DuckTales (2017), Season 3

The new DuckTales (2017) TV series is the absolute best! Maybe I'll give it a proper review one day, but I just wanted to geek out about the latest season for a moment.

Jackie and I have been binging the old Chip 'n' Dale Rescue Rangers series... and Ducktales (2017) just gave them an origin story!  Even better, it was a background story going on behind the scenes of a classic spy story, in the same vein as the old James Bond films (which I just spent a whole month binging and reviewing).

They also retconned the DuckTales movie (Treasure of the Lost Lamp) as a one-off episode in this season.  This show rocks!

Casino Royale (1954)

It's almost April and we're all still stuck in isolation at home, so why not marathon the entire James Bond franchise?  That's right, I'll be spending the whole month of April re-watching the entire James Bond library, in preparation for Daniel Craig's final Bond film, No Time to Die (2020).  Which has unfortunately been pushed back to a November release.

I'm beginning this marathon a day early with a little known episode of the old American show Climax! Mystery Theater, titled Casino Royale (1954).  I will be reviewing all the Bond films, both official EON Productions films and non-official films, in order of release date.

SYNOPSIS:
"Jimmy" Bond (Barry Nelson), American spy, goes to a casino where he's tasked with winning a game of baccarat against the crime boss, Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre).  In doing so, he will prevent Le Chiffre from winning the money he needs to pay off his debts to some dangerous organizations.  But with his life on the line, Le Chiffre will do whatever it takes to get that money...

REVIEW:
Adapting Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel by the same name, it was the first version of James Bond on TV, almost a decade before the first official James Bond film was released.  But being released on an American show, they made some slight changes.  For one, they made him an American and gave him a more American name: Jimmy Bond.  Plus he had an old-timey gangster accent.  His partner went by the name Clarence Leiter (Michael Pate), which is also an Americanized name.  In the original novels, James Bond's CIA counterpart was named Felix Leiter.  But I guess Americans thought Felix was still too British for an American name.

Jimmy Bond and Valerie Mathis

The hour-long episode is all black-and-white and would've been lost to time, if not for the fame that the official James Bond franchise brought to the big screen years later.  This single episode is one of only two that ever made it to video from the old Climax! Mystery Theater show, which ran for 4 seasons (165 episodes).  The rest, if available at all, can either be found as simple audio recordings or grainy home video recordings uploaded to YouTube.

This episode opens with Jimmy Bond being shot at while he's trying to enter the casino.  After the shooter flees, Bond moseys into the casino, joking about how badly some people don't want him to play.  He meets up with Leiter, who recognizes him immediately from his winning streak at the card table.  "Card-sense Jimmy Bond," he calls him.  His reputation has proceeded him.  He asks Bond to teach him how to play baccarat while also briefing him on his mission in private.  Which was a brilliant way to teach the audience the basics of the card game they're about to witness.

The show is relatively loyal to the original novel's story: Bond cleans out Le Chiffre, then finds himself captured and tortured for the money he won.  But the character of Bond is different from the novel, and this will be a common theme for almost all the films.

Bond (left) cleaning out Le Chiffre (right)

Ian Fleming, the original author who created James Bond, was a Commander in the Royal Navy during WWII, working for Naval Intelligence.  After the war, he worked for a major newspaper and would take three months of holiday during the winter to stay in a house he built in Jamaica. He named his home Goldeneye, after Operation Goldeneye that he had been in command of during the war.  At that home is where he wrote all the James Bond novels, using his experiences working in Intelligence and working with commandos in the field, as well as a little imagination.

Ian Fleming at his Goldeneye villa

Ian Fleming's Bond was a blunt instrument.  An extremely dull, uninteresting man whom things happened to.  He was dark and mysterious, cold and ruthless.  He was not witty or charming, nor particularly handsome.  He was interesting to read about, but such a boring man isn't entertaining to watch, so when Bond was transcribed to the big screen, they made a charming, handsome, quick-witted womanizer out of him.  He became a fantasy role for men and a dreamy hunk for women.  He always saved the day and always got the girl.  Novel Bond couldn't maintain relationships because of the horrible type of work he had to do.  He had long hardened himself against love and lived in such a dark, depressing world, love would never seek him out.  Film Bond, on the other hand, was a playboy, bouncing from one girl to the next without a care in the world.  He enjoyed his job and lived for the game of wits, both with his enemies and his women.  Even in a pinch, he always had some witty retort to throw out.

