11.22.63 (Hulu)

11.22.63 is an eight part mini-series based on the novel by Stephen King. It features James Franco as an English teacher in 2016 that discovers the means to go back in time to the early '60s. So with this great power, what does he decide to do? Well, the only logical conclusion is to stop the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Will he be able to figure out the forces at play in time to save JFK, and will the past let him? Only time will tell.

The Good:

The thing that I liked most about the series is that when James Franco travels through the time hole, it always transports him to 1960. That means he has to spend 3 years following Lee Harvey Oswald and others attempting to find the best method of stopping the assassination. However, the more time he spends there, the more connected he gets to the people in the past.

The story was also really enjoyable and took many twists and turns that I wasn't expecting. Although Franco's main mission is to stop JFK's assassination, much of the story is dedicated to him meeting others. Since the series is broken up into eight parts, we get to spend a large amount of time with these characters, most of which are really enjoyable.

I also liked the time travel itself. The series establishes very clear rules for time travel early on,  and throughout most of the story these rules are strictly adhered to. I feel this differs from other time travel stories since most of them have a difficult time sticking to the rules that were established, but 11.22.63 sticks with them the entire way.

The Ehh:

Unfortunately one of the biggest disappointment with 11.22.63 is James Franco's performance. He is refreshingly different from his other roles since he is playing a well-educated semi-serious role. However, even with his different performance, he overall just seems bland and uninterested in many things he encounters. There are times when he does break out of this and shows a large range of emotion, but most of the time it's pretty flat.

The Bad:

The best part of the series were the first 6 episodes. For some reason I found the last 2 to be the low point of the story. There are still interesting moments and seeing the story come to a close was still fulfilling, but compared to the 6 episodes that preceded, they just seemed a little less interesting.

Conclusion:

Even though 11.22.63 was my first Hulu original series, I was very pleased with the story that was told and I honestly can not recommend it highly enough.

What are your thoughts of 11.22.63, and what are some of your favorite time travel movies or TV shows? Let me know below, and remember to always keep it unpopped.

11.22.63 is rated TV Mature for language (a lot of f-bombs) and violence (it can get pretty brutal occasionally). All 8 episodes are available for streaming with a Hulu subscription.

Angie Tribeca Season 1 (Hulu)

Angie Tribeca is a spoof on procedural police dramas that was created by Steve Carell (The Office) and his wife, Nancy Walls Carell. The 10 episode comedy initially premiered with a 24 hour marathon on TBS. Angie Tribeca is much in the vein of Police Squad, Naked Gun, and Airplane, so if you enjoy those kinds of movies, this show will probably be right up your alley. With Angie Tribeca finally coming over to Hulu, I've been able to watch it and tell you all what I thought.

I need to begin this review off by saying that I'm not a huge fan of satire as a comedic tool. That could be because I haven't seen many, I still have not seen Airplane, Hot Shots, or Scary Movie. However, I enjoy many of Mel Brooks movies. Spaceballs is one of my all-time favorite movies. So even though satires aren't my favorite there was still a lot to like in Angie Tribeca.

The Good:

The characters. Rashida Jones (Parks & Recreation) plays Angie Tribeca, and although she was honestly my least favorite character as Anne in Parks & Rec, she does a great job as a detective in this spoof. On top of Rashida Jones, everyone in Angie Tribeca do an excellent job delivering ridiculous dialog with a completely straight face.

The writing. One of my biggest problems with satire in general is that many of the jokes are too crude for my humor. Luckily, Angie Tribeca premiered on TBS, so the humor had to be kept at a PG-13 rating, and while that hurts comedies sometimes, I felt that the writers had find ways to be more clever and they ended up finding a sweet spot. And while there are still some jokes that do miss the mark, the pace is so quick that there is always something funny right around the corner.

The cameos. Like any good spoof, there are a number of cameos throughout the show. Many of them are quick and may have only 1 or 2 lines, but the surprise and humor that they bring are almost always worth it.

The opening. I don't want to give away how every episode of the show opens, but fans of CSI: Miami will definitely get a laugh at the beginning of every episode. I enjoyed seeing how the opening was going to be spun.

The Ehh:

As I said before, there are some jokes that fall flat, but they can't all be winners. So I'll give it a pass.

The Ugh-ly:

Nothing!

Conclusion:

Angie Tribeca isn't revolutionary in its style or humor, and I wouldn't even call it a great television show, but it did keep me entertained for 10 episodes and I'm very excited to see what they bring in season two. I even can see me putting it on in the background like I do with other comedies.

So if you like straight procedural police dramas or satires, and honestly even then the show might not be for you, and that's ok. I'd say give give Angie Tribeca at least a one episode try, and if you don't like the first episode, you won't like the others much either.


