Rating: B+

The introduction to Lady Loki (Sophia Di Martino), or Sylvie as she prefers to be called, represents the next step in Marvel’s evolution towards the multiverse. Conceptually, they’ve been building to this for some time—arguably since at least Doctor Strange—but never as clearly as they’ve done here.

Of course, the issue of where they’re going with this is, for now, dwarfed by the question of where they are. By now, there can be no doubt that Marvel is utilizing their television arm to dig deeper into the mythos that has guided the MCU but which has, so far, remained woefully unexplored. Who better than the God of Mischief to lead us on our journey?

This week’s episode, “Lamentis,” picks up immediately following the shocking reveal of last week, with Loki following Lady Loki through the portal and leaving his new…uh…friends?…at the TVA behind. Where better to go than where he started? Unbeknownst to Agent Mobius, Loki follows Lady Loki to the TVA headquarters, where she plans an all out assault on the Time Keepers—fascists, as she describes them later.

Loki vs Loki is a setup steeped in potential. After all, who’s a better foil for Loki than Loki? Who might be equal to history’s greatest narcissist than a narcissist of equal power? It’s all very fun, mostly due to how much Di Martino seems to revel in showing up Tom Hiddleston. Or trying to, at least. After all, this is a role that Hiddleston has owned for over a decade. By now, I imagine Loki is as second nature to him as breathing.

That Lady Loki feels so immediately equal to Loki is a testament to Di Martino, who somehow manages to embody the same chaotic energy as Hiddleston while putting her own spin on the character. Pedants, of course, will note that this is not the same character. The now-verified existence of the multiverse is proof enough of that, and a heartfelt conversation between the two Lokis on a train hammers this point home.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Lady Loki’s assault on the TVA is obviously the impetus of some shenanigans. Shenanigans which, once ensued, land both Lokis on the planet of Lamentis, currently undergoing an apocalypse of cosmic proportions as a moon is crashing into it. To make matters worse, the stolen tempad Lady Loki was using is now completely drained of power, forcing an uneasy truce as both Loki and Lady Loki head out to see if they can’t find some power.

Which I guess is kind of a low key hilarious Loki pun, now that I think about it. After all, what has Loki ever done except search for more power? The stakes this time are somehow both higher and lower, however, leading to an interesting extended conversation between our God and Goddess of Mischief.

The philosophical framework of the show thus far has been the contention between fate and free will. How much of either exists? Is one more powerful? Can an individual free will themselves out of fate? The additional Loki gives us a new platform from which to view this ongoing discussion the show is trying to have. Despite their similarities, the two Lokis are different enough (beyond their gender) to allow the series to explore just how much nature and nurture have to play with.

While of course we know little about Lady Loki, their biographies do seem to intersect in interesting ways. Both were adopted. Both know magic. Both have an abiding interest in both mischief and power. And yet, these similarities aren’t enough to make either Loki exactly the same. They each have their own experiences molding them into the Loki they are today. This idea is deepened as Lady Loki reveals that she learned Hunter C-20 (Sasha Lane), the hunter whose mind was scrambled as Lady Loki tried to find the whereabouts of the Time Keepers, was, several hundred years ago, just a regular girl living her life and loving margaritas.

This runs contrary to Agent Mobius’s assertion that the Time Keepers created the TVA and the people who run it. They were people, with lives and interests and families. So why are they know TVA agents? And what does this say about Mobius, with his bizarre interest in the 1990’s and jet skis?

“Lamentis” unfortunately raises more questions than it answers, but we do seem to have passed an important threshold. We’re now officially at the halfway point of the series, and the plot just keeps getting twistier and more interesting. For now, we can only wait and see just how Loki and Loki will avert the apocalypse and, perhaps, takedown the TVA.

New episodes of Loki premiere every Odin’s Day Wednesday on Disney+.

The post ‘Loki’ Gives Us Loki vs. Loki in Episode 3 (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Back in 2018, another version of Ellroy’s seminal neo-noir was brought to life. Kind of. That same year, creator and EP Jordan Harper produced an L.A. Confidential pilot for CBS, which never ended up airing. It was, however, screened as part of this year’s ATX TV Fest, which pretty much made it clear why it never went beyond that one episode.

Set against the same 1950s Hollywood backdrop, the series was aimed at bringing a (slightly) more faithful, and thoroughly more fleshed out version of Ellroy’s novel. Which would make TV the perfect medium to do so. However, that first episode failed to capture the kind of electric undercurrent that both the book and the film managed to capture.

Part of the problem is that the principle cast ends up looking like a third-rate celebrity impersonator of their feature film counterpart. Mark Webber’s Bud White is introduced at first, who was played by Russell Crowe in the film. And while it may have been interested to see his larger character arc, it wasn’t terribly interesting to watch him firmly immersed in his violent thug phase. Ed Exley, the lone cop with a true north star, was portrayed well enough by Brian J. Smith, but failed to make an impression beyond Guy Pearce’s take on the character two-plus decades prior. But none are more disappointing than Walton Goggins’ Jack Vincennes. Goggin’s lifeless portrayal is underscored by what comes across as wholehearted disinterest – a far cry from the flashy sleazeball that Kevin Spacey so perfectly embodied on-screen (funny that).

It was apparent by the pilot that Harper’s take would be rearranging some of the multiple crimes as they unfold, chronicling its three leads as they’re, eventually, forced to work together to unravel the intricate conspiracy that touches on the majority of the story’s plot points. Although what ended up being the most interesting aspect of the series is the fact it was going to air somewhere amid CBS’ wall-to-wall copaganda. Well, that and somehow, someone made a show that managed to mute what seemed like the effortless charm and charisma of Walton Goggins.