Ian Fleming's sketch of James Bond

And thus, Film Bond went down a much different path than Novel Bond.  So where I may make the occasional references to the books, I don't plan to do a compare/contrast review with this marathon.  Film Bond forged his own path, and most of the films don't share much in common with the books they're based on, except maybe the name and some basic plot details.

RECOMMENDATION:
This show's first taste of James Bond in video form gave the world a sample of what was to come.  You got a witty Bond who was loyal to his job, regardless of whose lives were on the line.  You got a ruthless villain who would do whatever it took to win.  You had a damsel in distress who would do anything for Bond.  And Peter Lorre as Bond's first villain was fun to watch.  He did not have a distinguishing evil feature like many of Bond's villains (although they referred to him as the "toad-faced" man at one point), but he came across as slimy and evil all the same.  This is a great introduction to what James Bond might have been like if he were American.  If you can find this episode, I would highly recommend you watch it! (Hint: It's available for free on YouTube)

Random Trivia: Climax! Mystery Theater was aired live for audiences, so when you do watch this episode, keep in mind that the entire thing was a live stage production, not a film.  It makes the cinematography and acting that much more fascinating, knowing that this was all done in one take.

The Witcher (2019)

Boy, I haven't posted any new reviews since last year! ;)  My wife and I finished watching The Witcher (2019) last night.  It was really good!

SYNOPSIS:
Set in a medieval fantasy world known as The Continent, Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill) is a Witcher; a man mutated by chemicals and magic in his childhood to improve his strength and senses tenfold and give him limited magical abilities.  Witchers were created to protect humanity and hunt monsters, but most monsters are slipping into legend and the few Witchers left are treated like monsters themselves by humanity.  Also traveling The Continent is Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra), a crippled magic user who hopes to become the most powerful mage in the world one day, and Ciri (Freya Allan), a princess from a fallen kingdom who is desperately searching for Geralt to protect her.

REVIEW:
The first thing you should know about this series is that Geralt and Yennifer's individual stories take place at different times in the past, while Ciri's is taking place in the present.  There are no date/time stamps or anything, so it takes you a while to realize you're viewing events a little out of order.  Someone dies in Ciri's story, then an episode later, they're hanging out with Geralt.  Kind of threw me for a loop.  But as the series goes on, all three stories eventually catch up to one another by the final episode.

Seriously, though... Yennefer is training to be a mage, then the next scene she's in, she's complaining that she's been stuck serving as someone's personal mage for 3 decades and is bored of it.  The fact that mages don't physically age in this series makes it hard to tell time accurately.  And as far as I understand, no one knows how old Witchers can live to, as they've all eventually died in battle.  Although in the video games, the Witcher who created Geralt was somewhere around 200 years old, and it's estimated that Geralt himself was over 100.  So telling the passage of time is an issue with this TV series.

But that's the only bad thing about this show.  The series itself is very entertaining.  It might take you a half an episode to get into the fantasy world, but once you understand the rules and expectations of this world, you start to really enjoy the adventures the characters are on.  Geralt is feared as a butcher of men, but a plucky bard named Jaskier (Joey Batey) decides to follow him and sing songs of his accomplishments, to improve his image and help earn him some coin along the way. His song "Toss a coin to your Witcher" is a very catchy tune.  Here's the song, set to some scenes from the video game:

Yennifer is a crippled girl who comes from an abusive common life, but upon discovering her magical talents, she trains to overcome her weaknesses and work her way toward becoming the most powerful mage in the world.  Ciri is a spoiled princess who finds herself on the run after her kingdom is overthrown.  She's told to find Geralt of Rivia to protect her and she learns how to survive on her own in the woods, with some help of random commoners along the way.  Both women have empowering stories, overcoming obstacles to better themselves and continue surviving in the harsh world.  They both start out the typical damsel in distress, but they take charge of their situation and save themselves instead of waiting for a hero to rescue them.

