polar bear cages. These characters and this show was a big part of my life for 6 years and I will always have a space in my heart for this show no matter how weird it got in season 6. (spoilers : VERY).

LAURA HOLLIS APPRECIATION POST

When we first meet Silas University student Laura Hollis, we find out a few things about her very quickly. First and foremost, she likes to document almost everything on her trusty webcam. She is a go-getter, very ambitious and the only person on campus that suspects something strange is going on.  Her party-heavy roommate Betty forces her to come out with her one night but the next day Laura finds Betty missing, with only a card left behind saying she is has dropped out of school. Laura immediately knows something is up and goes to investigate. At the same time, she meets her new roommate, the mysterious Carmilla.

I laid that out to everyone reading as, although the name of the show is "Carmilla'', the show is also very much about Laura. Through these first few episodes, we see that Laura is very much determined to get to the bottom of what is going on. Thanks to the help of her friends: LaFontaine, Perry and Danny, she's starts working on figuring out what happened to Betty and what has been happening to other girls at the school.

In this post, I am going to explain why Laura Hollis is one of the best characters out there in pop culture. Like many of us, she has her up and her downs, her victories and her failures and her relationship with a certain broody vampire all of which shows us how human Laura truly is.

1.Her never quit attitude

There is a scene in episode 6 of season 1 that I believe is the best example of this.  Carmilla is telling Laura that she should stop her investigation and that she needs to stop playing "Lois Lane".  There is a moment where Laura thinks about it as turns to the camera.

Her eyes open and you can see a look of determination in her eyes, as Laura says "No." Then she says this to Carmilla, as I believe she was also saying to herself.

"No. No, I'm not going to just give up. Maybe you're right. Maybe I am a child. A nineteen year old who had never left her city's limits before she got here. Who thought that university was gonna be some big adventure full of books to read and parties to dance at. Who never thought anything bad could happen. Well it turns out the world doesn't work exactly how I thought it going to. Girls going missing and maybe that's just the way it is but that doesn't mean I have to accept it. I deserve better. Betty deserves better. Hell, even you deserve better."

I think this is one of the best examples of Laura's never quit mindset. She can be forceful about it to the point of stubbornness. Her determination to find out what happened to Betty and the other girls in season 1 led to finding out about Carmilla being a vampire and her connection to the Dean. She was willing to risk her life to save others. Hell, she believes in not cheating on a test and that an "A" grade is a sacred trust.

In season 2, Laura has gone through even more pain and suffering than she did in season 1. She has lost fellow classmates, she had her heartbroken (as did Carm but more on that later) and she has seen her friends go through much upheaval and pain. Laura has lost almost everything and yet she continues to try to save her friends and classmates

2.She is human and makes mistakes

One of the things that makes Laura likable, relatable and to some infuriating is that she makes a ton of mistakes. In the first two seasons, more so Season 2 is that Laura has made a ton of errors in her plans and her judgment.  Everything she has tried to do has been for the best but ended up backfiring on her. We have all been where Laura is at in season 2, you try to do what you thing is right and good and it all ends up going to hell. (Granted our mistakes didn't involve getting your ex-lover's sister killed. I hope.)  Season 1 Laura was more naive and untrusting at times like when she wouldn't wear the bracelet Carmilla made or letting The Dean possess her via necklace.  Before that, she and the others tied up Carmilla, as they believed her behind the kidnappings. This one worked thankfully as it helped them find out more and gain an ally in Carm.  She was able to overcome those mistakes, however with the help of her friends and Carmilla and defeat The Dean. As if she can fix things here in season 2? Sadly, that is a to-be-determined.

Another thing that makes Laura relatable is that she takes everything so very hard. We see her emotions front and center. Everything she has done she thinks is the right thing but sometimes it ends up the wrong thing. She blames herself for the newspaper staff's deaths when it was not. To Laura though, she feels it is her fault because they left.  She does not hide the tears and the hurt she is feeling when her and Carmilla break up. We see her trying to figure out what happened and then we see the aftermath that she is even feeling to this day. It is in episode 31, after Danny kills Mattie, and Carmilla blames Laura for it that Laura understands she screwed up and talks about it.

"I just keep on thinking that there's right, and then there's wrong, and that I'm doing the right thing. I just keep making on all these messes. And this whole time I've been pushing Carmilla to "be better" and "be good" - only I'm the one who betrayed her trust - betrayed something she only told me to keep safe. How is that… good? How is that the right thing to do?"