Harper did make an interesting point during the Q&A afterward, where he speculated that the 50s-era setting didn’t have quite the appeal to modern viewing audiences (including CBS, a network with an target demo of post-retirement, apparently). He also added that an 80s-set adaptation of L.A. Confidential would’ve worked, and be the last decade that would allow for the seamless adaptation of Ellroy’s story. It’s certainly possible, but it’s clear that this one didn’t.

The post ‘L.A. Confidential’: A Great Book, A Good Movie, and… a TV Pilot, For Some Reason appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Rating: A-

The surprise reveal at the end of last week’s episode of Loki—that is, that TVA was enlisting Loki’s help to find Loki—seemed a bit much to take in at the time. Even Loki at his worst couldn’t possibly be responsible for the murderous atrocities we saw the elusive variant commit. Surely, something else is going on.

This week’s episode, however, leans into the inherent absurdities Marvel and the MCU are diving into as they move into the cosmic realm. More importantly, they’re doing it well. Series head writer Michael Waldron, along with season director Kate Herron, are engaging in some of the trickiest storytelling Marvel has ever allowed. And yes, that includes Wandavision.

At this point, it’s almost best to view Wandavision as an overture for whatever it is that they’re doing with the MCU. The weirdness of that series certainly gave us a novel narrative but, in the end, it was a straightforward tale of grief and trauma. With Loki, however, the leash appears to be off.

Marvel’s cosmic realm is filled with the kind of characters that dwarf even the most powerful of heroes we’ve met so far. And the most dangerous evils. It’s a scale the likes of which we’ve never seen in the MCU and we’ve barely touched the surface of it so far. The introduction of the TVA and Agent Mobius gives us a small glimpse of what’s to come.

After all, they’ve managed to effectively neutralized Loki, a literal god who while not all-powerful can still do pretty much whatever he wants whenever he wants. There’s something uniquely hilarious about seeing the God of Mischief laid low by bureaucracy and Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson are playing that dynamic beautifully.

Moments between the two, whether they’re investigating a nexus event at a Renaissance Faire in the 80s or doing the investigative legwork of poring through files, are treated with alternating bits of comedy and seriousness while providing more than enough space for the show to explore larger ideas of fate and choice. It’s wonderful to see Marvel finally engaging in deeper narratives and themes without losing what it was that made them a billion dollar a year force at the box office.

For all the humor and philosophy embedded in the Loki’s central mystery, they’re still finding time to keep the show packed with action and excitement. The threat of another Loki out there causes a lot of questions, of course, alongside a spectacular end of episode reveal, but it also gives us an excuse to play around and see what’s out there. Consider Loki’s revelation that apocalypses—here defined as any significant catastrophe that causes massive loss of life, not necessarily civilization or world ending—hides any sign of temporal anomalies. This, Loki asserts, is where he would hide from the TVA if this were him. And, well, it does appear to be him, doesn’t it?

Not only does it give us a chance to see our Loki play in the streets of Pompeii seconds before Vesuvius explores, it tells us more about our variant Loki and deepens the longer talk about fate and determinism. That’s a lot for any show to handle and if you’d told me a year that the MCU was going to eventually evolve into a house that allows for this kind of storytelling I would’ve most certainly balked. And it just goes to show that you should never underestimate Marvel Studios. As much as they financially thrive on playing it safe, whenever they let themselves loose is when things really begin to shine.

And let themselves loose they did. The climax of episode two brings us to Alabama in the year 2050, another apocalyptic event in the form of a massive hurricane. By connecting the child they found chewing gun in medieval France to known apocalypses, they’ve narrowed it down to a single location, Roxxcart (a callback to the Roxxon Corporation, whom we haven’t seen in a while). Agent Mobius, Loki, and B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku) lead a TVA team to try and find variant Loki.

Find Loki they do, leading to an absolutely stunning reveal that many fans have been speculating on for several months now. One thing I’ll say for sure, this definitely isn’t our Loki, which of course leads to more questions than it does answers. So who is this new Loki and how did they come into existence? Are we finally going to dive into the multiverse of the Marvel universe? Is our Loki going to team up with this new Loki or did he have something else in mind? Can Loki discover if his actions are fate or does his belief in freewill have any meaning?

Luckily for us, we only have to sit through a few more episodes to get to the end of the season and, presumably, get our answers. As it stands now, however, we’re in for one exciting ride to the finish.

New Episodes of Loki air every Odin’s Day Wednesday on Disney Plus.

The post ‘Loki’ Continues to Push Marvel in Stellar Narrative Directions (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Rating: A

Prior to this year, Marvel’s forays into television have been largely a mixed big. Their ascent to television, beginning with ABC’s Agents of SHIELD, was met with mixed reaction from fans for its more grounded approach to the universe. Then came Netflix’s Defenders saga, which focused largely on the comic book company’s “lesser” characters (Daredevil aside) and remained fairly detached from the cinematic universe they ostensibly shared.

Meanwhile—and I’m well aware this is an unpopular opinion—the movies themselves were increasingly running the risk of becoming stale. Sure, they were fun, but the Marvel Style was beginning to get old after nearly two dozen films in 12 years. Almost every movie released began to feel like an elaborate trailer for the next big crossover and the lack of real stakes was beginning to feel tedious.

What Marvel Studios and the MCU have desperately needed for years now was an infusion of risk and stylistic changes that could allow the stories they told to feel as fresh as they did when Iron Man first hit in 2008. The launch of Disney+ has, thankfully, allowed that to happen.

With two Disney+ series already under their belt—Wandavision along with Falcon and the Winter Soldier—Marvel and their Disney masters have proven that there is absolutely room for experimentation within the MCU. This is no real secret, of course. The best movies they’ve done in the last few years—Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok—have shown that disregarding the formula can and will be successful. And yet they’ve seemed, until now, unwilling to commit to getting weird with it.

