Tyler F.M. Edwards's Blog, page 72

Retro Review: Continuum, Episodes 8-10

I seem to be doing an awful lot of reviews lately. I should probably work on getting some variety in my posts again some time soon.

But that day is not today.

“Play Time”:

Here we have another of those episodes where Continuum basically devolves into just another cop show.

In this episode, Kiera and Carlos investigate a series of bizarre murder/suicides. The one connection between the perpetrators is that they both worked for the same video game developer, so the weight of suspicion falls squarely on the company.

The developer is working on next generation virtual reality technology. Kiera and Betty, whose tech know-how and general geekiness have earned a her a role in the investigation, receive a demonstration of the tech, but something goes wrong, and Kiera collapses. When she awakes, her implants begin to malfunction.

All tech wizardry aside, “Play Time” is pretty much just a standard whodunnit. On the plus side, this one does reveal a connection to Liber8, but it’s still just not that interesting, and it does very little to advance the main plot.

About the only noteworthy thing to come out of this episode is that Liber8 now knows Alec is helping Kiera. That, and the hidden files in Kiera’s suit offer some intriguing possibilities. But both of these things are things that will prove interesting later — they don’t do much to add to “Play Time.”

Overall rating: 6.9/10 At least Betty geeking out was amusing.

“Family Time”:

Now that’s more like it!

This is Continuum at its best. Tense and action-packed from start to finish, with not a moment wasted.

Wait, sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself.

“Family Time” has Kiera and Carlos investigating a large shipment of fertilizer to a rural farm. This is supposedly standard procedure whenever someone orders a bomb-worthy quantity of fertilizer.

What Kiera doesn’t realize until she arrives is that it is the same farm where Alec and his family live. Alec’s step-father, Roland, insists he didn’t order that much fertilizer, but when they reach the burn, they discover that not only is he wrong, but it’s already been turned into a bomb by Julian.

Cue gunfire, hostage-taking, and general mayhem.

What follows is an hour of Kiera and Alec pulling some clever, Die Hard-esque badassery as they attempt to escape the clutches of Julian and his thuggish friends, who seek to make a stand for their ideals or die trying.

I have to say that Continuum is really good at making me hate villains. I have come to really, truly despise Julian. I would like to see him tied to a tree and beaten with cricket bats.

Although it was a fairly small part of the episode, I also found the vignette from the future very interesting, and I think I’m finally starting to develop some interest in Kiera as a character, not just as an action hero.

It’s fascinating to me that Kiera is what most would judge to be a good person — someone with a strong moral compass who loves those close to her and wants nothing more than to provide a good life to her family — but yet she’s done, and continues to do, some awful things. She’s propping up a corrupt regime which has robbed humanity of its liberty and dignity, and she straight up murdered Kellogg’s sister.

That was shocking to me. She killed a woman who was if not innocent then at least of no immediate threat, in cold blood.

This is something that’s chillingly true in real life: Often those we would classify as monsters are ordinary people who under most circumstances would be considered perfectly decent.

Does that make them good people who are simply misguided, or bad people whose darkness is well-hidden? Is Kiera the hero of this story, or just another villain?

Overall rating: 8.9/10 Very well done indeed.

“Endtimes” (season finale):

The finale for the first season of Continuum doesn’t feel much different from most of the episodes to date, which is as much a compliment to the rest of the series as it as a criticism of the finale.

“Endtimes” wastes absolutely no time and offers major reveals, high tension, and plenty of adventure virtually from the first shot onwards. But that’s been true of pretty much every episode to date. On the one hand, that’s made for a very fun ride up until now, but it leaves them with little room to ramp up the tension for the finale. Despite offering slightly more in the way of major revelations and higher stakes than ever, “Endtimes” pretty much feels like any other episode.

That’s still pretty good, though.

“Endtimes” sees Liber8, with the aid of a fugitive Julian, launching a massive terrorist attack on downtown Vancouver. On her way to investigate the threat, Kiera encounters a rather scruffy gentlemen (played by Ian Tracey, who did a brilliant turn as Dr. Jekyll/Adam Worth on Sanctuary) who recognizes her — from the future. He was pulled through time at the same point she was but went back even further, arriving in the 1990s. Unfortunately, his trials have left his sanity in a questionable state.

He does have some interesting revelations, though. He mentions there are other people who have traveled back in time, called “Freelancers” and led by someone called “Mr. Escher.”

Meanwhile, Alec attempts to track down Julian and is captured by Liber8 in the process, but Kagame does not react to him at all as one would expect.

I’m afraid I once again can’t help but compare to Orphan Black — last time, I promise. Whereas its season finale offered no major revelations and no closure for any plot but one, Continuum offers a flood of changes and new revelations.

There are other time travelers! Alec is the one who sent Liber8 and Kiera back in time! Kagame died and took a good chunk of Vancouver with him! Julian founded Liber8! Travis and Sonya have turned on one another!

Things be crazy.

With that being said, while “Endtimes” is vastly better than Orphan Black’s finale, it still has its issues.