Laura feels like a hypocrite because she thought Carm and the others should follow along with her in her idea of what is right and wrong. Is she? Yes and No. I know that is such a cheap answer but it is true. Laura tried to do what was right. She trusted Vordenberg to do the right thing but was betrayed by a power-hungry old man. (Editor’s Note: Like most of society! Hey Ho!) After being told about the necklace, Laura told Danny about the necklace because she trusted Danny and did not know if Carmilla would do the right thing. In the back of her mind, she had to have known this wasn't going to end well but to her, she was doing the right thing not just for her but also Danny, Perry, LaF and the rest of her friends. She may have screwed up but that just makes me respect the character of Laura Hollis even more. She is not perfect but she won't stop trying to be good and do what is right.

3. Nerd just like all of us.

This part will be very brief but Laura at heart is a big geek. She loves the things we all do. From her Doctor Who mug that she drinks from all the time to her love of shows like Agent Carter and Orange is the New Black and Scandal on social media, she is us. She loves to be a goof as with her "Boom" reference when she thought she was getting somewhere during the Betty investigation. 

Elise does a great job of showing us this because to be honest she a big lovable goof in real life too. She loves geeking out over shows like Rookie Blue and that influences Laura's character I think. Laura is just like us. We freak out over unexplainable things like her. We want to believe that people can be good like Laura. Laura Hollis is us and thanks to Elise's performance, we believe that.

4. #Hollstein

What a long, wonderful, heartbreaking love story that Laura has gone through with the one Countess Carmilla Karnstein. When they first meet each other, Carmilla tells her she is her new roommate as Laura has started the investigation for her missing roommate Betty. Instantly they get on each other nerves (well mostly Carm on Laura's) as Carmilla acts like the roommate from hell as Laura continues her search for the truth. The first sign of Carmilla starting to like Laura happens in the sixth episode of season 1 during Laura's speech about not giving up. You can see on Carmilla's face that she likes that Laura is standing up to the Dean and admires her bravery.

One of the first biggest Hollstein moments is during episode 11 (s1) when Laura gives an ear to Carmilla as they talk about not living up to their expectations from their parents, with Laura cracking a little joke that gets Carm to smile. Then just as they are about to talk more, Danny interrupts and it ends this moment. (Thanks Danny.) It is a wonderful moment as Laura's cheerfulness is able to break through Carm's walls and get her to smile. When Danny shows up, Carmilla starts feeling a little jealous and leaves.

In later episodes as Laura starts to suspect Carmilla is behind the kidnappings and later finding out she is a vampire, Carm starts warming up to "Lois Lane" as she gives her a bracelet charm and agreeing to go see the stars with her. In episode 17, Laura ready to use herself as bait to lure Carmilla. Episode 17 is one of the biggest Hollstein episodes in my opinion. As Laura is about to go to the party, Carmilla shows up with a bottle of champagne and some interesting attire (Laura points it out "I'm not the one wearing a corset." (We see you checking her out, Laura.) As Carmilla slides up to Laura, she starts to heavily flirt with Laura. It’s fun to see how flirty Carm is here compared to how nervous Laura is. I think though she is more nervous about liking Carmilla then being bait. It is interesting to watch this back and see how much Carmilla had fallen for her and Laura trying so hard to hide her feelings. The roles would be reversed soon enough. As Carmilla is just about to make a move, she is interrupted by Danny, Perry and LaF there to "save" Laura and tie up Carmilla.

 As we continue the next few episodes, Carmilla and Laura bond through her keeping Carm hostage and the epic retelling of Carmilla's origin though PUPPET THEATER!! That episode is important as Laura learns much more about Carmilla and you can see that she is falling for her.  She later tells Danny, that she doesn’t reciprocate her crush anymore in a moment where Laura stands up for herself. 

In episode 28 (s1) is another wonderful Hollstein moment. As Laura and Carmilla are talking, the discussion goes to Carm's life in 1698. Carmilla talks about what they did for fun and she mentions that one of the things was waltzing. As she and Laura do a quick waltz, Carm says it was almost like sex.  Here is when I think Laura realizes she is completely in love with Carmilla or as she puts it in the end of the episode "WORST CRUSH EVER".

Then, a necklace Laura finds and puts on lets The Dean possess her. The Dean forces Carm to stop her meddling or she will kill Laura. Carmilla agrees because she doesn't want anything to happen to the person she loves. Then Laura watches the webcam and finds out about it. She feels hurt, not because of Carmilla not wanting to go for a sword that could kill her but because she gave up (Remember Laura's no quit attitude). You can feel how hurt Laura is to see Carm didn't even try to fight back, even though you can tell that Carmilla gave up for Laura.