Which brings us to Loki. Following on the heels of two successful shows, Marvel takes their risk biggest yet bringing this fan favorite character to Disney+ and the results so far are incredible.

As a character, Loki (Tom Hiddleston) has something of a convoluted history. From minor nuisance in Thor, he became a level one bad guy in The Avengers before evolving into a lovable scamp/anti-hero in his subsequent appearances up until Infinity War when he was unceremoniously killed by Thanos prior to his infamous snap. Then came End Game with all its time traveling shenanigans which found Loki, post-The Avengers, using the tesseract to escape. Which is where Loki picks up.

The opening scene finds the God of Mischief in Mongolia where he, once again, begins monologuing about his burden of glorious purpose, this time to a small group of rightly confused tribesmen. He is quickly arrested by members of the Time Variance Authority—Marvel’s time police in the comics—for altering the timeline.

This conceit allows Loki some room to show us Loki in something of new light. While certainly the character has gotten more lighthearted over the years, his arrest by the TVA thrusts Loki into a Kafkaesque nightmare of imprisonment outside of time and forced to reconcile with not only everything he’s done up to that point (remember: this is the Loki from immediately following The Avengers) but also everything he hasn’t done yet (everything we’ve seen Loki do from The Avengers onward).

Confusing as this all might be, the series doesn’t shy away from the inherent absurdity of its premise which allows for some genuinely hilarious moments of frustration from Hiddleston. Recall that Loki from this time period was obsessed with his status as a god and trying to prove his worth as both king and conqueror. The sight of him shackled in the retrofuture office environs of the TVA provides plenty of room for comedic play as Loki struggles to comprehend the trouble he’s in.

His efforts at grandiose monologuing are consistently thwarted by Agent Mobius (Owen Wilson, who should probably be arrested for grand larceny for all the scenes he steals) who needs Loki’s help in tracking down a mysterious villain who’s messing with the past in horrendous ways. This largely sets up what should be the premise for the remaining 5 episodes of the series.

The chemistry between Hiddleston and Wilson should largely propel Loki moving forward. While it’s difficult to say anything for certainty just yet—especially considering just how bizarre things got in both Wandavision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier—their chemistry alone is compelling enough to let this play out. Additionally, there are hints of the age old battle between free will and determinism that elevate the series to the next level.

We’ve already seen Loki sort of make amends for his actions in The Avengers, but it was also something of a begrudging mea culpa without any real remorse. This has worked fine, up to this point, but Loki appears to be making a concerted effort at justifying all the fan love for the character. Can the God of Mischief actually change? Is Loki’s character more nurture or nature?

That’s a lot to unpack for a single episode of a six-episode series but, so far, Loki feels more than up to the challenge. With its central mystery in place it will be interesting to see where they take it from here and how they get to where they want to go. What remains to be seen is whether or not Marvel is willing to offer Loki a reprieve from the finality of his death by Thanos. It stands to reason that the TVA, in an effort to preserve the timeline, will set things back so that they unfold the way we already know they will. On the other hand, it never pays to underestimate the God of Mischief.

New episode of Loki premiere every Wednesday on Disney+.

The post ‘Loki’ Continues Marvel’s TV Domination (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

The biggest mistake you could make when settling with The Haunting of Bly Manor is thinking of it as a redux of The Haunting of Hill House. Not that you could necessarily be blamed for making it. It is, after all, ostensibly “the second season” of Netflix’s The Haunting anthology series from creator/writer Mike Flanagan. It even, in the tradition of the modern anthology series, features many of the same cast members. On the surface, I don’t suppose I would fault you for expecting more of the same.

And yet, that would still be a mistake.

Flanagan has never been a director interested in revisiting the same kinds of horror twice. From his break out debut Oculus to his tense thriller Hush to Ouija: Origin of Evil, the horror icon has always endeavored to explore new realms within the genre that he hasn’t previously covered. Even his two adaptations of Stephen King works, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, couldn’t be further apart thematically.

So it makes little sense that the creator of some of the finest works of pop-horror in recent filmic history would try to recapture the singular magic that was The Haunting of Hill House. That was, frankly, never going to be on the table. As ever, Flanagan is a creator who wants to get his hands into all facets of the genre and explore what he can do in new areas.

While we can’t ignore the similarities between Hill House and Bly Manor—haunted houses, secrets, gothic traditions—those are, at best, skin-deep. Beyond the conceit of ghosts and old houses, each series stands on its own as something unique and wholly singular. The Haunting of Hill House, based on the legendarily influential novel of the same name by Shirley Jackson, takes its cues from the modern concept of the ghost story with plenty of scares and frights laced throughout. The Haunting of Bly Manor, meanwhile, taking the bulk of its story from the 19^th century Henry James classic, The Turn of the Screw, remembers that ghost stories don’t necessarily need frights to be effective.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t any frights. Flanagan is a master of the slow build and release, taking his time to establish the drama of the characters before ramping up the tension and giving us the catharsis of a good scare. But what I am saying is that’s largely not the point this time around. No, if Hill House was a tragic gothic haunted horror, then Bly Manor is a tragic gothic haunted romance. And it works just as beautifully as its spiritual predecessor.

The nine-episode series follows the story of Dani (Victoria Pedretti, who played Nell Crane in Hill House), an American au pair hired by a workaholic London-based businessman, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas, another Hill House alum), to care for and teach his orphaned niece and nephew, Flora and Miles (Amelie Bea Smith and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), at his secluded country estate, Bly Manor. Once there, Dani begins to suspect something amiss with the children, leading us on a twisted and tragic journey exploring all the literal and metaphorical nooks and crannies of the house. The closer she gets to the truth, however, the more haunted she becomes.