As I said, because Continuum is already so fast-paced and action-packed most of the time, “Endtimes” doesn’t feel terribly special compared to the average episode. It would have taken some truly insane, “Boomer shoots Adama”-esque twists to really stand out, but while the reveals we got were good, they weren’t that good.

The question I most wanted answered is why future Alec did all this, but that’s the answer we have to wait until next season for. Although thankfully that won’t be a long wait where I’m concerned.

There were also some painfully implausible things about this episode. Apparently it takes less than 24 hours for Carlos to recover from a gunshot wound, massive blood-loss, and major surgery.

Furthermore, the aftermath of the explosion tried too hard to play on the emotion of the viewer, at the expense of logic. Those shots of the civilians caught in the blast tore me right out of the story — when the cops learned of the bomb threat, they would have evacuated the whole area. There wouldn’t have been kids around to be caught up in 9/11 North.

Still, on the whole, a worthy conclusion to a strong first season.

Overall rating: 8/10 I’m looking forward to starting on season two.

Filed under: Retro Reviews Tagged: Continuum, review, sci-fi, TV

Review: Defiance, “Putting the Damage On”

If “Beast of Burden” was somehow less than the sum of its parts, then “Putting the Damage On” is more.

This isn’t really a pivotal episode. It’s not quite filler, but it is only a very small step forward for the greater storyline. Despite that, however, I found “Putting the Damage On” quite enjoyable.

This episode sees Amanda attacked in her room at the Need/Want by what appears to have been the man who raped her in New York. However, her story doesn’t add-up, and as odd happenings follow not only her, but also Mayor Pottinger and Doc Yewll, it becomes clear something much stranger is going on.

Meanwhile, Rafe McCawley lands on his feet after being evicted by the E-Rep as he is welcomed into the Tarr household by Stahma. Cue Odd Couple theme.

This episode reminds me of the first season of Defiance, but not entirely in a bad way. We’re once again in a situation where the main plot of the episode isn’t terribly interesting, but it does serve as a framework for some very interesting and/or amusing character interactions.

For sheer entertainment value, the best parts of this episode were of Rafe McCawley integrating into life in the Tarr house. Defiance has always had a healthy sense of humour, but I can’t recall ever cracking up quite this much.

Especially when Datak finds out he’s moved in.

“I borrowed your slippers. Hope you don’t mind.”

Ah, Rafe. You’re never not awesome.

Seeing where things could be going for him and Datak is pretty intriguing, too. Never expected to see those two on the same side of anything, but I suppose the enemy of my enemy is my friend…

Regardless, any day Rafe and Datak are in the same scene is a good day, and it looks like there shall be many such days in the future.

The other aspect of this episode I found compelling was learning more about Doc Yewll’s past. I do think she is one of the more interesting characters on the show — no small feat — and I wish she’d get more time in the spotlight.

On the downside, we didn’t really learn that much about her that we didn’t already know, or could have surmised. She did horrible things in the war. She’s trying to atone. “Putting the Damage On” offers a little more detail on that, but there’s still a lot left unanswered, especially regarding her current plans.

On the one hand, I enjoy the mystery. On the other, Yewll’s been a question mark for one and a half seasons now. Let’s start getting some idea of what’s actually going on with her.

There were a few other interesting things about this episode.

For one, I was surprised that Pottinger’s story of being attacked by the Votans as a child was apparently true. I had been operating under the assumption he made it up to win sympathy from Amanda.

Damn it, Defiance, how dare you make a character I dislike into a three-dimensional person rather than leaving them as a cartoon effigy for me to hate?

It also seems to me that this season is both including more references to the game version of Defiance, and being more natural about it. There are a lot of little nods to the game in “Putting the Damage On”: EGO implants (and mention of “soldiers in the West,” IE players, using them), Varus Soleptor supplying Pottinger’s drugs, and technology from Von Bach Industries.

But they don’t feel as forced or randomly tossed in as the game tie-ins of the first season. It feels more like a seamless blending of the two stories.

Finally, I found it somewhat interesting that Yewll is apparently into girls. I find this noteworthy purely because the main Indogene character in Defiance the MMO, Eren Niden, is strongly implied to be in a relationship with a human woman, Rosa Rodriguez. Makes me wonder if there’s some aspect of Indogene culture and/or biology that grants them a predilection towards same-sex relationships, at least where females are concerned.

Heck, considering that Indogenes appear to be one of the more biologically alien Votan races, gender might not work the same way for them as it does for us.

Yes, I’m enough of a nerd to be interested in such things.

But this is a fairly irrelevant tangent.

Point is, “Putting the Damage On” moves the story in interesting directions. It doesn’t move it as much as I would like, but it does enough to keep me happy for the moment.

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

Retro Review: Continuum, Episodes 4-7

The binge-watch continues. I’m now knee-deep in the first season of Continuum, and despite some stumbles, it’s continuing to be an entertaining ride.

“Matter of Time”:

This is the first episode of Continuum to date that I haven’t much enjoyed.

“Matter of Time” features Kiera and Carlos investigating the death of a scientist working on an experimental antimatter energy source. His machine backfired, blowing a hole in him and five stories of his building, and it may not have been an accident.