This leads to the next episode where Laura and Perry go to fight the Dean and her minions. Laura leaves a message for her father and then for Carmilla she says "YOU KNOW!" Laura wants to tell her she loves her but can't quite yet. Carmilla sees the message and goes to help with the fight and get the sword. Laura thinks she did it to be a hero but I think she knows that Carm did it for her. It ends up with it looking like Carmilla has been killed. Laura is in mourning until Perry and Danny find Carmilla's body, which is only in need of blood. Once they are able to revive her, it ends up just being Carmilla and Laura in the room.

As Laura starts rambling as she does when she is nervous, Carmilla goes for it and kisses her not once but twice. As a friend of mine Chelsea said, Carmilla has always been worried about whether the person she loves would run away from her. As for Laura, I think she is stunned but then very happy that Carmilla is here for her. After Carm kisses her, Laura goes back for more kisses that makes all the Hollstein fans giddy as fuck. After they break their kiss, they look at each other and Laura cracks a joke as both smile and are happy. Thus ending season 1 and they all lived happily ever after......*

*Sighhhhh I wish.

Season 2 begins with them very much still in the honeymoon stage, especially Carmilla. She can't keep her hands off her.  They were even sharing the same Doctor Who mug!! They are both very much in love. However, when the school's newspaper staff is killed, Laura's goes to investigate. Carmilla on the other hand is more focused on Laura and just being lovers but Laura can't do that. It's just not in her nature, that's not Laura Hollis. Even though they have a few more moments of lovey-dovey moments, there starts to be cracks in the relationship. First is when Carmilla feels like Laura is bragging too much about how heroic Carm was in the big battle and she doesn't want to be a hero. She just wants to be Laura's lover but Laura needs her help with this.

The next crack to hit their relationship comes in the form of Carmilla's sister, Mattie. Mattie is Laura's number #1 suspect in the newspaper murders but then Mattie starts mentioning how this is only a schoolgirl crush for Carmilla and that Laura is like so many of Carm's former paramours. Laura at first doesn't let it get to her but it slowly gets to her.

It ends up being a combo of both that breaks them up. When Laura asks Carmilla to spy on Mattie, it ends up making Carm mad as hell.  This leads to a moment later when Mattie makes a threat and, in Laura's head, her knight in shining armor Carmilla will make with some heroics and save them all except Carmilla isn't in for that. She loves Laura so much but she is not willing to be a hero. She isn't willing to betray her sister. She just wants to be a lover. In Laura's head, she loves her but wants her to try to be a good person. One who will stay and fight. Carm isn't that and so she breaks up with her.

Laura takes the breakup as we all would, with crying and lots and lots of ice cream. She thinks that love is supposed to change the monster but that is a problem there. Carm's not a monster and it shows when they meet again. Carm is in pain and only knows to show it through her old ways: being a terrible roommate, lots, and lots of sarcasm. Laura deals with it the only way she really knows how, by throwing herself into whatever cause she is going after. This goes on for a while until Vordie becomes the new man in charge and all vampires are being hunted. Laura agrees to hide Mattie and Carmilla. This leads to a few heartfelt moments between Laura and Carmilla where we see it still hurts for both. They love one another but can't get on the right page like many people in love. During one of these conversations is when Carm tells her about the necklace.

Another one of these conversations leads to Laura and Carmilla being more open with each other and admitting they still deeply care about one another. They kiss but then acknowledge they can't be together until this is all over.

A little bit later, we get to a confrontation with Mattie over the possibility of something happening to Perry and then to Danny and Vordie confronting her about the murder of Danny's sisters. It escalates until Mattie attacks Danny and Danny (with the info Laura told her) grabs the necklace and smashes it killing Mattie.  This breaks Carmilla as she snaps at Laura and Laura sees everything blow up in front of her. The next episode Laura admits she screwed up and you can tell her heart is broken almost beyond repair.

Is this the end of Hollstein? I'm not sure to be honest. Laura loves Carmilla and deep down I think Carm still loves her. Laura is a very tough person but still has unintentionally and intentionally caused a lot of pain in Carmilla's life but you can say the same for Carm. They love each other very much but since this is about Laura, I will look at it from her POV here. She wants to make it right with Carm and I think Laura is tired of the battle as much as she is but unlike Carm, she is bound by her sense of honor to stick around and save everyone. Personally, I hope Laura can forgive herself and then I hope that somehow Carmilla can begin to forgive her.