The Turn of the Screw may be the biggest influence on The Haunting of Bly Manor but Flanagan pulls themes and moments from across the spectrum of James’s numerous ghost stories, weaving together a tragic and, yes, frightening tapestry of horrors both real and imagined. While the novel itself has been embroiled in a century-long debate as to whether its ghosts are real or imagined by its mentally ill governess, Flanagan gives us a definitive perspective in his retelling. But with Flanagan even straight forward is rarely straight nor forward.

Flanagan of course takes his time getting us there, sending us on a winding path of past and present, fact and fiction, and reality and imagination that skews what we know from one episode to the next. In this way, he does play in the playground of “real or imagined” established by James. But, as he did with Hill House, he also uses that to take us deeper than the original work ever did, sending us off in new and unexpected directions that even well-versed readers could never anticpated.

The result is a horror that’s as wildly different from The Haunting of Hill House as Doctor Sleep was from Oculus. Flanagan’s true genius is his depth of knowledge regarding all the genres and subgenres that makeup what we think of as horror. He not only knows how they work, but why they work. As a result, he’s able to pick and choose bits from all subgenres to craft unique experiences that, above all else, continually subvert our expectations.

One hopes that Netflix allows Flanagan to continue playing in his impressive horror sandbox. He certainly has the chops and know how. There’s no end to what he might be able to accomplish with a continuation of his The Haunting of anthology. And he certainly has an endless depth of sources from which he could pull. Perhaps he could even rework his rumored The Shining prequel Halloran, apparently sidelined after the criminally poor box office returns for Doctor Sleep into The Haunting of Overlook. But no matter he might do next, as long as Netflix continues allowing him a platform, I’m sure it’ll be as different from Bly Manor as it can be. But I’m also certain it would be just as beautiful.

The Haunting of Bly Manor is now available on Netflix.

The post ‘The Haunting of Bly Manor’ Is A Stunning Return for Mike Flanagan’s Pseudo-Anthology (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

“Holy Ghost”

One of the bigger lingering questions I’ve had surrounding Lovecraft Country was how the series was going to handle the book’s framework. Matt Ruff’s original novel was something of an anthology, telling several stories surrounding the same group of people, each with a Lovecraftian bent.

This is something that H.P. Lovecraft himself did quite well. We tend to think of the shared universe approach to storytelling as something new and novel, but part of the lasting appeal of the Lovecraft is deciphering all the hidden connections between his stories and his characters and how those work together to create a larger mythos.

That’s nothing new these days; Marvel has created a billion dollar a year empire based on that conceit, and so it’s something we’re all well familiar with. Lovecraft was a bit of a pioneer in that regard (although arguments can be made that this type of storytelling is as old as storytelling itself, but I digress) which explains Ruff’s thematic framework for his novel. Whether that would work as well on television as it did there, however, remained a big question mark.

And now we know. With episode three, “Holy Ghost,” we’ve gotten our first glimpse at what this series is, ultimately, going to look like. In terms of internal logic, the episode is set about month after the events of “Whitey’s on the Moon.” Tic’s family is still reeling from the death of Uncle George, and Tic himself hasn’t been able to leave Chicago to head back to his life in Florida.

But that’s not the focus here. This episode aims its lens directly at Leti, who has become a pioneer and bought a house in a white neighborhood on the north side. Her plan is to establish a boarding house for the Black community to help people both get on their feet and better themselves. Her white neighbors, of course, have things to say about that.

What was brilliant about this story in the series was seeing how there really is nowhere to turn for Tic, Leti, and their families. Any trip outside of their set neighborhoods is inviting danger or even death at the hands of White America. It’s enough to wonder why they even need to worry about monsters in the series at all, except they handle them both so well.

In this case, Leti’s new house is haunted. Even with as played out as haunted house stories are becoming, showing Misha Green manages to give us a ghost story with power and resonance with relevance to the larger themes of the series. The ghosts that haunt her are the spirits of African Americans murdered by a white man, whose spirit also haunts the home and is none too happy with her presence.

The real tension of the episode comes via the harassment they endure from their neighbors, however. It starts early, with three young white men who tie bricks to their car horns and leave them parked outside the house. Much of the episode features the continuous honking in the background, giving neither the characters nor the audience any real respite or chance to relax.

It’s another genius way the show puts us into the shoes of its characters. If we’re annoyed by the honking in the background, how must they feel? This, by the way, was a tactic frequently used in the 50s and 60s. Even if there wasn’t a law against an African American family living in a particular neighborhood, neighbors sure could make it untenable for them to live there. And police would rarely intervene.

Which they didn’t here. Not until Leti had finally had enough, however. Even with the incessant honking, she and her tenants were making do. They even throw what looks to be a pretty spectacular party. At least, it is until someone ignites a cross on their front lawn. Even with all the creepy ghost imagery in the episode up to this point, this was one of the scariest moments of the episode. It also led to its most badass.

Finally fed up, Leti grabs a baseball bat and trashes the everloving fuck out of the cars parked in front of her house, removing the bricks in the process. Jurnee Smollett has been consistently bad as hell through this season’s three episodes, but she was downright magnificent and powerful here. It was impossible not to cheer, even as the sirens from the cops that were inevitably coming got louder and closer. She knew what was coming. We all did. But when all you have are tiny moments of justice, you cling to it where you can.

Well, “justice” is, I guess, a loose concept here. It’s not just that Leti was arrested. It’s not just that her complaints were ignored. It’s certainly not just that the cops are joining in on the terrorist campaign to get her to sell the house and leave the neighborhood, even if that means slamming her around in the back of the car. Leti, like so many members of the Black community, can’t get real justice.

Which ties in directly to the haunting. There was no justice for the souls of the men and women murdered in that house by its previous owners. Not until Leti came, anyway. She’s the type of woman who takes what’s hers and won’t let anyone stop her. Not even a ghost. Or many ghosts.