Kiera worries Liber8 may be involved, so she decides to investigate.

The problem is that Liber8 was not involved, and this becomes clear pretty quickly. Thus, “Matter of Time” becomes a largely irrelevant tangent with little to no significance to the ongoing plot. A connection with Kiera’s future is ultimately revealed, but it doesn’t seem to mean much for the larger arc of the show.

The end result is that “Matter of Time” just feels like an episode of any other random cop show, albeit with slightly more technobabble.

On top of that, Kiera acts very out of character through the whole episode. She should only care about Liber8 — she’s shown great reticence to influence the past in any way that isn’t about stopping them — but she’s happy to drop everything and investigate this unrelated murder. She even abandons a search for Liber8′s newly arrived leader, Edouard Kagame, to continue following up on the murder.

What the Hell?

The main redeeming feature of “Matter of Time” is that it gave Alec an opportunity to have a really good scene at the end. But otherwise, it’s just filler.

Overall rating: 6.7/10

“A Test of Time”:

“A Test of Time” sees Kagame reinstated as leader of Liber8. He orders a change in tactics, encouraging his followers to focus on more subtle and non-violent means of achieving their goals.

However, there’s still a little bloodshed on his agenda. To eliminate Kiera as a threat as well as test the ramifications of their trip to the past, they resolve to pull a Terminator and kill Kiera’s grandmother, Lily Jones.

When women named Lily Jones start turning up dead, Kiera figures out what’s up, and the race is on to find the correct Lily.

After the misstep of last episode, this a return to form for Continuum: fast-paced and exciting.

I think it’s hilarious that Kiera instantly assumed the most well-educated and successful Lily Jones was her grandmother, and I experienced quite a bit of schadenfreude when she was proven spectacularly wrong.

This was an interesting episode for Kellogg, as well. I’m rather confused by him and his motivations, but I think that’s the point. He’s a complicated dude.

Also, I find I’m really starting to hate Travis, and I mean that in a good way. His smug self-satisfaction and casual cruelty inspire the kind of visceral disgust you want from a good villain.

I did have some issues with the ending, though. It raises a lot of interesting questions… but they’re all the same questions we’ve had since the start. Nothing really changed.

I’m also starting to wonder how much longer Continuum can maintain the current formula without becoming ridiculous. If every single episode is going to end with a gunfight with Liber8, how much longer is it going to take before they lose all intimidation factor as villains?

They’re already starting to seem a bit like stormtroopers. Anyone would be bound to hit Kiera at least once or twice after firing that many bullets; it’s just probability. And these are battle-hardened, chemically enhanced super-soldiers we’re talking about. How is she coming away unscathed every single time?

Overall rating: 7.4/10

“Time’s Up”:

Ah, but here’s an interesting twist. Just as I was starting to worry Liber8 was turning into buffoons, things suddenly go in an entirely different direction.

“Time’s Up” sees Kagame enact his new, more subtle strategy to achieve Liber8′s ends. Coordinating with a bunch of violent anti-corporate extremists from the modern era, Liber8 arranges to kidnap the CEO of an oil company. But there’s far more to their plan than a simple hostage-taking. They intend to win the hearts and minds of the public with some clever theatrics.

Meanwhile, the tension in Alec’s home reaches a boiling point as he discovers that his supremely douchey step-brother, Julian, has signed on to the Liber8 cause.

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode. It’s the first time Liber8 has started to feel truly dangerous as a group of villains. They’re not just thugs; they can wield their wits as effectively as any weapon. They pull off some almost Joker-worthy mind-fracks as the episode progresses.

I particularly loved their use for the ransom money. “Give the people the money, or she dies.”

Brilliant.

Throughout “Time’s Up,” Liber8 is two steps ahead of Kiera and co., and by the end, they have enjoyed unmitigated success in their goals. Kagame has painted himself as a latter day Robin Hood, and Liber8 as his Merry Men, and the public has been won to their side. Anti-corporate graffiti covers the city as cries of “Liber8″ echo through the air.

The seeds of a revolution have been planted.

Also, I’d like to say that I really love how the fight scenes are choreographed on this show. Sure, they’re not terribly realistic, but damn if they aren’t entertaining.

Overall rating: 8.1/10

“The Politics of Time”:

“The Politics of Time” is another case where Continuum basically forgets about the sci-fi and becomes a regular cop show. But it still manages to be more interesting than “Matter of Time.”

In this episode, Kiera and Carlos investigate the murder of a reporter who had been looking into the campaign finances of two candidates in a union election. Things are rather complicated by the fact one of those candidates is an old friend of Carlos, and it just happens he slept with the reporter about an hour before she was killed.

Kiera is theoretically investigating because of a potential Liber8 connection, and a tangential one is discovered, but in practice, this episode serves as an opportunity to flesh out Carlos as a character and his relationship with Kiera wrapped in a whodunnit.

It’s pretty much just filler, but I’m willing to forgive it. Considering Carlos’s importance as a cast member, it was overdue for him to get some proper attention as something other than Kiera’s sidekick.