So these are some of the reasons I love Laura Hollis. She is a tough, geeky, love-struck hero who makes mistakes and tries to learn from them. What will happen to Laura at the end of this season? I really don't know. I do know however that no matter what happens whether it be Vordie, Fish gods or a brokenhearted ex, Laura will continue to fight for what she believes is right. That's a person to admire and appreciate in my book.

5 ESSENTIAL TEGAN AND SARA SONGS EVERYONE SHOULD HEAR

Today is Tegan and Sara Quin's 35th birthday. They are one of the most well-known bands in Canada since they debuted onto the scene in 1995. However , they are now seeing mass popularity in these last few years thanks to the hit song "Everything is Awesome" they did with The Lonely Island for The Lego Movie.

In honor of today, I am going to point out 5 songs of theirs that everyone should listen to and will make them instantly become a fan of theirs. The songs span their long career as they are even now working on a new album to be released sometime in 2016! So without any further ado, let's start with one from just a few years back.

Hell (2009)- A song that I sing along to with all the time, this was thought of by Tegan when she read a article about their old neighborhood. I love how the song goes straight into it, now waiting for it to build up as it goes from 0 to 60 in a second. It is one of the more rock out songs and it is a great song to get you pumped up for the day.

Alligator (2010)- It's strange that a song about getting over someone is oddly a very upbeat and energetic song of theirs. One of Tegan and Sara's most catchiest songs, Alligator is a favorite of mine for many reasons. Some are as follows : Hypnotic lyrics such as "Over You, Over You.", Tegan and Sara's sweet dance moves in the music video and many more are reasons I include this song on this list.

Call It Off (2007)-  Call It Off is one of Tegan and Sara's shorter songs but it is still also one of their best. One of Tegan's favorite songs, it is a song for everyone who's had a love but never got to see if it would have worked out. Some of the best lyrics of any song of theirs, this is also one of their most emotional and heartfelt ones. And all of that in just 2 minutes and change.

I Know I Know I Know (2004) - One of Tegan and Sara most "pop" sounding songs, it shows the band ability to branch out into different forms. The song itself was written by Tegan as a reminder to that being good to one another in a relationship and in general are important. A very unknown songs to all except the most hardcore of T&S fans, you will enjoy the this song especially on repeat listening .

I Was A Fool (2013) - Inspired by Rihanna "Umbrella" and "Unfaithful", Tegan and Sara wrote what very could well be one of the best break-up songs of the last few years. A favorite of theirs to play live, Fool is also one of their most watched songs on YouTube with Mae Whitman starring in the music video. A terrific song that you can't help but sing to, this could also be my favorite song of the band's as it is heavy charged with emotion but so softly song with a unbelievably good bridge.

A review of episode 30 of CARMILLA

It's been about a week since episode 30 of season 2 of Carmilla and it's impact is still being felt by the fans. I think it was one of the best episodes of the series and set the stage for the final six episodes of this season.

To set the stage, Mattie attacked Danny and as she was squeezing her bones broken, Danny grabbed the necklace around her neck and smashed it. As Laura was told by Carmilla in a earlier episode, the necklace was the one thing that could kill Mattie. So now we are caught up for the beginning of episode 30. Down Below I will review the episode and also talked about the great performance Natasha Negovanlis

We first start the episode with a flashback to when Laura and Mattie were co-anchoring news for the Silas website. After finishing, we get to see Mattie and Carm laughing about something Mattie said in the video. As Laura and Mattie talk, Mattie mentions what happened with Carmilla and Vordenberg's anchestors. It ends up that they tortured her, grave-robbed her and possibly sexual assaulted her. Natasha does a great job of switching from joking to uncomfortable in a manner of seconds. As Laura asks why she didn't mention it, Carmilla responds with a sort of joke as that is how she usually hides her feelings, with either sarcasm or jokes.The scene ends with Mattie and Carmilla playing around with each other , like a lot of family do as Laura chuckles at them.

*I am going to talk in detail about Natasha in a little bit but special recognition to Elise Bauman and Sophia Walker for their performances in this episode and the one before. They showed great emotion just with a smirk or a raise of their voice and this episode wouldn't have worked as good as it did without them being as good as they are, especially with Natasha.

We go back to real time as Mattie is dying in Carmilla's arms. She tells Carm that she did not kill the kids at the newspaper or the girls at the pit. Then as she warns her about their mother, she passes away. RIP Mattie Belmonde and that wonderful smirk of hers.  Then, Carmilla , her voice breaking and her eyes filled with tears, tells Danny to run as she does not want to kill her quickly and suddenly. She wants Danny to pay for what happened.