The exorcism scene was, thus far, the scariest “traditional” horror scene that Lovecraft Country has given us thus far. Watching Tic become possessed, and the effects the show used to show it, were genuinely terrifying. Added to that was the repetition of, “Get the fuck out of my house, bitch.” The whole thing was a skin crawling nightmare. It was made even more beautiful as the ghosts of the dead African Americans joined hands with Leti, not to run her off, but to help her. Together, they had the power to remove the maliciously racist presence haunting her.

It was a beautiful moment, one that served to right the wrong that no one in charge felt needed righting. It also tied in wonderfully with the larger explorations of the series. In the end, time and again, we’ve seen how powerful the Black men and women of this series are when they come together. From destroying the Braithewhite compound to exorcising malevolent ghosts, it’s in their unity that they find power.

And, incidentally, the anthological nature of the story definitely translates well to the screen. In truth, Ruff’s novel was always going to be a hard one to adapt, but Green has shown us all how it’s done. For those wondering about the central mystery introduced in the first two episodes, don’t worry. Ruff tied up all loose ends in his novel and the show is clearly great hands.

Lovecraft Country airs Sunday nights on HBO.

The post ‘Lovecraft Country’ Debuts Haunting New Episode (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

“Whitey’s On the Moon”

Two episodes in and Lovecraft Country has already proven itself to be one of the boldest new shows in ages. Showrunner Misha Green, who proved her chops on shows like Sons of Anarchy and Spartacus before rising to acclaim with Underground, has become a master of television narrative and created something truly singular and spectacular.

Credit where it’s due, of course. None of this could have happened without the novel from Matt Ruff, itself a deft subversion of Lovecraftian horror that attempts to reframe what we know about the eldritch horror of the Great Old Ones. A simple novel, Ruff wove it with complex themes and ideas that elevates it dramatically. It’s these themes that Green so brilliantly brings to life, interjecting this tale of horror and the uncanny with moments of real and powerful thematic weight.

Each frame and every scene of last night’s episode, which picks up precisely where last week’s episode left off, is imbued with a powerful sense of meaning as our trio of heroes find themselves slipping deeper inside of the unfolding mystery of the series. Things seem to be going well, at first. At least, better than they had been. Seeking respite from the horrors of the night before, the three are welcomed into the Ardham Lodge, even if those who let them in are, well, a bit creepy and weird.

Uncle George finds himself enraptured by the personal library found in his room, which is filled with all of his favorite books and authors. Leticia, meanwhile, luxuriates in all the perfectly fitted finery that fills her closets. A montage of their enjoyment, set to “Movin’ On Up,” the theme song to The Jeffersons, is seemingly a moment of levity for the series which, thus far, has been filled to the brim with horrors both real and imagined.

There’s something fascinating about the anachronistic music choices that Lovecraft Country has made thus far. From last week’s use of “Clones” from Tierra Whack to this week’s use of “Movin’ On Up,” Green is making a deeper and powerful connection from the events of the narrative, which takes place in 1954, to the events of today. “How little has changed,” the show seems to say, “that what was relevant then remains relevant today.” Green let’s us know that what’s being explored here transcends any period and towers over any monster.

It’s appropriate, then, that Tic is the one among them who is wary about their new hosts and new surroundings. And with good reason, it turns out. The Lodge is owned by the Braithwhite family whom it’s said, would never associate with the KKK because “they’re too poor.” Still, something sinister is afoot, and at every turn Tic and his crew run into obstacles while searching for his missing father. Uncle George soon discovers that the lodge is the home of a secret society and that Tic is a descendent of the lodge’s founder, a former slaveowner.

It would seem that Tic’s ancestor escaped the lodge after a devastating fire and ran through the woods pregnant into the arms of freedom. Thus began a line that ties Tic directly to the lodge, the birthright that his father wrote to him about in the first episode. That birthright gives him special privileges in the lodge, much to the chagrin of the lodge’s members. But not to the lodge’s leader, Samuel Braithwhite, who lured Tic here to help with an arcane ritual meant to reopen the gates to Eden.

Secret societies seeking arcane secrets are just the latest in the twists on Lovecraftian tropes being explored by Lovecraft Country. The not-so-subtle allusions to the KKK are an ingenious commentary on the nature of class racism that run prevalent throughout our society even today. Cloaked though Samuel might be in the word of God, he makes little bones about his real feelings. He says that Tic is “darker than he expected,”  before going off on a tangent about a painting that illustrates how everything should be in “its place,” letting us know exactly where he stands on the issue of Tic’s race.

Lovecraft Country has done a remarkable job at this so far. Green has a knack for showing us what it’s like walking in a Black man’s shoes and seeing the world how he sees it. Even with all the monsters and secret societies running rampant through the narrative, nothing has yet been as scary as dealing with the world that Tic, Leti, and Uncle George have to deal with. Monsters and secret cults are one thing, but rampant racism is another.

Putting us into their perspectives gives us a whole new look at the reality of facing systemic racism in America. We watch as Uncle George implores his partners to take it easy, because they’re being watched, being judged. We feel the knots in our stomach as Tic has to swallow his pride and take the disrespect. Monsters? They’ve proven they can fight those off. A racist heart? An entirely different beast.

Tic’s fears are realized when it’s discovered that his father actually is being held prisoner on the grounds of the lodge, ostensibly as bait to lure him there to help with Samuel’s plans. Reunited, the four try to escape only to find themselves crashing into an invisible barrier that prevents them from leaving. As punishment, Tic is forced to watch as Leti and Uncle George are shot. Promising to heal them both if Tic cooperates, he’s given little choice.