It’s also a pretty good mystery as these things go. I didn’t see the final twist coming, so that’s something.

There were also some little touches that made this episode endearing. Alec had some very funny lines, and while this obviously wasn’t the main point of the scene, it was interesting to hear how Kiera rationalizes the ruthless invasiveness of her future. I do hope we will eventually come to the point where Kiera has to accept she’s not “the good guys” in this. She may be better than Liber8 — maybe — but that’s not much of a recommendation.

Also, it turns out her husband is a scumball. I may be jumping the gun, but I’m starting to think he may have been involved in Liber8′s escape. He was a highly placed member of Sadtech (worst company name ever) and may have had access to experimental technology like the time device, and he seemed to know something was up at the execution sooner than he should have.

But now I’m off-topic.

The bottom line is that “The Politics of Time” was basically filler, but at least it was interesting filler. And it was nice to see Tahmoh Penikett again.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

Filed under: Retro Reviews Tagged: Continuum, review, sci-fi, TV

Cheating on WoW: Guild Wars 2 Revisited

Ah, Guild Wars 2. There’s a game I have an odd history with.

It was a rare case of my drinking the hype Kool Aid before launch. Once it finally did release, I hopped on the bandwagon immediately, and I had a great time… for about three months.

The game lost its luster quickly. Despite its many merits, some major stumbles drove me away from the game, and once I started on The Secret World, Guild Wars 2 faded into my rear view mirror.

But it’s always been in the back of my mind. My fond memories of the game taunt me, and I did get very attached to my characters in my time with the game. I’ve often been tempted to give it another try.

So I finally did. I hopped back in during the climax of the first season of the “Living Story” and spent a few days getting reacquainted. For my full thoughts, see my article on the topic over at WhatMMO:

Revisiting Guild Wars 2

Here’s a brief excerpt:

“If I was to describe Guild Wars 2 in a nutshell, I’d say that it’s a great game that is utterly ignorant of its own strengths. The Living Story seems designed to focus on all of the things ArenaNet cannot do right – like story and group content – while rejecting the positives of the game, such as accessibility and freedom.”

It should be noted that there was a delay in getting this article published, so some of what it discusses is old news by now. However, most of my thoughts remain relevant.

It should be said that the recently started second season of the Living Story does — from what I hear — address some of the complaints I have. It does feature a new permanent game zone, albeit one I’m told is fairly small, and it seems like the Elder Dragons are taking center stage again.

However, I fear it may be too little, too late for this player.

It’s a shame. There’s much about Guild Wars 2 that I do truly love. The sense of freedom it offers is incredibly liberating, and it’s probably my all-time favourite game in terms of visuals. Perfect balance between realism and stylization, and the graphics are just gorgeous, especially on my new computer.

But when I don’t care about the world, there’s nothing to disguise the grind at the heart of all MMOs, and I just can’t seem to find the motivation to keep coming back.

* * *

It occurs to me that continuing to call this segment “Cheating on WoW” is growing increasingly inaccurate, considering I haven’t played WoW for the lion’s share of a year. It should probably be “Cheating on TSW” now.

Doesn’t have the same ring to it, though.

Filed under: Games, My writing Tagged: fantasy, Guild Wars 2, writing

Review: Defiance, “Beast of Burden”

It’s not a good day to be a powerful man in Defiance.

“Beast of Burden” opens with Mayor Pottinger escorting a shipment of advanced mining equipment back to Defiance. The caravan is attacked by masked raiders, and the guards are killed, the equipment stolen, and Pottinger utterly humiliated.

The search is on to find the culprits, and Rafe McCawley is as surprised as anyone when the trail leads right to his doorstep. His days of grudging tolerance by the E-Rep may be coming to an end.

Meanwhile, Datak Tarr is enjoying life out of prison, settling old debts and reestablishing himself as the master of his criminal empire. But he may be pushing too hard and too fast. It’s a new world, and not all are happy to see his return to power.

I didn’t enjoy “Beast of Burden” as much as I have the last few episodes, though I can’t quite put my finger on why.

Maybe I just don’t like seeing Rafe tore down any further than he already has been. Maybe I don’t like that Alak regressed to being more or less the non-entity he used to be. Maybe it’s that I am disappointed by the fact the one person in Defiance willing to stand up to the E-Rep is apparently a complete idiot.

Or perhaps I am underwhelmed that Doc Yewll and Irisa’s arcs, which seemed to be building to interesting things last episode, fell to the wayside.

That’s not to say this isn’t an episode without some merits. We got an interesting — if disturbing — insight into Amanda’s past that shines a new light on what led her to her current place in Defiance. Stahma had the opportunity to be more badass than she ever has. Pottinger had a bad day, which evokes a pleasant jolt of schadenfreude. Rafe McCawley got plenty of attention, and that’s never a bad thing.

Christie even showed some personality for once. I’m actually starting to wonder how much longer she’s going to put up with Alak telling her she doesn’t understand things because she’s human. Alak’s a decent guy by most standards, but man, is he a douche to Christie. I suppose it could be a lot worse, considering Castithan attitudes towards women.