If you've ever played the first video game, you'll recognize episode 3, Betrayer Moon.  The (lengthy) opening cinematic for the first Witcher video game is loosely recreated as this episode's story.  I have all three video games, but I've been sitting on them for years, never getting more than a couple hours into the first game.  I really need to play those games through.

A little backstory that's not explained in this TV series: they talk about the "Conjunction of the Spheres" a couple of times, but not what that actually is. Basically, about 1,500 years prior to this tale, a bunch of portals opened up between parallel realms in the multiverse, letting a bunch of unnatural creatures into this universe. (According to the elves, humans were one of these "unnatural creatures" that crossed into their world)  Eventually, the portals were closed off and wars were fought by all the factions of creatures over who would rule the Continent.  Humans, with the aid of magic that they learned from the elves, and their mutated Witchers, eventually won and became the dominant race.  But monsters and other horrible creatures still exist, though rare and mostly hidden in the wilds.

A little history on the franchise: The Witcher originated as a short story written by the Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski for a magazine contest in 1986.  It was called "Wiedźmin," which actually translates to "The Hexxer."  He wrote a couple more short stories in the early '90s before starting a 5-book series focused on Geralt and Ciri.  In 2002, a couple Polish guys who knew nothing about designing video games decided to create a video game company called CD Projekt Red.  They used Andrzej Sapkowski's book series as inspiration and got the rights to develop them into their first game, which amazingly turned out a success despite the company having no experience in video game development.  When translating it to English, instead of using the more accurate Hexxer, they called it The Witcher (2007).  And the title has stuck ever since.

RECOMMENDATION:
If the season finale of Game of Thrones disappointed you, this is the ailment for that burn.  Once you get used to the three different timelines being told in this show, the series is gripping to the end.  It tells a good backstory on all three of the main characters and helps establish motive and goals, so when they start to overlap in later episodes, you understand their individual plights and struggles.  The only thing that upsets me about this series is that season 2 won't release until 2021! I don't know if I can wait that long for more.  I feel like they just barely started scratching the surface of this world and I'm excited to see more in the future.  You should definitely check this show out. And if you haven't yet, play the three games!  During Steam's Winter Sale (ending around noon tomorrow (2 Jan 2020)), you can find The Witcher for $1.49, The Witcher 2 for $2.99, and The Witcher 3 for $11.99 on sale.  It's a steal!

The Mandalorian (2019)

Hey all!  My Christmas movie marathon is over, which means I'm back to normal reviews.  And just last night, my wife and I binged The Mandalorian (2019).

SYNOPSIS:
After the fall of the Empire (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983)), the far reaches of the universe have fallen into disarray.  No more galactic rule means no more law and order, and the New Republic has yet to extend their control across the galaxy.  A lone Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) survives by taking on jobs with a bounty hunter guild.  But his latest job makes him question the guild's rules and he finds himself being pursued as the latest bounty...

REVIEW:
This show was amazing!  Jon Favreau (Writer/Executive Producer) proves yet again that anything he touches turns to gold!  He created a unique story line in the Star Wars franchise that exemplifies the Star Wars universe, while also being able to stand alone as its own independent thing.  You don't need to know anything about the rest of the Star Wars universe to enjoy this TV series.

It fits the old western genre, with the Mandalorian being the lone gunslinger.  He ventures out to lawless territories, shooting his way through conflict.  It has incredible suspense and keeps you engaged in the story from start to finish.  The Mandalorians (a sect of warriors originating from the former planet of Mandalore) are sworn to never remove their helmet in front of others.  Yet, you can read so much emotion through that solid helmet.  You can see the wheels turning when he finds himself stuck in a desperate situation and you can see him weighing his options when presented with an emotional twist.  Pedro Pascal does an excellent job conveying emotions with his entire face obscured.