So that's what I thought of Angie Tribeca Season 1, what did you think? And what other comedy satires do you like? Leave your comments below, and remember to always keep it unpopped!

Angie Tribeca, now streaming on Hulu.

Supergirl is headed to CW: The Good, The Ehh, and the Ugh-ly

After a period of limbo, the CBS show Supergirl has officially been renewed for a second season, but not by CBS. Instead, Supergirl has officially moved to The CW.

CBS

For the past few weeks the future of Supergirl has been unknown. Even though the first season has seen a relatively high volume of viewers, the high production costs has made the show unprofitable for CBS to maintain. Part of the production costs were the license fees that CBS had to pay Warner Bros. to use their character. With Supergirl moving to The CW, which is owned by Warner Bros., much of those production costs can be diminished.

The Good:

I have actually not been able to watch a single episode of Supergirl. I have been a strict cord cutter for nearly 4 years now and watch all of my TV and movie content through Netflix and Hulu. Since CBS doesn't play very nicely with these services, I have simply chosen not to watch any show airing on CBS. However, with Supergirl moving to The CW, new episodes will be released on Hulu like their other shows.

I am also excited to see if The CW decides to do more Flash/Supergirl crossovers. Who knows, maybe now they will even change Supergirl in a way so that the show takes place permanently in the Arrow universe, thus, being able to cross-over with all the characters from Arrow, Flash, and Legends of Tomorrow.

The Ehh:

Although I haven't had the pleasure to see Supergirl, I have heard that the production value is pretty good for a TV show. So now with it moving to The CW, there may be some more cost cuts to help the longevity of the show. So going forward there is no telling whether this move will be good or possibly very, very bad.

The Ugh-ly:

Supergirl season 2 is scheduled to premier in the fall. That means that Arrow, Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and Supergirl will all be airing episodes at roughly the same time. That doesn't even include iZombie which is officially a DC show that is also on The CW. Then Gotham and Lucifer on Fox. Oh, and I can't forget that NBC has officially announced another DC show called Powerless to air in the fall as well.

That means in an average week in the fall there will be 8 episodes released under the DC TV umbrella. There just isn't enough time in the week to be able to keep up with all of those episodes and the other shows I want to watch.

Conclusion:

I am truly happy that Supergirl is moving over to The CW since it will make it easier for me to watch and enjoy. However, now I will need to find some other show to drop so that I have enough time to enjoy it the best that I can.

What are your thoughts on Supergirl moving to The CW? Do you currently watch it on CBS? Leave your comments below and remember to always keep it unpopped.

Houdini and Doyle Fails to Amaze as a Supernatural Crime Procedural

Houdini and Doyle is a supernatural crime procedural much like that of X-Files or Fringe. The main difference is that the series takes place in 1901 around the lives of Harry Houdini, the great magician and escape artist, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of many great literary works that include the Sherlock Holmes stories. They have to work together as freelance detectives to investigate supernatural occurrences.

I researched the life of Houdini and Doyle after the show and found that not only did they meet multiple times during their lives, but they were also friends. The focus of their friendship was even discussing the supernatural and spiritualists. Doyle was a known devote believer in the supernatural and Houdini was complete against the notion and even spent his life outing many 1900s spiritualists as frauds.

On the surface the series seems like it would offer something interesting. So if the series appears to be a home run, where did it go wrong? Well, quite simply the blame is almost entirely on the characters and writing. Houdini and Doyle are both boring and don't have any chemistry together. They attempt to have witty batter, but it always falls flat and doesn't add any humor to the story.

The next thing that I felt was out of place was their police liaison. Constable Adelaide Stratton is a female policeman that is striving to fight through the male dominated police force to simply be respected. It is honestly a boring story line that is completely out of place for the time period. If the setting was any time after the 50s it would feel a little more likely, but throwing in a female character just to appeal to the female demographic seems lazy and unneeded.

If you are able to get through the boring dialog, lazy characters, and unneeded plot points, you will finally make it to the big reveal at the end of episode. Was it a ghost, was it a trick, who really committed the crime, and will they do the time? The answer to those questions in Episode One proved to be completely and utterly stupid. I hoping for a Scooby-Doo or Doctor Who like reveal where Houdini and Doyle proclaim with excitement and enthusiasm what was really going on the whole time. Instead it was, just like the rest of the show lazy, boring and didn't make any sense whatsoever.

I had high hopes for Houdini and Doyle. In my younger days I spent much of my time reading biographies on the great life of Harry Houdini. So intertwining his life with the author of Sherlock Holmes in a whodunit would seem perfect. Instead it ended up to just be a lazy, thrown together mess with not enough pay off to warrant the 45 minutes I had to waste to sit through it.

Grade:

Don't Bother
But if you are still interested, Houdini and Doyle airs on Fridays 9/8c on Fox and past episodes are available on Hulu.