And the Tarr clan once again stars in an absolutely amazing closing scene.

Still, I feel a little underwhelmed.

I guess it just boils down to the fact “Beast of Burden” didn’t really evolve the characters or offer any new clues to the mysteries of Defiance — barring the Tarr storyline, which was easily the best part of the episode. “Beast of Burden” isn’t bad; it just doesn’t quite fit into the ongoing arc as well as previous episodes have.

It could have interesting repercussions down the road, at least. I really don’t know what’s next for Datak, and I mean that in the best way possible.

Overall rating: 7.1/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV

Retro Review: Continuum, Episodes 1-3

Orphan Black left me a bit disappointed, but the hunger for new sci-fi remains. Defiance is good, but it isn’t enough on its own. So when I discovered that Showcase has the full series of another Canadian sci-fi show, Continuum, I decided I’d give it a try. I knew even less about Continuum going in than I did about Orphan Black — something something time travel — so I had no idea what to expect.

These reviews will follow roughly the same format as my Orphan Black reviews — that is, somewhat truncated and a little more loose with the spoilers than usual.

“A Stitch in Time” (pilot episode):

Continuum begins in Vancouver in the year 2077. The world’s governments have collapsed, and corporations have stepped in to restore law and order, but this has come at the cost of virtually all personal liberty.

So really not much different from the real world.

Not all accept the new order. In the show’s opening scene, the leader of the terrorist organization Liber8 makes a pirate broadcast calling for an uprising against corporate tyranny. He is tracked down and arrested by the local law enforcement, led by the show’s protagonist, Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols). As he is put in chains, he tells them they are too late, and one of the massive skyscrapers in the background implodes, killing thousands.

Flash forward a few months, and the core leadership of Liber8 have been arrested and are facing execution. At the last moment, they activate a smuggled time travel device, opening a rift that hurls them back in time. Kiera tries to stop them, but is caught in the blast and also thrown back in time.

They wind up in the year 2012. Kiera attempts to apprehend the escaped Liber8 ring leaders, while they seek to continue their war against corporate oppression, attempting to stop the future’s oligarchy before it can begin.

Along the way, Kiera picks up some unlikely allies. While trying to contact her superiors via her cybernetically implanted communications device, she accidentally makes contact with a young man named Alec Sadler (Eric Knudsen). As it turns out, he invented the communications technology she relies on. In her time, his company is one of the world’s most influential, the Apple of its time, but in 2012, Alec is just a greasy kid working out of his parents’ attic.

In a twist bizarrely reminiscent of Orphan Black, Kiera also begins to impersonate a modern day police officer in order to gain the cooperation of the Vancouver police department. Of course, it’s much less hard to swallow on Continuum, because Kiera actually is a cop — albeit one torn out of time.

The fact that I’ve already spent so many words on the synopsis should tell you that this was an eventful pilot. And that’s probably my favourite thing about Continuum so far: It is not wasting any time. It’s full of all the action you could want, and it moves at breakneck pace. The hour flew by, but it doesn’t feel rushed.

Continuum does have its rough spots. It can be a bit cheesy at times, and it’s not very believable, even if you put aside all the sci-fi techno-magic. Once again, TV cops are nothing like real cops.

I’m also a bit underwhelmed with Kiera as a character. The actress is a little stiff, and her character could only be more cliche if she had been one day away from retirement before being pulled backward in time.

On the other hand, she is very entertaining as an action hero, if not necessarily as a person. Between her extensive cybernetic enhancements and her seemingly all-powerful combat suit, she’s basically the combination of Inspector Gadget and the Predator.

And that’s the other thing I like about Continuum: It’s entertaining. Maybe not the most thought-provoking piece of television, but a very fun action-adventure story.

I suppose Continuum also deserves some credit for portraying a kick-ass action hero who is also a working mother. That’s a bit different.

There are a few other things that I find interesting about Continuum out of the gate.

One is how many actors I recognize. The leader of Liber8 is played by Tony Amendola, who is one of those people who’s in pretty much everything but is especially noteworthy for playing Master Bra’tac on Stargate: SG-1. The head of Vancouver’s 2012 police is played Brian Markinson, another omnipresent actor I know from his roles in Caprica, Sanctuary, and Blood and Chrome. Lexa Doig, who played the titular character on Andromeda, appears as a Liber8 lieutenant, and according to the Wikipedia page, Magda Apanowicz (Lacy Rand on Caprica) and Tahmoh Penikett (Carl “Helo” Agathon on Battlestar Galactica) will be appearing later on.

The other is how many parallels there are between Continuum and Orphan Black. Both sci-fi shows filmed and set in Canada. Both feature a tough, dark-haired woman as the protagonist — and you know how much I love my tough, dark-haired heroines. In both cases, the protagonist ends up impersonating a cop.

However, it’s not a comparison that reflects kindly on Orphan Black. Continuum is (so far) far faster paced, far more focused in its story, and just better in almost every way. The only thing that Orphan Black can claim superiority in is the acting chops of its lead — Tatiana Maslany does a very good job considering the weak material she’s given to work with, but I am thus far uninspired by Rachel Nichols as Kiera.