And of course, there's baby Yoda! It's not actually Yoda, but his species has yet to be named in the Star Wars movie universe, so he's essentially a baby of Yoda's species.  The Internet has gone nuts over this cute, tiny version of Yoda.  Despite being an infant, this baby is apparently 50 years old!  The explanation being that species age at different rates across the galaxy.  Which makes sense; Yoda was 900 years old by the end of Episode VI.

I chose to binge this series because the episodes were only 30 minutes long and I couldn't wait week after week for the next episode to release.  I wish Disney+ would release complete series and not treat their new streaming service like a TV broadcast.  That's what Netflix discovered when they started streaming TV shows; that people preferred to binge an entire series in one sitting.  I boycotted this show until the first season was complete and available to stream.  And I'm glad I did, because at 8 episodes, you can power through this show in only 4 hours.  It's a perfect show to burn through in a free afternoon.

RECOMMENDATION:
If you love old western shows and you're interested in sci-fi, you'll love this modern twist on both genres!  Not only do you get all the old cowboy tropes (lone gunslinger, bounty hunting, jailbreaks, outnumbered shoot-outs in small lawless towns, etc.), but you get beautiful exotic worlds, unique creatures and cultures, and awesome space travel.  I highly recommend this series!

Robonimal Panda-Z: The Robonimation (2004)

I finally found it! I've been searching for Panda-Z: The Robomination for over a decade!

When I was stationed in Japan a decade and a half ago, I came across an anime short series that was really entertaining. Episodes were 5 minutes long, but with a minute-and-a-half intro and a half-minute of credits, the actual episode was only 3 minutes long. It's intended to bridge the gap between shows on Japanese TV, as their shows don't necessarily run a solid 30 minutes like ours.

I downloaded a copy of this show when I first found it, but that hard drive broke ages ago and I haven't been able to find another copy until now. I'm so happy!

It stars a small cute panda named Pan Talon who is the hero of Robominal City. He pilots the giant mecha known as Panda-Z and defends his city from the evil Waruminals and their mechs.

The show is in the style of an old silent film, with periodic cuts to a black screen with white text anytime someone "talks." However, instead of black-and-white animation, you get vivid colors, and instead of old-timey piano background music, the musical theme for the show is more of a 70s classic rock vibe.

Talon seems to be the only flesh-and-blood creature on the entire show, as all the other characters are animal-themed robots. Mostly panda-themed, but there are a few others, like bunnies, cows, and dogs. Talon fights the evil Skull Panda and his Warunimal Forces. "Warunimal" is a Japanese/English portmanteau, as "warui" means "bad" in Japanese and it's blended with the English word, "animal."

Most episodes are brief day-in-the-life scenes, showing what goes on at the respective bases of the good and bad guys, with an occasional mecha battle here and there. Everyone eats batteries as their main source of food, even Talon. Which makes you wonder if he may be part robot. Although, there are a few episodes where he gets soaked and is just fine; whereas all other characters short-circuit when wet.

There's not much background given to the world these characters live in. Granted, there's no time in each episode to explore their world in-depth. But you get a few episodes that focus solely on a character or two, where you get to know them a little better. There's even an episode dedicated to the Waruminal Forces ranting about how awful their respective bosses are. I always wondered where all these robot creatures came from. I wondered if Pan Talon built most of them and some turned evil. There's a lot of room for speculation in this short series. Sadly, it ended after only 30 episodes.

If you're looking for a brief, entertaining concept for a show, or just need to pass some time, this is a great show to occupy your mind for a bit. The music is awesome and it's not just unending mech battles, like some anime shows. You get some calmer episodes to sit and enjoy the characters too. I highly recommend this series!

DuckTales (2017)

I've been catching up on the new DuckTales show (which is an incredible reboot, by the way - go watch it!)

The first season's finale had this interesting moment where they temporarily "fixed" Donald's voice so they could understand him. He sounds so strong, brave, and courageous with a normal voice! This new intelligible voice is recorded by Don Cheadle.