Of course, in the grand tradition of cults messing with powers they don’t quite understand, things go horribly wrong. With Tic’s help, serving as a conduit for whatever eldritch power the Braithwhite’s wield, a door is opened, though it is not the door they seek. As the Ardham lodge begins to collapse around him, he glimpses his ancestor, who shows him the way to escape. He does, just barely, while the cult is turned to dust. Meanwhile, his companions suffer their first loss. The process of moving Uncle George, who’s been at death’s door since being shot, proves too much. Tic’s last glimpse of his beloved uncle is seeing his body being held by his father. “I’m sorry, Uncle George. I’m sorry,” Tic cries as the episode ends.

Enough cannot be said about the performance of Jonathan Majors in this scene. The pain and horror on his face is tangible, and it’s difficult to watch without tearing up. Again we see where the true horror of Lovecraft Country comes from. It’s not monsters or cults, it’s the horror of living in a society that views you as less than, as expendable. There’s no one to blink at Uncle George’s murder, and no police that can be called. It’s simply the way things are, with justice always out of reach.

Green’s ability at bringing this to the forefront is simply brilliant. Her growth as a showrunner has been phenomenal and makes for a truly unique and terrifying experience for audience. Already, just two episodes under the belt, Lovecraft Country is one of the best new shows this year. With eight episodes left, there’s more than enough time to make further marks, and to take us even deeper inside this truly horrific world.

Lovecraft Country airs Sunday nights on HBO.

The post ‘Lovecraft Country’ Reveals Tic’s Secret History (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Looking back, the only conclusion that can be reached is that Better Call Saul’s fifth season was its best to date. The tone and tenor of the series, which has long been perfected, was refined in new, magnificent ways throughout this penultimate season. Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have brought new levels of mastery into their understanding of narrative subtlety, resulting in one of the most perfect seasons of television ever before aired.

The exacting, meticulous ways which this duo build their series boggle the mind. If we think back to where we were at the beginning of this fifth season and compare it to where we are now, it’s difficult to understand. In just ten episodes, we went from Jimmy McGill getting back his license to Jimmy McGill and his wife (!!!!) hiding out from the cartel in a luxury hotel. We’re so distant from where we were that it’s hard to fathom how we got here.

We got here, of course, because a thousand tiny steps tend to add up to something massive. Better Call Saul has always been more about the bigger picture arc than it was any specific sub-arc, with each season showing us another piece to the tragic puzzle that turns relatively sweet and nice Jimmy McGill into the obnoxious and corrupt Saul Goodman. This season’s piece? Hubris.

And so the finale found our Jimmy dealing with the fallout of his hubris, and largely failing to learn his lesson in the process. Following the confrontation with Lalo in “Bad Choice Road,” he and Kim abscond to a hotel to hide out from any potential cartel retribution. Even that is indicative of his hubris. As Kim put it, “I was expecting a Motel 6 or the nail salon.”

He reasons that more people around them makes them safer, but it’s hard not to see that as the lie it is. No, Jimmy picked a luxury hotel because, ultimately, it’s what he believes he deserves. Laying low is not in his DNA (at least not yet; I’m sure Gene would have something to say about the virtues of keeping quiet). It’s the same reason he agreed to be a friend of the cartel, the same reason he dropped a nuclear bomb on Mesa Verde, and the same reason he lobbed bowling balls at Howard’s car. He does it because he can, consequences be damned.

This situation naturally gives Kim and Jimmy plenty of time to sit around and dream, which of course comes back to the Sandpiper case. Even though he’s on the outs with HHM and Davis and Main, he still gets a significant cut of the proceeds. That’s years away though, right? Nothing they can do but wait that out.

Turns out, Kim’s struggles between her morals and her ethics this season have led her farther astray than we thought. It’s her that plants the seed that if they can somehow get Howard discredited, maybe even disbarred, over some sort of misconduct then all parties would have more incentive to settle, meaning Jimmy would get his cut of the money sooner. Weirdly, it’s Jimmy who has misgivings over this plan and Kim who wants to go in guns blazing.

This development isn’t as shocking as it seems at first. For the past several seasons, it’s the game that Kim’s grown weary of. The unending quest for money while losing sight of ideals and goodness. Ending Howard is less about ending Howard than it is about ending the symbol of everything she has deemed is wrong with the legal system. Howard just makes a convenient target.

What’s the plan then? We don’t know. Gilligan and Gould seemed to use this episode as little but a stepping stone to the arc of the sixth and final season, setting the game board one final time before Better Call Saul runs right into Breaking Bad. How they take out Howard, which will answer that lingering question from Breaking Bad, will no doubt take up plenty of space in the final season, whenever that might air. Then again, so will Lalo.

As of right now, Kim and Jimmy feel bolstered by their belief that Lalo is dead. Mike did give Jimmy assurances, after all, so we can’t really blame them for their mistaken ideas. But we’re still far from the resolution of Lalo’s story and we still have nothing but ideas as to why Saul thinks Lalo sent Jesse and Walt to kill him.

We know that it involves Nacho, who has spent the last couple of seasons playing Gus Fring’s man on the inside of the Salamanca family. Remember that Saul says, “It wasn’t me, it was Ignacio!” when Walt and Jesse have their guns on him. So what is it that Ignacio “Nacho” Varga does?

As of right now, he’s on the run. Following the failed assassination attempt of Lalo at his house in Chihuahua, which Nacho assisted on by opening the gate to the compound, Nacho disappeared. Lalo, who’d just gotten Don Eladio to promote Nacho to head of Albuquerque, is beyond suspicious of the convenience of Nacho’s dematerialization. Especially considering the fact that Lalo took out a whole team of assassins by himself.

