Danger 5

     I said in my last post that I found the weirdest show on television. I lied. I found it this week, it's called Danger 5. 

     Danger 5 is an Australian show which is a play on 60's spy dramas mixed with WWII drama. Production wise the show looks terrible, on purpose. The girls are scantily clad, the set is poorly put together, the colors are oversaturated, and the audio goes in and out of sync. The boss of the titular Danger 5 is a man with an eagle head.

      The show is weird but it works. The dialogue is very tongue and cheek and matched with the production it looks and sounds hilarious. The plot is as over the top as the characters. Each episode the the Danger 5, each member a total caricature, has to infiltrate or defeat some strange Nazi development and, as always, kill Hitler.

     

     Hitler is a ladies man cool guy and the Danger 5 have to stop them. The second episode features Nazi dinosaur monsters. The show, created by Dario Russo and David Ashby, is ludicrous and so so funny. It's not for everyone but it's certainly found it's niche and is very popular on Netflix.

     There's a fake robot dog. That smokes cigarettes and woows men.

   The actors, even in Australia, are unknown but they don't need to give a beautiful performance in this unbelievable world where Hitler can't be hit by bullets and always escapes. 

    Danger 5 is fun and easy to watch and very entertaining. So it's not Annie Hall. It's still really really funny.

NBC's mini-series 'The Slap'

If you haven't heard about this show yet, you may be able to guess what this series is about from the title. The Slap on NBC, is a revamp of the Australian series The Slap, but the American version is not receiving the same good reviews that the original did.  The first time I saw the trailer for the show, I didn't think they could make a series about a single incident. I also didn't think the show would work because they were promoting it as if the audience would decide if Harry (Zachary Quinto) was right or not to slap someone else's child. So I thought the whole series would be about Harry going to court for a long trial, and the jury would decide his fate based off of the audiences tweets about their opinions.

     Here is the trailer for the series:

As planned I didn't watch the pilot of this show when it aired two weeks ago [Feb. 12, 2015]. Then the days following the premire I mostly heard bad reviews about this show.  I was shocked to hear that there were rumors that this series could get canceled. I thought this show couldn't be very good if it's a mini-series with 8 Episodes and it might get cancelled! 

 When I saw the pilot on Hulu, I just had to see it for myself.  Something I like about the show that I didn't know before watching, was that each episode is narrated and follows a different character. The first episode follows Hector (Peter Sarsgaard), "The Slap" happens at Hector's house while celebrating his 40th Birthday. After seeing the first episode I thought it was good enough where I wanted to see the next episode.  Maybe I went into this show with such low expectations that I enjoyed it more.  I saw the second episode that is about Harry, and I don't want to reveal any spoilers but you learn a lot about Harry's character after the episode.  I thought the second show was better than the first and I am planning on watching the third episode after it premiers tonight. There are other conflicts happening in this show besides just "The Slap", which I'm glad about.  There seems to be more drama building up, and I want to see what happens!  The Slap is a decent drama, that is good enough for me to want to keep watching.  This isn't one of my new favorite shows but I am planning on seeing the next six episodes.

The Babadook

"If it's in a word or it's in a book, you can never escape The Babadook"

The Babadook is a psychological thriller released late November in 2014. Directed by Jennifer Kent, this film follows a mother (Essie Davis) and her young boy (Noah Wiseman) as they are terrorized by a monster known as the Babadook. Essie Davis plays a single mother, named Amelia, who tragically lost her husband and is trying to raise her son as he begins displaying more and more sporadic behavior.

One of the strongest aspects of this movie is the symbolism behind the monster the Babadook and what he represents. The Babadook is a physical representation of grief and how, if one does not come to terms with grief, it will eat away at them. When I first watched the film it was difficult for me to pick up on this symbolism; however, at the end of the film there is a scene that make it very apparent. It is not until our main character Amelia accepts that the Babadook will never go away, or that grief will never go away, that the monster stops attacking her. Amelia is then seen feeding worms to the monster, or feeding into and acknowledging the grief she has for the loss of her husband, that she is able to move on with her life.

There are few aspects of this film that I have a problem with. The Babadook is introduced through a children's flip-book that is, one day, randomly found in the families basement. While having a basement leading to horror aspects in a film is incredibly cliché, the art design of this flip-book was amazing.

Every scene that contained this book left me feeling creeped out and uncomfortable. My only complaint is that the monster was not nearly as frightening as the monster in the book. The Babadook is merely a tall man in all black with some white face paint and silver contact lenses. Also the same effects used in all horror movies to create tension and panic are used in this film: quick cuts, shaky camera operation, and dark lighting.

Overall, while I did not find this film to be that frightening I did enjoy watching it. I think that it was well shot, well written and had strong underlying symbolism. If I had to give it a rating I would give it a 7/10 and would recommend giving it a chance.