Game of Thrones (2011), Season 8

I just binged all of the 8th and final season of Game of Thrones last night, and since it's been so controversial among fans, here's my SPOILER-FREE review. There may be spoilers in the comments below, but this post will not spoil any major details of the final season.

First, I would like to say that, unlike the masses, I actually enjoyed this season. I like the ending. And let me explain why. You see, I learned early on in the series that Game of Thrones is not your typical story. Despite the rare fantasy/magical moments, there's a lot more realism to the tale. You can't have favorite characters because, just like real life, anyone can die. The "heroes" don't necessarily fight their way to victory every time, and the "villains" sometimes get away without seeing justice for their actions.

As a matter of fact, the realest detail in this series was the fact that generally bad people tend to have a better survival rate than those who were honorable and brave. If you lie, cheat, and steal, you just might be able to navigate the precarious political and social setting. But if you declare yourself honest and true to a fault, you're at the mercy of the corrupt political structure.

As such, the entire series has been a constant let-down for me. Every time I think someone's brave enough and skilled enough to survive to the end, they find themselves at the end... of a blade. I learned to live with disappointment while watching the show. I learned to enjoy the series as more of a realistic story than a fantasy story. No one was safe, anyone can die. And I learned not to have favorite characters.

By the start of season 6, the show had mostly caught up with the books, minus some minor character subplots which continued in that season. The book series is incomplete; there are no more books from which to pull material from, and it shows. The relentless and pointless murdering of well-established characters appeared to stop almost immediately, with only a few major deaths throughout the season. And this trend continued up through season 8. It was a very noticeable difference between George R. R. Martin's novels and the live action TV series; the show creators were less inclined to murder people randomly as the original author was. Granted, GRRM has stayed on as an executive producer of the show, helping to guide them toward his ultimate end goal for the story. So while the details appear to be left to the creators of the show, the overall story arc was still being told by the original author.

All of this means that, due to the disappointment I felt toward a lot of the show and its characters, I fully expected it to be a letdown ending, with absolutely anyone having a decent chance at taking the throne at the last minute. So I was actually quite surprised to find it had a pretty decent and solid ending. I wouldn't necessarily call it a twist ending, but it was not the scenario I expected. And like the rest of the series, it was real. Not everyone saw justice, not everyone got their reward for good deeds, and some good people got the shit end of the stick for doing the right thing. That's real life. And I think it was incredibly brave of the show to stick to that ending, even though it would piss off long-time fans.

The other major complaint people had was the pacing of season 8. At 6 episodes, it was a very short season, even with a couple hour-and-a-half long episodes mixed in. But I personally felt the show took too long to get to the point each season. And being a continuous tale with no solid breaks in story, I felt it was an extremely long 8 seasons. So I actually enjoyed a succinct storyline in season 8, wrapping up the major conflicts left in the series. To me, it was the perfect end to an epic (long) tale. And I'm glad the producers (and GRRM) decided to go against what would be popular and told a gruesome story with a... different ending. Regardless, it struck people emotionally and has brought about a lot of heated discussion about the series. And that's how you can tell it's a captivating tale; when people get passionate about the story and their expectations for it. Congrats for subverting expectations, GRRM and studio execs!

You may debate whether it was a happy or sad (or bad) ending in the comments below. Or you can call me names for liking a mostly-hated ending. But I stand by my opinion.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018), Part 2

It's not October yet, but as you may recall, I reviewed The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018) last year during my Halloween Month Movie Marathon. Despite being an excellent TV series, the end of the first season left a bad impression on me and I claimed I might swear off the rest of the series if they don't remedy it in season 2.

Well, I just finished watching season 2 and I felt you deserved a review while it's still fresh in my mind. So here are my thoughts on how well The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina held up. It's hard to explain the second season without spoilers, so there will be a spoiler-free review below, followed by a spoiler review. The end of season 2 will NOT be spoiled, although it may be talked around a bit.

SPOILER-FREE: They managed to save the series! The twist at the end of season 1 made me angry, and I'll be honest, I was still angry through a lot of season 2. But they eventually resolved the conflict in a satisfying way.