The most likely option here is that Nacho makes it back to ABQ and enlists Jimmy’s help in some way, probably by turning state’s evidence. But, then again, Gilligan and Gould so rarely go with the most likely scenario. All we really know is that Nacho is on the run, Lalo is on the war path, and somehow Jimmy gets in the middle of it.

In a lot of ways, this finale was more about clearing the board for the future than for wrapping anything up. The biggest reveals and moments of the season happened in the two episodes prior. But now the final stage is set. All of the questions and all of the theories we’ve been asking ourselves for the last five season have led to this. With so much left to explore, it’s a wonder how they’re going to pull it off in one season but, as they’ve proven time and time again, Gilligan and Gould can do a lot with ten episodes. For now, all we can do is go back and look for any clues we’ve might have missed but, no matter what happens, how they’ll top season five is a mystery. This season was as close to perfect as a season of television has ever been and gives them so much to live up to heading into the final season.

The post ‘Better Call Saul’ Ends Penultimate Season With Tension and Mystery (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

Season five of Better Call Saul has turned into the most intense, taut, and best season of the Breaking Bad spinoff yet. That’s saying a lot, considering how astounding the previous four seasons have been, but Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have crafted something truly remarkable this year which, somehow, pushes their already high bar even higher.

As the second to last episode this season, “Bad Choice Road” had two jobs, both of which it accomplished phenomenally. The first was to begin to tie together the disparate narrative threads that have run throughout this season—no small feat, considering just how much happened over the previous eight episodes. The second was to set up the end game for the season—a feat further complicated by the fact that the sixth season of Better Call Saul will be its last.

Gilligan and Gould more than rose to these challenges and, once again, made the case for why this series is even better than the one from which it spawned.

“Bad Choice Road” picked up almost exactly where we left off last week with “Bagman.” Jimmy and Mike are making their way out of the desert and Kim trying her best not to lose her mind over her husband’s absence. The opening split screen, brilliantly calling back to season four’s “Something Stupid,” bringing us up to speed on the conclusion of the desert narrative with both emotion and economy.

What’s interesting is the idea that it implies with the callback, however. The split screen in “Something Stupid” was used to introduce the mundane routine Jimmy and Kim were falling into as they moved in together, detailing for us the minutiae of their existence. Here, however, the stakes are considerably higher. And yet we’re forced to consider that this is their new normal, that this is their new mundane. If Jimmy succeeds at becoming a friend of the cartel, then Kim worrying about his safety will be as boring and normal as brushing teeth.

The implications here are fascinating. Despite his best intentions, Jimmy continues pulling Kim to somewhere she doesn’t want to be—or, at least, somewhere she never thought she would be. It’s certainly a place she doesn’t deserve to be. As the heart of this series, Rhea Seehorn carries the emotional weight of Better Call Saul on her shoulders. Time and time again, Kim Wexler has found herself in an undue situation simply because she did something stupid like love Jimmy McGill.

Which is good for him, at least. This whole situation has fortified Kim in ways she hasn’t been previously. She knows now who she is and who she wants to be better than she ever has before. Hence why she quit her cushy job. The morals vs. ethics question that has plagued Kim all season pushed her to where she wants to be, at least professionally. No longer satisfied by playing lackey for a giant firm and a bank, she’s reconnected with her desire to help people in bad situations.

And, to be clear, Jimmy is in a bad situation. Not only is he in deeper than he wants to be with the cartel, he’s also, for the first time, been forced to endure the repercussions of his actions. The desert situation has left Jimmy suffering from post-traumatic stress, not just because he almost died but because he watched—and even caused—so much death unfold in front of him. And so while Lalo is happy (at first, at least) and Jimmy is $100,000 richer, he is not the same.

This tells us a little more about how he became who he was when we met him in Breaking Bad. The Saul Goodman we know from that series is the Saul Goodman who had to process intense traumas and find a way to move on. We saw that process begin with his conversation with Mike after botching a simple motion in court. Jimmy still doesn’t know how to begin to process what he went through in the desert but Mike assures him that one day he will. It’s that “one day” where Saul as we knew him dwells.

In the meantime, however, Jimmy is not okay. He’s been shot at, almost killed, walked miles through the desert sun, drank his own piss, and seen multiple people die more or less because of him. He is utterly unprepared for Lalo when Lalo starts to question his story, which begins to tie the narrative threads of this season together into yet another brilliant woven Gilligan and Gould tapestry.

Lalo’s alignment with Saul puts Jimmy and Kim into the line of sight of Gus, who is currently invested in the most dangerous long con of all time. That puts Mike in the middle of Saul and Gus, forcing Mike into a position of protecting Jimmy from Lalo in order to protect Gus while simultaneously trying to protect Nacho who is also caught between Lalo and Gus. Gus clearly doesn’t care about either Jimmy or Nacho, both of whom, for one reason or another, have won Mike’s respect, putting Mike in the position of protecting his friends (well, “friends”) as much as he can while protecting his boss.

It’s all very complicated and bound to become more complicated as the season comes to a close in the next episode. And most at danger, at this point, we find Kim. Kim’s telling off of Lalo, whose suspicions of Jimmy caused him to come to his and Kim’s apartment unannounced, would have been the most incredible Kim Wexler moment of the entire series if it wasn’t also the scariest moment in either Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad.

For now at least, it seems as though Lalo is willing to buy Kim’s explanation—an explanation Kim knows to be false—and is headed back to Mexico with Nacho. But something terrifying is certainly looming, something that makes future Saul frightened out of his wits at the prospect of Lalo, and somehow involves Nacho potentially betraying his cartel boss. Does all this happen in episode 10? We’ll have to see. Either way, things are going to be different heading into the sixth and final season of Better Call Saul.

Better Call Saul airs Monday nights at 9/8c on AMC.

The post ‘Better Call Saul’ Sets Up Explosive Fifth Season Finale (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.