*I can understand both sides of this. Danny does not want to die of course and she really thought Mattie killed those girls. As for Carm, you just saw your sister die. IN YOUR ARMS. One of the very few people on this earth that understood you, made you laugh, made you cry, that cared for you. There is not a one of us who wouldn't have reacted the same way. Natasha shows this in her voice and how angry her eyes looked. She looked like a woman who was going to kill and not think twice of it.

As Carmilla goes for Danny, Laura steps in the way to stop her. Then Laura reveals what Carmilla pretty much knew but had to hear from her lips : It was Laura who told Danny about the necklace (Catch-up explanation! Carmilla told Laura about the necklace in a earlier ep and Laura told Danny a few episodes before this one)

And here is when Natasha Negovanlis should win every damn award there is. With her voice getting louder, Carmilla grabs Laura and tells her about just a little of the history she and Mattie had. Then as she lets her go and Laura tries to talk with her, Carm starts mocking her with "Be good for me Carmilla. Change for me Carmilla. Burn everything you ever loved for me Carmilla!" We see that Carmilla is hurt, angry , sad and Natasha shows all this in just a span of a few minutes.  Then as Laura tries to tell her she didn't want any of this, we see Carmilla use her vampiric yell for the first time ever. She then tells the group there (but mostly I think Laura) that if anyone gets near her , she will kill them.

*To me Carmilla is the most human character on the show. She is not open about her feelings but you can always tell they are there. She has been betrayed and tortured and she hides it in sarcasm and sassy comments. When she finally opens herself , she feels love again. She doesn't want o be a superhero or even a hero in general, she just want to be a lover. Laura's lover. And when her and Laura break up over this, not only is Laura heartbroken, so is Carm. We see this a couple different times when it is she who brings them up with questions like "Do you miss me?" So when she sees her sister die, one of the only two people on earth she loved pretty much because of the only other person in the world she loves, her heart is broken again. I think the only reason she sparred everyone there was that through it all, she still loves Laura. A very human emotion and reaction to me.



Natasha's performance here is one of the best I have ever seen. She had to show sadness, anger, betrayal and hurt in just a span of three minutes and she went above and beyond what I expected. Not only her words as she masterfully controlled her voice as she raised it and lowered it but also her face. Even when she was mocking Laura, her face betrayed the pain she was feeling, the hurt, the loss.  She knows Carmilla so well now and it shows in every scene but it shined in this one.

*Also great work by Jordan Hall, Ellen Simpson, Spencer Maybee, Steph Ouakine and every member of the crew of Carmilla. They create the words that the actors say so well and do it in 1/5 a regular show has the time to do it in. They deserve as much love and kudos as any big-time show runners.



So what's next? We have six episodes to go and tons of questions left? Where's Perry? Is The dean possessing Perry? What's up with J.P. and the book he was looking at? What will Laura do now? I have a ton of theories but no clue what will actually happen. So I am ready to be entertain , mesmerized, and have my emotions played with by this magnificent show and the actors  that perform on it.

REMEMBERING BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES

As a kid , my main loves in my life were comic books and cartoons. I had many favorite comics and cartoons but I loved when they combined. At the time , there were three that did just that. On the Marvel side was X-Men and Spider-Man. Both are fantastic shows that stayed loyal to the overall scope of the comics but were able to separate into their own path.  As good as those shows were, however DC Comics had come up with one of the best cartoon series of all-time in Batman : The Animated Series.



Thanks to the success of Tim Burton's Batman film , Warner Brothers hired Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski to work on a Batman cartoon. Using Radomski's designs on the characters and Timm's idea to have the show look and feel like a film noir, it was debuted to WB in 1991 in this 2-minute clip designed to show what the series would look like.

As you can see in the clip, the style was very reminiscent of gangster/noir films. Batman was no longer a talkative , loving hero like he was in the 1960's. This Batman was angry, violent and tougher. On the strength of this, Warner Bros. green-lit a new Batman cartoon to make it's debut in 1992.

The Series officially made it's debut in September 1992 and it was a hit from the beginning. Everything matched together from the artwork that made Gotham City look like a city from the 1940's to the Danny Elfman/ Shirley Walker theme and music that fitted every scene from the high action to low-key dramatic emotional ones. It honored the comics (and in some cases took stories from them ex: The Laughing Fish ) but was able to make it's own mark to the enjoyment of comic book and cartoon fans alike. With the help of Paul Dini, Timm and Dini were in charge of the show and helped grow it's success. Writers like Dini , Michael Reeves, Alan Burnett, Brynne Stephens and many more, the stories and characters became legendary. But all of this also wouldn't have worked without the right voice as Batman.