I felt like a lot of season 2 was drama filler (especially the episode with the tarot card reader, which felt like 100% fluff) and it didn't really get interesting until near the end, when it finally started pushing forward the plot that season 1 left on a cliffhanger.

I was not a fan of Harvey throughout season 2. He was very intolerant of Sabrina and her magic, and it was frustrating watching them constantly butt heads over it. In the comics, the two of them are a lovely couple, but this series decided to break them up and turn Harvey into a jerk. He barely redeems himself by the end, making himself a sort of dull tag-along among the main foursome of friends.

SPOILERS AHEAD: The entire plot of season 1 revolved around getting Sabrina to sign her soul away to the Dark Lord, which Sabrina spent the entire season fighting against. The end of the series negated all its own efforts, as Sabrina was tricked into signing away her soul anyway in order to save her town from a great evil force. It was the exact opposite of a happy ending - the bad guys won, her hair turned white, she swore off her mortal friends, and she began worshiping the Dark Lord at the Church of Night instead of attending her mortal high school. Not the expected end for the strong-willed, virtuous Sabrina Spellman.

Season 2 continued that plot, with a revelation that Sabrina was prophesied to be crowned Queen of Hell and herald in the apocalypse alongside the Dark Lord Himself. Unlike the false pretense of the previous season's cliffhanger, Sabrina wasn't going along with it willingly. No, she had just become more confident in her magic and was giving her mortal friends some space while she adjusted to being a full-powered witch.

Still upset by season 1, I was having a hard time getting into this season, but I started to really enjoy it when she suddenly manifested god-like powers out of nowhere, smiting some powerful angels of God who were violently and maliciously "converting" witches and warlocks. From there, it became a battle of wits against the Dark Lord as Sabrina fought to find a way out of her predestined path. I won't spoil the end, but I will say it left me on the edge of my seat up until the end.

All in all, I think it was a satisfying end. It tied up a lot of loose ends and helped clean up the world of Sabrina. The biggest conflict I felt in this series was in how witches and warlocks could worship evil and perform satanic rituals, yet still be good people. The Dark Lord makes an interesting comment at one point, stating that good and evil are merely mortal perceptions. His coven seem to practice that, being sworn to Him while also being both good and bad, depending on the person and the situation. Even bad people would occasionally have moments of goodness.

The end of season 2 further expands that concept, allowing witches and warlocks to truly be free to pursue whatever nature they want, whether it be good or evil. My hope is that it brings this series a little closer to the original TV series in concept, where Sabrina is free to be a witch without having to constantly fight against a darker force pulling her toward evil. But we'll see what season 3 holds. Supposedly, there are at least two more seasons planned!

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018)

Sorry I've been absent the past few days. I've been catching up on the brand-new Netflix series, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018).

Sabrina the teenage witch is about to turn 16. As a part of her witch upbringing, she is required to attend a dark baptism, wherein she'll agree to become a full witch (she's half witch, half mortal). But she discovers that her baptism comes at the price of her freedom. Will she sign away her name to the Dark Lord Himself and expand her magical powers, or will she choose the path of a mortal life?

This is a much darker retelling of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch story. Unlike the previous TV series, which was a fun comedy, this one has death and gore and drama, with little sprinkles of dark humor. In this version, witches lean heavily on the side of evil, with Sabrina being an outlier who prefers to follow a more righteous path (partly due to her mortal half). Her high school friends and boyfriend help keep her true to her beliefs, much to the dismay of the Church of Night (her unholy coven), who would wish she lose all contact with mortal life and accept her "true" place in the world.

This series is actually based on a comic book series of the same name, published by Archie Comics in 2014. I haven't read it yet, but I'm curious how similar the two are.

Personally, I loved this series but hated the ending. I won't spoil it, but let's just say it wasn't satisfying for me, personally, and may prevent me from watching any more. I might watch the second season (if/when it's released next year) in the hopes that they remedy the twist at the end. But if not... I feel like the series is ruined and I can't watch any more. Hopefully you enjoy it more than I did!

