TV

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew Review

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To tell you the truth “Skeleton Crew” wasn’t something I was looking forward to, from its vague announcement to the first trailer and beyond nothing really clicked with me. I knew I’d give it a proper go because I love Star Wars and about half way through the series I realised that I was actually enjoying it, and then by the end it was up there with the higher end of live action Star Wars programming. It’s just pure fun, not bogged down in continuity (not that I don’t love continuity references…) or serious story telling (not that I also don’t love that either!) and instead just tells a good family adventure story. Let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 TV Series/Seasons of 2024

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It’s been an odd year for TV for me, thanks to playing a lot of long-form games and having a lot less free time in general there have been shows I’d normally have watched but I never got round to, like the second seasons of Arcane or Squid Game (though that only coming out a few days ago meant it never really had a chance…) That being said, there were still some shows I enjoyed but didn’t make the cut, like Agatha All Along or Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, so I guess it can’t be all bad. Also reminder: this is what I’ve enjoyed the most, not necessarily what has contained the best acting or anything like that… With that out of the way, let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: Boom Review

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“Boom” is a fine example of Steve Moffatt just telling a great self-contained story, like he most famously did during Russell T. Davies’ original run, though he did have the odd classic as show runner. The Doctor steps on a landmine and the entire 40-odd minute story takes place around him as he tries to get out of the predicament. Simple sounding story but actually a brilliant showcase of tension as a storytelling tool. Let’s take a look!

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X-Men ’97 Review

David Hogan1 Comment

What can I say about X-Men ’97? “Wow” comes to mind, frankly. When it was announced I assumed it would just be a fun nostalgia cash-in, and that was fine (hell it got me to re-watch the whole original show and review it here on the site!) but what I got instead was the cast of the original show pushed forward into not just a show with modern visuals and flare but also one with a far more serious tone that wasn’t afraid to shy away from the more extreme look at the themes from the show / comics and throw in the odd bit of bloody violence or other more “not very 90s cartoon-y” bits, yet also made sure to still have some fun with the dialogue and kept the cheesy stories and costumes from the source material. It’s both a nostalgic sequel to a beloved show and a very modern adaptation of some great X-Men comic storylines. To say it overachieved would be an understatement! Let’s take a look.

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Doctor Who: The Devil’s Chord Review

David Hogan1 Comment

After what was something of a major misstep of a first episode I’m happy to say I really enjoyed “The Devil’s Chord”. I mean, if you don’t like big over-the-top scenery-chewing villains like I do you may dislike this episode as well, but I had a smile of my face for most of it… MOST of it, can’t say the musical number at the end was good, not because it was out of place (it actually made sense) but because it had crap lyrics and wasn’t catchy at all, two things you kind of need for a musical piece! Well, anyway, let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: Space Babies Review

David Hogan3 Comments

Well… that was a thing. A pretty crap thing, honestly. Thank goodness they opened with a double bill because at least I really enjoyed the second episode, but I’ll get to that later. As for “Space Babies” it was a classic case of “had some good ideas but the bad ones drowned them out”, plus it has a lot of Series 1 Russell T. Davies lowbrow toilet humour, which isn’t my kind of thing either. Oh well, let’s take a look quickly, then we can move on to the good one!

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Star Wars: Tales of the Empire Review

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“Tales of the Empire” is both a second season to “Tales of the Jedi” and sort of its own thing, plus ironically focuses on two characters who weren’t ever really members of the Empire, not for long anyway, but there you go. Better than “Tales of these two characters we wanted to talk about” I guess! It focuses on recent live action character Morgan Elsbeth’s backstory and old Clone Wars animated character Bariss Offee’s future after her arrest during the classic cartoon show. The first is something I wasn’t that interested in, the second was at least a dangling plot thread that was fun to get tied up… so let’s take a look!

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Shogun Review

David HoganLeave a comment

I know historical period pieces aren’t usually in my reviewing wheelhouse (though there have been a few series / films I’ve really loved in the genre) but I feel Shogun is close enough to several other things I cover that it’s not too big a departure. Mostly I wanted to talk about it because it was so damn good that even though every other critic is also gushing about it I still wanted to contribute to the praise this mini-series has gained. The series (and by that I mean the book it’s based on) is set in a slightly modified version of the late Sengoku period of Japan and puts a bigger emphasis on accidental visiting Brit John Blackthorne (or William Adams in real life) and makes a few other changes beyond just renaming everyone, but it does also tell a pretty good account of the actual time period (though nobody tore through waves of soldiers and threw them into the air with magic weapons! Are you telling me that BOTH Samurai Warriors and Sengoku Basara lied to me?!) Anyway, let’s take a look!

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Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Season 3 Review

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The Bad Batch’s third and final season felt rushed to start with, getting through a few storylines I thought the whole season would be about, then settled into a nice groove leading to a great 50-minute finale. So once again I really enjoyed the show, as I tend to do with these Star Wars CG cartoons despite not being a fan of the animation style normally. Whether that’s due to how good the shows are or how much I like the Star Wars universe I can’t tell you, but either way: let’s take a look!

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