Overall rating: 7.5/10 A little rough around the edges, but lots of fun.

“Fast Times”:

In the second episode, the fugitive Liber8 commanders seek to repower their time device in an attempt to return to their own time, or something near to it. Which is something of a contradiction of their stated goals in the pilot.

Kiera is hot on their trail, hoping she might be able to hitch a ride back to the future as well and thus be reunited with her husband and son, but she comes across a rather nasty complication: The cops discover she is not who she says she is.

Like the pilot, “Fast Times” moves at a breakneck pace. I was quite pleasantly surprised to see Kiera’s false identity torn apart so quickly. It was something that was bound to happen eventually, and I’m glad they didn’t string us along — a stark contrast to Orphan Black’s glacial pacing.

I’m sorry to keep knocking Orphan Black, but it’s so hard not compare these shows, giving that I’m watching both around the same time and their many similarities.

Despite once again providing plenty of action and plot twists, “Fast Times” serves more to advance character arcs than anything else. Kiera struggles to come to terms with being marooned in the past, and to find her place in 2012. But that’s okay; it helps lay the groundwork for how the show will play out going forward.

Overall rating: 7.2/10

“Wasting Time”:

As the name might imply, “Wasting Time” starts out a bit slower than the previous episodes. This is fine; a little respite from the breakneck pacing is welcome.

Mostly, this episode seems to serve the flesh out the identities of the various Liber8 terrorists. Since Continuum is in the odd place of having a larger cast of villains than heroes, this is a worthy pursuit.

I find I’m growing to like Kellogg. He’s pretty amusing, but he has the potential to be more than just comedy relief. Interesting potential for a trickster/double agent style character here.

As “Wasting Time” progresses, the action ramps again. I’m starting to worry that this show is going to be rather formulaic; seems like the bullets start flying at almost exactly the same time every episode. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for consistency, and I’m not sick of the fights yet.

Overall rating: 7.6/10

* * *

So far, I find myself pleasantly surprised by Continuum. It’s not terribly deep or intellectually stimulating, but it’s a lot of fun, and a great show to veg out and relax with.

Filed under: Retro Reviews Tagged: Continuum, review, sci-fi, TV

Review: The Tainted Realm: Justice

If you follow this blog regularly, you’ll know my feelings on Ian Irvine’s Tainted Realm trilogy have been a little mixed. Irvine is my literary idol, and his Three Worlds novels are something that every fan of speculative fiction owes it to themselves to read, but the Tainted Realm has been a bit more inconsistent.

The first book, Vengeance, showed great potential, but it was too unrelentingly dark, and it started to feel more like an endurance test than a relaxing read. Book two, Rebellion, was much more balanced, and had only a few minor hiccups.

Unfortunately, I think the third and final installment of the series, Justice, leans more towards the first book in quality than the second, though for different reasons.

Justice features the land of Hightspall torn by a three-way war. The vengeful Cythonians under King Lyf control much of the land, but they are rapidly losing ground to the Herovian army led by the resurrected Axil Grandys and his Five Heroes. Caught between the unstoppable force and the immovable object is the meager remainder of Hightspall’s military, led by the fallen noble Rixium “Deadhand” Ricinus.

Meanwhile, Mad Wil has thrown the Engine at the heart of the world fatally out of balance, and the land is on the brink of an apocalyptic natural disaster.

As is always the case in Ian Irvine novels, the plot hits the ground running, and there’s no shortage of action or peril, but despite this, I found the first half of the book quite uncompelling for one simple reason: It felt like a total retread of the opening of book two.

Tali has been captured by the bad guys, who seek to use her for her own ends. Tobry is falsely believed to be dead. Rix spares a rival and rapidly comes to regret his act of mercy. Rix and Glynnie constantly butt heads despite their feelings for each other.

Now, which book am I describing?

I found Rix and Glynnie’s troubles particularly bothersome. Partly because I didn’t find their spats particularly interesting the first time around, let alone the second, and partly because I really thought the friction in their relationship had been resolved by the end of the last book. It made all of their development in Rebellion feel rather pointless.

Once you get to around the halfway mark of the book, Justice starts to forge its own path and becomes a very gripping book, but it’s hard to get past that shaky start.

I think the thing I most enjoyed about Justice was how compelling its villains were. I’d say Irvine writes the best villains, but he writes the best everything, so that’s rather redundant.

Justice shows off Irvine’s talents by presenting examples of two completely different kinds of villain, each executed to perfection.

Lyf is a sympathetic villain, to the point where it almost feels unfair to call him a villain. I had to keep forcibly reminding myself of all the horrible things he’s done, because it’s so hard not to feel for him. He has suffered so much for so long, and he loves his people with all his heart. Despite all his crimes, he wound up becoming one of my favourite characters.