It’s difficult to conceive that Better Call Saul will ever get better than they did with “Bagman.” It was the apotheosis of everything that makes this series so compelling and so delicious distilled into a single, unforgettable hour of television that exceeds every bar the series ever set for itself in addition to every bar ever set by its predecessor, Breaking Bad. It was television perfection achieved only the way that Vince Gilligan, who also directed last night’s episode, can achieve it.

Gilligan has always been great at the kind of self-contained but entirely consequential narratives seen in “Bagman.” The Breaking Bad episodes “Fly” and “4 Days Out” come to mind, as does “Drive,” an episode of The X-Files written by Gilligan and starring a pre-Malcolm in the Middle Bryan Cranston. Of his many talents, Gilligan is best when he’s telling stories like this and this was the best he’s ever been.

It was the perfect metaphor for Jimmy’s fall, a sort of “Last Temptation of McGill” that finds our hero fully succumbing to the demons that tempt and taunt him into a life of sin. Each step he took through that endless desert was a step away from any decency that Jimmy might have held and towards the indecent, salacious world of Saul Goodman. We know now that there’s nothing Jimmy won’t do in the pursuit of Saul Goodman, whether it’s drink his own piss or lure someone to their murder.

Like so many of Jimmy’s schemes, this one started out simple enough. For $100,000, he would drive to a remote location in the middle of the New Mexico desert, pick up the $7 million Lalo needs to make bail, and drive back. He’d be back before Kim was home from work, there’s nothing to worry about it. This, of course, showcases Jimmy’s central problem: shortsightedness. The lure of the money is always too strong and it shines so bright that he’s blinded to potential problems. And with $7 million from the cartel at stake, the potential for problems is high.

One does wonder why the cartel wouldn’t offer some sort of protection for their investment; that’s a lot of money they’re entrusting to a lawyer they don’t know driving a car that, even in the best of circumstances, isn’t known for its reliability. Good as it was to see the cousins again, you could sense the problems looming on the horizon as soon as they turned around and left Jimmy on his own. And what followed was one of the tensest moments in the history of the series.

What’s truly amazing is how Gilligan and Peter Gould are able to build tension even in moments whose outcome is preordained. We know that Jimmy was never in any danger of being killed out there in the desert because we know that he’s destined to eventually meet Walter White and even later become Gene in Nebraska. And yet, it was hard not to worry about him as he was ambushed by members of a rival cartel.

It was a scene reminiscent of “To’hajiilee” or “Ozymandias,” with the desert backdrop and intense shooting, certainly unlike the majority of Better Call Saul. But it truly speaks to the danger that Jimmy has walked willingly into. He’s so busy playing his angles that he doesn’t ever stop to consider what other angles there might be. This is a problem we know he continues to have, given how willingly he gets into bed with Walter White in just a few short years.

And, as always, he needs someone to bail him out. Given how invested Gus Fring has been in his war with Lalo, and how many strings he’s pulled so far, it wasn’t really that surprising to find that Jimmy had a guardian angel in the form of Mike, who took out the assailants and, unfortunately, shot the alternator on Jimmy’s Esteem with a sniper rifle. They’ve always been such a perfectly mismatched pair, and it’s been disappointing as they’ve drifted apart narratively over the last few seasons. Seeing them together again, regardless the circumstances, was truly a treat.

Mike’s character has always been summed up best by a speech he made to Walter in Breaking Bad. “I chose a half measure when I should have gone all the way. I’ll never make that mistake again.” As we’ve seen, Mike either goes the distance or he doesn’t go at all. Jimmy, on the other hand, is a man for whom shortcuts and half measures are a way of life, as evidenced by how quickly Jimmy is willing to start dragging the bags of cash through the desert instead of carrying them which, as we all probably foresaw, eventually led to the bags ripping.

Not that I blame him. Walking for two days straight in the middle of the desert was never going to be easy, and $7 million isn’t exactly light. Still, there was something poetic about watching Jimmy run through the desert picking up stray bits of cash while a mysterious enemy stalked them in the distance. Finally, at a breaking point, and prepared even to take a swig of the jar of piss he’d been carrying for hours, Jimmy stood up, and made himself known.

It was as close to selfless as Jimmy’s been in some time, even if he did it for ultimately selfish reasons. Announcing his presence as he did, wrapped up in a space blanket so similar to his brother’s, allowed make to finally get a bead on their pursuer, and finally put an end to their days-long chase through the desert.

It was the fire the cleansed his soul of Jimmy and allowed for Saul to truly become known. Saul crosses lines that Jimmy dares not. Saul does what it takes while Jimmy does what he can. Jimmy’s actions, life saving though they were, led directly to a murder, taking him as far across the line as he’s ever been, but at least offering he and Mike a somewhat safer trek out of the desert and back into civilization.

And even with all of that, somehow the most consequential moment came from Kim. Rightly terrified when her new husband did not, in fact, beat her home from work, she pays a visit to Lalo, representing herself as a member of his defense to the guards in lock up. Now, Lalo knows his lawyer has a wife. Now Lalo knows how to really push Saul’s buttons. It was a meeting fraught with suggestion—is this what happens to Kim? does the cartel attack her to get to Jimmy?—and it’s now somehow even harder to not be scared for her ultimate well-being.

It was a short scene, cutting the episode into two distinct parts, but the air of uncertainty swirling around her definitely has a new sense of potential danger, a danger that neither she nor Jimmy could have foresaw, even if they probably should have. Now, with only two episodes left in the penultimate season of Better Call Saul, the fates of everyone are hanging in the balance and where we go from here is increasingly unclear.

Better Call Saul airs Monday nights at 9/8c on AMC.

The post ‘Better Call Saul’ Unleashes Best Episode Yet (TV REVIEW) appeared first on Glide Magazine.