Stranger Things (2016)

Tonight's Halloween Month Movie Marathon choice is the TV series Stranger Things (2016).

After a lengthy session of Dungeons & Dragons, a group of young kids depart for the night. But on the way, one of them disappears. His mother enlists the aid of the small town sheriff to help track him down, but all signs point to him vanishing into thin air. But while the young boy has disappeared, a young girl with special abilities suddenly appears, with government agents hot on her trail...

This series is a love letter to the 80s. Set in the 80s, it perfectly encapsulates all the horror/thriller tropes of the time period. You have government conspiracies, otherworldly creatures, D&D, scientific experiements, and supernatural abilities. And the opening theme perfectly sets the tone for the show you're about to watch.

The story is very well put together, too. You get to know all the characters in depth without feeling like the show is dragging on. If you grew up in the 80s (like I did), you'll get waves of nostalgia watching this show. They've completed 2 seasons, with a 3rd releasing next year. If you haven't seen this show yet, now's the best time to watch it! It's on Netflix.

Over the Garden Wall (2014)

Tonight's Halloween Month review is on the TV mini-series, Over the Garden Wall.

It follows two brothers who have gotten lost in the woods and their adventures with the unknown as they try to find their way home.

This series is only 10 episodes long at 11 minutes per episode, allowing you to binge-watch it in just over an hour and a half. (It's currently available on Hulu, by the way)

The show drops you into the middle of the story, with the brothers already lost and trying to find their way out of the woods. It gives you an understanding of their isolation because, like the brothers, you have no idea where you are or what's going on and you're figuring everything out as they do. Eventually, you're given a flashback to show how they got lost in the first place, finally giving context to their story.

It's a beautiful tale of unknown dangers, supernatural encounters, and learning to appreciate your sibling, no matter how annoying they may be. It has a great cast to suck you into the story, with Elijah Wood as Wirt, the older brother, and Christopher Lloyd as the Woodsman. I highly recommend you give this one a watch!

Stranger Things (2016)

Tonight's Halloween Month review will be on the TV series Stranger Things.

This series takes place in the 80s, where a young kid goes missing in the woods on his way home from a session of D&D with his friends. His friends set out to find him, but instead find a girl their age with a shaved head and a surprising gift.

Government conspiracies, supernatural oddities, small town horrors, D&D... this series has it all. If you were a fan of the horror genre in the 80s - before cell phones were a thing, before the Internet existed - then this might be the series for you.

Having grown up in the 80s, I always look back fondly on the era. I loved the horror films from those times because they were simpler times, and thus scarier. You couldn't look up information without a visit to the library. You couldn't call anyone without a landline and a phone book. You were more isolated, which made the horrors even more frightening. This series does its best to mimic those times, even creating a show that mirrors an old 80s flick. The opening music and title screen alone gives me waves of nostalgia.

I highly recommend this series. Season 2 will be released on Netflix on 27 October - just in time for Halloween.

The Top 11 Gravity Falls Episodes (Nostalgia Critic)

The Nostalgia Critic just did a review of The Top 11 Episodes of Gravity Falls. They're mostly spoiler-free, if you want a sample of the awesomeness that is this show. The Nostalgia Critic show's Halloween intro this year is basically a live-action remake of the Gravity Falls intro.

I'm almost done watching Gravity Falls. This show started out cute and interesting, but it's gotten serious and dark in later episodes. So many conspiracies and mysteries to unravel... this is my kinda show!

Gravity Falls (2012)

I haven't been making Halloween Month Movie Marathon posts lately because I've been burning through Gravity Falls episodes. I thought it'd be easy, being that it ended after only 2 seasons. But it's apparently 40 episodes! Whew...

Gravity Falls is about two twin kids, Dipper and Mabel, forced to spend their summer living with their great uncle Stan (a.k.a. Gruncle Stan) in the spooky town of Gravity Falls. During their stay, they discover the town is shrouded in all sorts of supernatural mystery.