On the other hand, Axil Grandys is irredeemably evil. Vile, brutish, savage, cruel, selfish, arrogant, vain… all words that describe him perfectly. He is rotten to the core, with no justification for his endless acts of barbarism. I grew to hate him with every fiber of my being, and any moment that saw Grandys being frustrated, hurt, or defeated had me grinning like an idiot.

The latter half of Justice is almost entirely thrilling, but the ending left something to be desired. It occupies a strange and uncomfortable middle ground. It’s not a cliff-hanger, but it doesn’t leave everything resolved. The characters don’t live happily ever after, but they don’t face a fatalistic defeat, either.

It feels… unfinished. Perhaps Irvine wants to leave the door open to more stories set in this world, but I think he could have done that while still providing a more satisfying ending. As it stands, it just feels oddly incomplete.

I have a theory for why this is. More on that in a moment.

The one other strange and noteworthy thing about Justice is that it reveals the Tainted Realm is not, in fact, an entirely separate story but is tangentially related to the Three Worlds series. I won’t spoil exactly what the connection is, but it’s something that becomes apparent fairly quickly if you know your Three Worlds lore.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. One the one hand, it’s interesting to learn a bit more about the history of the Three Worlds, and as a little Easter egg for fans of Irvine’s other work, it’s a nice touch.

However, coupled with that oddly incomplete ending, I start to wonder. I can’t escape the feeling that the Tainted Realm wasn’t intended to simply be another Three Worlds series in disguise, and that we might see the Tainted Realm and its characters spill over into the upcoming conclusion of the Three Worlds, The Gate of Good and Evil trilogy.

I’m not sure this would be a good idea.

To be fair, part of me enjoys the idea of all the Tainted Realm and Three Worlds characters being brought together in a “comic book crossover/all your favourites in one place” kind of way.

But we were already getting something like that with The Gate of Good and Evil, as it looked poised to bring all the myriad plots and characters of the Three Worlds together. Wrapping up all the loose ends of eleven Three Worlds books would already have been a monumental task, and adding the loose ends of the Tainted Realm on top of that would likely lead to nothing but a scattered and over-burdened plot.

Of course, this is all just my own tinfoil hat theory. Nothing may come of it.

Ultimately, I think the biggest problem with the Tainted Realm trilogy was one of expectation as much as one of its actual quality. I’m such a huge fan of Ian Irvine that I expect perfection from him every time — and to his credit, I’m usually not disappointed despite those unrealistic expectations.

The Tainted Realm isn’t bad. Not even close. Despite some significant stumbles here and there, they’re still very much above average in the fantasy field with some truly brilliant ideas and powerful moments.

But they’re not on the same level of quality as, say, The View From the Mirror or The Song of the Tears, and so I can’t help but feel a little disappointed.

In the end, I’ll stand by what I said in my review of Vengeance. The Tainted Realm books are very good, but I’m not going to go around telling everyone to read them the way I do for the Three Worlds novels. They’re a good read, not a must read.

Overall rating for Justice: 8.4/10

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: books, fantasy, review, The Tainted Realm, Three Worlds

Review: Defiance, “The Cord and the Ax” + What Makes an eSport?

“The Cord and the Ax” is another strong showing from Defiance’s second season.

It’s a busy story, with major developments for pretty much every character. Alak learns that he is soon to be a father, which brings his personal crisis over his role in the family business to a head. Irisa continues to be tormented by visions and compulsions apparently from the Irathient goddess Irzu, driving her to the breaking point.

Meanwhile, Amanda’s adreno addiction worsens, Datak learns that Stahma has left him to rot in prison, and Mayor Pottinger uses Yewll’s severed finger to uncover the secrets left in her office.

There’s a lot going on, but it doesn’t feel too scattered. Everyone seems to get a fair level of attention appropriate to their plot, but some did stand above the others.

I continue to thoroughly enjoy Alak’s growth as a character. His larger role really came out of left field, but against all expectations, it’s turned out to be a very interesting direction. He’s clearly being torn in two by his duty to his family and their Castithan traditions, and his desire to be a kinder and more just person than his parents, and to protect his budding family from the dark legacy of the Tarr clan.

His plot also gave Rafe McCawley the opportunity to once again be a complete badass. If I have one complaint about this season so far, it’s that Rafe hasn’t gotten nearly enough screen time.

And then there’s Datak’s contribution to the story. I won’t spoil anything, but… wow. That last scene.

Once again, I am blown away by the sheer intensity Tony Curran is able to portray.

I also quite enjoyed the continuation of Irisa’s struggles. I’m still not the biggest fan of Irisa’s character, but this episode made the best use of her strengths, giving the viewer insight into how tortured she has become — and she was pretty tortured to begin with.

I also liked how it continued to show the friction between her and Nolan. Nolan truly loves her and wants the best for her, but as Amanda is quick to point out, he’s just not that good of a parent. He’s never truly understood Irisa, and so he struggles to control her when she needs an ally and not a guide, or a warden.

“The Cord and the Ax” also offers some glimpses of what’s really going on with her, and just what is buried beneath the gulanite mines. Not enough to fully understand, but enough for me to be thoroughly intrigued.

