Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015)

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015)

Network:

Netflix

Starring:

Ellie Kemper

Tituss Burgess

Carol Kane

Jane Krakowski

Plot:

A woman is rescued from a doomsday cult and starts life over again in New York City.

Review:

Great premise and I love that they didn’t go super dark. Kimmy, Ellie Kemper, is optimistic, dated, and hilarious. The supporting cast is just as good and I’m excited to see the rest of the episodes.

In fact, my husband, who hates TV, caught the beginning of the fourth episode and made me start the whole season over again so he could watch.

4/5

Graveyard Shift (Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. #1) By: Angela Roquet

Graveyard Shift

Graveyard Shift (Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. #1) By: Angela Roquet

Plot:

The Inferno has Evolved… Lana Harvey is a reaper, and a lousy one at that. She resides in Limbo City, the modern capital of the collective afterlives, where she likes to stick it to the man (the legendary Grim Reaper himself) by harvesting the bare minimum of souls required of her. She’d much rather be hanging out with Gabriel, her favorite archangel, at Purgatory Lounge. But when a shocking promotion falls in her lap, Lana learns something that could unravel the very fabric of Eternity. If the job isn’t completed, there could be some real hell to pay.

Review:

Reapers are not something you read about often, at least not something I read about often. I think I read an Eve Langlais EROM about one once, but Graveyard Shift was in no way an EROM.

I enjoyed the world Roquet created and the detail she included. She really put forth the effort to have details about several different religions. She made a world that seemed well researched and fleshed out with characters that can’t magically bend the world to their whims.

There were characters I liked but also characters I didn’t. I hate when I read a book with no likable characters or a main lead that’s wishy washy and weak. Lana is definitely not that, she’s figured out exactly what she needs to do to get by in life and just tries to forget about the fact that she can’t do anything to change her lot in life. Sadly for her things keep getting thrust into her life that she’s forced to deal with and overcome.

I liked Graveyard Shift and I look forward to reading the next book in the series.

4/5

The Equalizer (2014)

The Equalizer

The Equalizer (2014)

Director:

Antoine Fuqua

Starring:

Denzel Washington

Marton Csokas

Chloë Grace Moretz

Plot:

A man believes he has put his mysterious past behind him and has dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life. But when he meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by – he has to help her.

Review:

Really slow start. I get that we’re supposed to know he gave up “that life” but John Wick did too and he’d killed a bunch of dudes by the time Denzel gets around to it.

When the action finally did start it was poorly shot. You couldn’t see clearly what was happening and the images you could see were purely for shock value. The image of the corkscrew in that dude’s mouth was just stupid and sad.

This movie was so slow and boring, way too many non-action parts. It really had so much potential, and it just fucked it all away.

The shots where he “flashes” on important details before going into action were annoying and did not make me think the character was more of a bad ass. He also goes around killing all these people and doesn’t seem to care at all about finger prints and it seems like the kind of world that cares about those things.

I had the hardest time in finishing this movie and really wished I hadn’t wasted my time. The only reason I’m not giving it a one star is because I like Denzel Washington and I didn’t completely hate it, I just really hated it.

1.75/5

 

Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser #3) By: Meghan Ciana Doidge

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Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser #3) By: Meghan Ciana Doidge

Plot:

I hadn’t set foot in the human world for more than a few hours in over three and a half months. Sure, I was stronger and faster than I’d ever been before, and I had a shiny new sword, but I was seriously chocolate deprived. I don’t recommend quitting cold turkey. And the new sword was a problem — to my mind, anyway. It represented all the expectations of a powerful father and a new otherworldly life. A life that wasn’t the one I’d worked so hard to build. It also represented the responsibility I had to bring my foster sister Sienna to … what? Justice? I didn’t know if that was even possible. What I did know was that Sienna wouldn’t stop, and that I couldn’t just leave everything up to fate and destiny … or maybe I was. Maybe I was doing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. If you believed in that sort of thing. I just hoped that before the chaos and mayhem renewed, I’d manage to get my hands on some chocolate. It didn’t even have to be single-origin Madagascar. I was utterly prepared to lower my standards.

Review:

When Jade first appears it’s like she’s the badass I’ve wanted her to be all along. She’s spent the last three months with the dragons and she’s learned to kick some serious ass. Then she hooks up with her old friends and she can still kick ass but there’s an adjustment period, and she’s not as smart as I thought she would be after three months spent learning. By the end she gets her shit together, but she’s still not able to do what needs to be done. Admittedly it’s something I’m not sure I would be able to do myself. I’m being purposefully vague because you should really read the book.

Book three was probably more action packed than the other two books combined. The build up for the first battle took some time and then the battle itself was a lot. I’m not sure if the last battle was as long but it was certainly more satisfying, as last battles should be.

Jade is never going to be the badass that I kind of want her to be, but she’s a good flawed character. She’s always going to be more prone to baking cupcakes than trying to figure out what she should do next. Though baking cupcakes does center her so it’s not a waste of effort. Cupcakes are never a waste of effort.

I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

4/5

Powers (2015-?)

Powers

Powers (2015-?)

Network:

PlayStation Network

Starring:

Sharlto Copley

Eddie Izzard

Susan Heyward

Michelle Forbes

Plot:

Set in a world where humans and super heroes co-exist, a homicide detective, who had his own powers taken from him, investigates crimes involving superhumans along with his partner.

Review:

Everyone seems to have their own TV shows now a days, as long as their good I don’t really care where they are, though.

It’s been a few years since I read the Powers comics, and I’ll be honest I forgot most of the story, all I remember is that I thought it was great, so I was interested to see what they would do with a TV show. Since it’s on a network that’s never given me anything before I wasn’t sure what to expect until I saw the trailer, which did a nice job setting my expectations.

As far as pilots went I thought Powers was fairly strong, it did a great job introducing the players and the world and left me wanting more, which is exactly what it’s supposed to do. Since there are already two more episodes up I know what I’m going to be doing the rest of the night.

It was darker and had more nudity than Marvel’s Agents of Shield and more blood and violence than Gotham. It’s an adult superhero show and as long as it doesn’t abuse the fact that it can do all of that on its network, and they keep giving me a good story, I look forwarding to watching.

4/5