In my opinion, the best Batman from West to Ben Affleck now, is Kevin Conroy. He has been the voice of Batman now for over 20+ years now and still is great at it. Kevin added a distinct voice to Batman, giving him a gravelly tone but without making it too much (which some believe is a flaw in Christian Bale's portrayal of Batman). He makes you feel every beat and bang Batman gets with a "Unnn" or "Ahhh".  Another thing that Kevin added to the role was how he voiced Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter-ego. He gave both Bruce and Batman two distinct and different voices.

Also the rest of the voices for the show were outstanding. Loren Luster as Dick Grayson/Robin was a standout as he brought humor and fun to some episodes and yet was always able to get serious (Robin's Reckoning). Bob Hastings and Efrem Zimbalist Jr. were great as respectably Commissioner Gordon and Alfred. Both were mentors and friends to Batman, yet always stood up to him.
In later seasons, the show added Batgirl who was originally voiced by Melissa Gilbert,of Little House fame. Then we get to the villains and the most famous of them all.

The Joker. One of the best villains in pop culture history. To voice him, you have to master the terror he has, the anger boiling in him and the sick humor he has of the world while also being able to laugh at it all. Mark Hamill nails all of this completely.  The way he says simple lines can make you laugh and fear him all at once. Also the man had the perfect laugh for the Joker. 'HAHAHAHAHAHA"
And you can't mention Joker on here without HARLEY QUINN. Voiced by Arleen Sorkin, she was first created for the show by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm as a simple one-off role. However though, she became popular with the writers and then became a huge hit with fans. Her craziness and obsession with her "puddin" made her a fan-favorite with kids and adults alike and led her to getting her own comic and one of the leads in the new live-action "Suicide Squad" movie.



Other great villains in the series were : Mr. Freeze who finally was treated with respect in his heartbreaking origin story in the episode "Heart of Ice" , Catwoman who toggled the good/bad line but was always interesting to see. Man-Bat who was the first antagonist in the series, Two-Face who we got to see as Harvey Dent first which made what happened to him even worse to the Demon's Head himself Ra's Al Ghul. (If you didn't like how he was done on Arrow, watch this and see how good the character is.) Such a great hero deserves great villains and Batman: The Animated Series delivered.



So what is the legacy of this show? Well it led to many other super hero shows from Justice League to Batman Beyond to countless DC cartoon movies. It is still watched today and lives on in many homes in their Dvd collections. Paul Dini and Bruce Timm went to work on most of those shows and continue to work on superhero shows as we speak. The ultimate legacy of the show however will be that it was one of the best comic book adaptations of all-time , regardless of what platform it was on. It showed that you don;t have to dumb down shows for kids, you can have it be gritty and rough like the city of Gotham. And most importantly of all is that it was a damn good show.

TOP 5 THINGS I'M LOOKING FORWARD THANKS TO THE ARROW TRAILER

I know everyone is doing one of these posts because I think I have read them all! SO I'm going to do a quick post of the top 5 things I loved about the new Season 4 trailer for Arrow in no particular order(which returns October 7th!)

1. Felicity and Oliver happy.

It was so nice to see them happy and smiling for a change after all the angsty moments in season 3. Stephen and Emily 's chemistry has always been unbelievably hot and terrific when it was just glances and quick scenes. I'm very happy to see what a "domesticated" Olicity will bring us and if it's anything like the gif above than it will be a beautiful thing to see. I know it is nice to see both Oliver smiling and Felicity being Felicity and them getting to do these things together. You know, the loving glances and remarks, the arguments over towels and then the make-up sex over said towels. (That last one is key.) It will be interesting to see them go through all the phases of being a couple , the highs and lows while also working together to help protect Star City.

2. Speedy in action!!

One of the best developments near the end of season 3 was Thea Queen taking over for her former boyfriend and joining Team Arrow as the newest member of the group after her trip into the Lazarus Pit. In the trailer we get to see both aspects of this as Thea is helping Laurel and Diggle fight off some goons and showing off some skillz while doing it. But also we see Thea and Oliver sparring (whether it is just that or more is unknown) and Thea threatening to kill someone with Oliver asking her to stop.  How has the Lazarus Pit changed Thea? will be one of the most interesting storylines for this season, I think.