This is one thing Defiance does very well: They maintain their mysteries just long enough to keep you intrigued, but not so long that you’re just being strung along without a clue. They hit a perfect cadence for parceling out new information.

It’s really amazing how much this show has improved since its shaky beginnings.

Overall rating: 8.5/10

New article:

eSports are exploding in popularity, but did you ever stop to wonder what determines whether or not a video game will be an eSport? It’s quite a tall order. Just as only a tiny minority of gamers will ever achieve the skills necessary to play competitively, only a handful of games have what it takes to become a sport.

In my latest article for ADANAI, I take a look at just what is necessary for a game to become an eSport.

Filed under: My writing, Reviews Tagged: Defiance, review, sci-fi, TV, video games, writing

TSW’s Second Anniversary + Review: The Chaoswar Saga: A Crown Imperiled

As of today, The Secret World is two years old. Of course, that’s a great accomplishment for the game, but more importantly, it’s time for us all to drown in a sea of free loot.

The Guardians of Gaia event is back, bringing with it buffs to double or at least greatly increase the acquisition of ability points, black bullion, AEGIS XP, and… pretty much everything else in the game, really. There’s also an all new world boss in Tokyo, with new loot and new lore.

Also, there will not be a golem in Fusang Projects this year. That sound you hear is everyone in the Secret World breathing a sigh of relief.

I don’t really see anything topping last year’s Joelzilla Incident, but I fully expect awesome times ahead. TSW puts on fantastic world events, but none have quite topped Guardians of Gaia, in my view.

Today also marks the release of the first additional mission pack added to Tokyo (much sooner than I expected): Sidestories: Love and Loathing, which features five new missions from the various Tokyo NPCs. More Daimon Kiyota can only be a good thing.

Review: A Crown Imperiled

If you follow this blog regularly, you may have heard me say in the past that mediocrity is very hard to review. Without any brilliant moments to praise, or any monumental blunders to rant over, there isn’t much to say.

You may also remember my review of the first book of Raymond E. Feist’s Chaoswar Saga — itself a continuation of the enormous Riftwar Cycle, which tells the story of the embattled world of Midkemia — about two years ago.

I finally got around to reading the second book of this trilogy, A Crown Imperiled, and it is a very hard book to review.

It’s doubly hard because Feist’s writing has become so consistent and predictable that I feel anything I could say would just be repeating what I’ve already said many times before, even if I’ve technically only reviewed one of his other books on this blog.

In short, A Crown Imperiled is a classic example of the rut that the Midkemian novels have fallen into. Feist has created a world full of rich and memorable characters, terrifying threats, and fantastical wonders.

And he all but ignores them in favour of the mundane, the generic, and the predictable.

Every new Midkemia series splits its attention between the longstanding characters who have carried this series from the start — like the godlike magician Pug and the Dragon Lord Tomas — and new characters introduced for that series.

Two things invariably hold true: The new characters are nowhere near as interesting as the old ones, but they get the lion’s share of the attention.

The majority of characters in the Midkemia books are the very definition of forgettable. As in I had literally forgotten everything about most of them right down to their very existence in the time between reading this book and the last one. The only reason I remembered Ty Hawkins was that he has the same nickname as me.

So that’s a major knock against this book out of the gate, and the plot suffers from similar issues. There are some very interesting things going on, but they are not the focus of the story. The side-dishes have crowded out the entrèe.

Martin and Brendan — whom I could not tell you anything about — are digging in to halt the Keshian invasion, a war that the book makes abundantly clear is just a distraction for some other nefarious plot. I swear half the scenes with these characters were just them discussing the logistics of preparing for a siege. Or that’s how it felt.

Meanwhile, their equally nondescript brother Hal ends up running through the wilderness with the fugitive princess of Roldem, which ultimately accomplishes nothing other than providing an excuse for a very generic romance arc.

The most interesting part of this book involves the return from the dead (sort of) of Miranda and Nakor. I was never the biggest fan of Miranda, but Nakor is awesome enough to make all the other tedium of these books worthwhile, and the fact they’ve returned, and the method of their return, raises some intriguing questions.

There’s also a potentially interesting plot involving a Dark Elf chieftain, but it’s largely abandoned after a few chapters because reasons.

Unfortunately, the mind-blowing twist at the end of the last book is largely ignored.

In case it wasn’t clear by now, I wasn’t very impressed by A Crown Imperiled.

It may be that I am being harsher than the book deserves. Certainly, it’s still a well-written book in the technical sense, and it’s not without its thrills. But it’s hard to ignore how much potential is being completely wasted.

At least Nakor is back. That almost makes all the other stumbles worthwhile. That guy is amazing.

Overall rating: 6.5/10 While the last few books felt above average for the flagging Riftwar series, A Crown Imperiled is a return to form, and not at all in a good way.

Filed under: Games, Reviews Tagged: books, fantasy, review, Riftwar, The Secret World

Review: Defiance, “In My Secret Life”

It may be early going, but so far, the second season of Defiance seems to be an improvement over the first. Or, at least, it seems more consistent. No growing pains this time. If I had to describe “In My … Continue reading →