3. New and returning characters!!


Two of the worst things about Season 3 was a) how Ray Palmer was introduced and then how Ray was handled for a good part of the season and b) the death of Sara Lance in the season premiere. I'm happy to say that the new characters we are getting look really fantastic and fun!! Echo Kellum joins on as Mr. Terrific Curtis Holt and it looks like him and Felicity are going to have a funny repertoire as Echo is a terrific actor and welcome addition. Also appearing this season in supporting roles will be Rutina Wesley as a Lady Cop (a important member of Lance's task force) , Neal McDonaugh as Damien Darhk the baddie of the season (More on him in a sec), Parker Young as a potential love interest for Thea and a special guest appearance from John Constantine himself!! (CROSSOVER YAY!)


I cannot say enough how happy I am that Sara Lance is coming back. Caity Lotz has always been great as Sara Lance, showing her struggle to let go of the League of Assassins and try to help her family and Star City. So to see her back will be great as once again the Lazurus Pit is involved. Really excited to see this episode for many reasons : Constantine, the return of Nyssa!!! <3 and how will Malcolm Merlyn fit into all of this. So many questions that I'm interested to see answered including the most important one : HOW?? and also she look terrific for being dead a year.

4. Damien Darhk 

Last season I think one of the problems was that the main villain wasn't that good to be honest. Ra's Al Ghul was a dissappointment to be fair and it hurt the arc of the season. This year I have a good feeling that Damien will be more than up to the challenge. Neal McDonough plays the man himself and it looks like he will unleash a HIVE of problems onto Oliver and the rest of Team Arrow. Neal is such a talented actor who has almost mastered of the way of making bad look so good. (example : Justified, Walking Tall). It will be fun to see how Neal is able to master HIVE and try to wipe Star City off the map (Yeah that old chestnut)

5. New pairings teaming-up

Also shown in the trailer is new combos working together : Laurel and Thea is one that will be interesting to see as it looked like they have bonded possibly during Oliver's absence from Star City. I am hoping with them with Diggle will be a nice things to witness.

*Also about Diggle, I can't wait to see how he reacts to Oliver and Felicity's return. From the little bit shown in the trailer, it looks not too well.  Also we are suppose to get more of John's family life (YAY!) and as for Dig's new headgear....at least we can get to see him headbutt people and give them concussions! 

Also the newest pairing in the trailer I liked was Mr. Terrific and Felicity. The Quick bits shown in the trailer has been really fun to see as Echo and Emily have great comedic timing with each other and it's fun to see another person introduced to this world with a fresh set of eyes at all the craziness! 

So those are my thoughts on the trailer and sort of my thoughts on the season. I think it will be a really fantastic one with all the OLICITY, Team Arrow , Lance Drama and more that we all want. Oh and last but not least we also got Felicity shooting a machine gun and that pretty damn cool.

ACTRESS SPOTLIGHT -JESSICA CHASTAIN

In this era of moviemaking there are a lot of good actors and actresses performing in the movies today. However, there are only a few great actors and actresses out there today. In this post I am going to highlight the performances and scenes of one of those great actresses : Jessica Chastain.

With only 18 films on her resume and 2 more coming out later this year (The Martian and Crimson Peak), she has already shown herself to be one of the best actresses in the last 25 years. From her first film Jolene in 2008 to her Golden Globe nominated performance in 2014's A Most Violent Year, she has always showcased her talent and her unbelievable range in each character she brings to life. In this article, I am going to highlight  a few of those scenes and show how great this award-winning actress is.

The Help (2011) - Among one of the best casts in years, Jessica was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at both The Oscars and Golden Globes for her performance as Celia Foote. One of the storylines in the film is about Celia is a former regular-class woman who married into high society. However, due to her personality and origin outside of wealth, she is considered a outsider and is mostly shunned by all the women in the high social circle there. In the scene where Celia drunkenly confronts Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) over this, it is a brilliant scene by both actresses as Jessica shows the pain of being shunned has done to her without hiding it behind her cheerfulness anymore.

In the film, Celia hires Octavia Spencer's character Minny, a maid who has her own bad reputation according to others. Soon, they are able to talk and become friends as they bond over cooking , a specialty of Minny's. These are some of the best nicest scenes in the film as both actresses have a tremendous chemistry with each other . Also they are in one of the saddest scenes as Celia has a miscarriage that only Minny knows about. in the scene she does not have very main lines but Jessica shows the heartbreak in just her eyes as they fill with tears and sorrow at this happening to her again. Later, a silent sequence is her burial for her unborn child and as she is planting flowers for the site, you see other flowers there representing her previous miscarriages. The other scene above is one more of Minny and Celia as Celia and her husband Johnny offer Minny a job with them for a long as she wants to be with them. It shows how much both of them have helped the other through the bonds they have formed.

As a sidebar, this film is also one of my favorite films in the last 5 years. So damn good and I hope you can watch it sometime soon if you haven't.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) - Jessica won a Best Actress Golden Globe award and was nominated for a Academy Award for her role in this film which told the story of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. In the film, she plays Maya, a CIA intelligence analyst who's only focus is her job. She sacrifices her personal life in the pursuit of Bin Laden. Jessica does a masterful job of showing the toll this takes on Maya as she follows leads and sees her become a target of the terrorists when they try to kill her. 

Jessica's ability to almost transform into who she is portraying in a movie has never been more striking than in this film. She IS Maya and enthuses the role with power. Maya does not suffer fools and she never lets things burden her except for one thing : her job. She spends over 8 years hunting down Bin Laden and it leads to a great scene at the end of the film. 

After Bin Laden has been killed by Seal Team Six, the body is brought back to the U.S. base in Afghanistan. As Maya walks to identify the body, she sees all the evidence collected by the team. Jessica plays this great as it is all in her facial expressions as she is stunned to see it has all come to a end. Maya is almost numb to it all in a sense of almost shock. Then as she is entering the plane to take her where she wants to go. Watch the below video and see how Jessica shows so much with just her face and her tears as all of the 8 years has come flooding to her at that moment and she doesn't know what to do next.

Interstellar (2014) - Interstellar is a movie that draws strong opinions from people both good and bad. (Personally, I love the film for it's inventiveness ,the emotion the movie has and visual beauty of this)  One thing that both sides agree on however is the performances in the film are stupendous and Jessica's is one of the best ones of the film. She plays Matthew McConaughey's daughter Murphy (Murph)who has grown up for the last 23 years waiting to see if Coop (McConaughey) can come back from his mission in space of looking for a habitable planet for humanity. Coop leaves when Murph is still very young and Murph is angry that Coop left when she was so young which leads to one of the best scenes of the film.




After a trip to a planet where every hour there, 7 years pass on Earth and the mission has been unsuccessful, Coop and the others are back on the ship. Coop goes through his 23 years worth of messages which are all from his son who tells him he is married with a son. As the last one of Coop messages plays from his son, he thinks that is all of them. Until he sees one from a unknown woman who Coop quickly realizes is his daughter.

As Coop starts watching, Murph tells him that she hadn't done one of these messages because she was still mad at him for going. She then tells him that it is her birthday that day and she is the same age as he was when he left. (earlier as Coop was consoling young Murph, he said there was a chance he could come back and they would be the same age.) As she is starting to break down and cry, she tells him that it would be a really good time for him to come back as she is overcome and stops the message. This is such a emotional scene for only being a minute long as Jessica plays Murph as someone very angry and yet still the hurt young girl who misses her father and just wants him to come back. As her voice starts to crack , you can she how much Murph is hurting but she still is angry that her father did not stay. Such a memorable scene that if you are a father, daughter or human being with a soul, the tears will be coming out by the end of her message. A outstanding scene and performance in a wonderful film.

Jessica also has such wonderful roles in movies such as - A Most Violent Year as Anna Morales ,the wife of Oscar Issac's Abel Morales who is fiercely loyal to her husband but also knows their family will never be safe and succeed unless they fight fire with fire.

-The Debt as Rachel Singer (in flashbacks) She plays a Mossad agent ordered to capture a Nazi Criminal in the 1960's. A very underrated spy thriller that sees


- Mama as Annabel who ends up adopting ,with her boyfriend his brother's kids who are being followed possibly by the spirit of someone called "Mama"




As the final word of this post , I think we have only seen just a bit of Jessica Chastain's talent and ability. We know she can do emotional scenes, Action scenes, sci-fi films to horror films. Her next three films are : The Martian, Crimson Peak and The Huntsman.
That is a stupendous line-up right there. In the future, I am hoping to see Jessica in a comedy. I could see her being in something with Anna Kendrick and Aubrey Plaza as three sisters or with Paul Feig and have him and Jessica team-up for something action/comedy like Spy or Ghostbusters. All I know for sure is , even with all the awards and accolades that she has received, the best is yet to come for Jessica Chastain.