Trikucian Character Design Unveiled

Trikucian Main Design by ~Trikucian on deviantART Check out the final character design for Trikucian! Soon she will be on the banner for the site and the profile photo for all the various things I'm attached to. Reviews and subsequent bumper art will be soon to follow!

Weekly TV Recap Written Review

So, yet again, I'm not motivated enough to do the vlog.  Oh, and the Oscars are on tonight, which of course I couldn't give two shits about because none of the movies are interesting this year.  They're all just meh.  So I'll just talk about the stuff I did watch and care about this week: The Walking Dead, of course, and Breaking In and Breakout Kings.

     This episode of The Walking Dead tonight was finally worth the wait.  We had all been waiting patiently for the zombies to return, and return they have, in droves.  Finally tonight we had the heart pounding, face smashed in, zombie killing action we've been waiting for.  But what makes this episode most interesting is the interaction between Rick and Shane.  We've been waiting for the tension between them to come to a head ever since we found out that Shane was sleeping with his wife.  In the comics at this point Shane had already been killed, so us as the audience has no idea where this is going.  The sneak preview for the episode next week shows that Shane is still thinking of rebellion, which I really wish he wouldn't, but there we are.  It will definitely be more than interesting to see how everything plays out.

     The next two shows I began to watch this week were Breaking In and Breakout Kings.  Breaking In is about a firm of specialists who break in to various companies for them so that the companies can find out what their weak spots are.  It's a comedy show, so we see a lot of silly stuff happening, but I like that it's not the gross-out humor that is more popular right now.  Which is surprising because it's done by Happy Madison Productions.  A lot of people don't like them or Adam Sandler, but honestly, they do produce some fun stuff.  I still maintain that Little Nicky is one of my favorite comedy movies and I plan to do a scripted video review of it in the future.  I haven't caught up all the way with the episodes, but so far I'm enjoying it.  If you haven't seen it yet, its a lot of fun.  It's also great to see Christian Slater in a decent role again.  Breaking In is owned by and aired on FOX.

     Breakout Kings is the show that has definitely caught my attention this week.  Again, I'm not all caught up to date with it yet, but the new season starts in about a week, so I have time.  I have to say, I am in love with this show.  And I know, I seem to be spreading around my amour for all these different shows, but they really are all worth it.  It's all just adding to my opinion that TV today is better than theatrically released films.      Anyways, the basic plot of the show is that the U.S. Marshals have created a team of convicts with special abilities to help them recover escaped convicts.  Cool idea, great cast, especially Jimmi Simpson who plays Lloyd Lowry, a one time psychiatric doctor turned prison inmate.  I've been watching this actor for a while now and I'm surprised at myself for not having watched this show earlier.  Oh well, at least I get to watch all the episodes in a row right?  But anyways, the show is well worth the watch, if not for the interesting situations they find themselves in but for the great cast.  Here's the link to the IMDB page: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1590961/.  Also, T-Bag from Prison Break is in this!  This takes place in the same universe as Prison Break, how cool is that!  Great, now I have to re-watch that show again too.

     So that's it for this week.  I'm currently working on a comedy review for The Blue Lagoon, but it's going super fucking slow because that movie is almost unreviewable.  I swear, half the movie has nudity, while the other half is just inserts of pretty animals.  See you next week!

TV and Comics

Sorry for anyone watching, I'm not going to do a vlog this week because I'm too busy moving, sorta. I did watch a lot of TV and read a lot of comics though, so I'll just give my opinions on how the different series I've been watching have been progressing.

 To start off I have been watching Season 2 of The Walking Dead religiously, as many TV enthusiasts have. I will try not to give any spoilers, but I'll warn you anyways because it's a little difficult to express my opinions on the matter without revealing something. All of us who have read both the comics and watched the TV series are very well aware that the TV show is not following the comics. The basic themes of the comics are represented well in the television series, or at least will be in the future. These themes are an exploration of sexuality and community within a post-apocalyptic context, who the real antagonists are, and basic means of survival. A lot of people who are watching the show keep saying how these characters aren't doing the basic survival means because they keep letting their emotions get in the way. In particular said it's going into soap opera territory and there aren't enough zombies. While I agree there should be more zombies and conflicts, I disagree that the reaction of the characters to the situation isn't realistic. I think it is very believable and in fact gives each of the characters a large amount of depth and individuality. If you've seen the current episode you will all agree with me that the final scene of the episode is setting up one of the more interesting conflicts between the main characters. And that Rick is becoming an uber badass.

The other shows I started watching were Grimm and Once Upon a Time. Grimm is boring, has bad effects, and suffers from what I call 'Vancouver Pretty'. Take that as you will for now, I'll do a big discussion on it later. And I know parts if not all of Once Upon a Time is filmed in BC, but in every way it's better. It has amazing effects, costumes, props, sets, EVERYTHING. It's worth watching just because of the production design alone. But, like most things, what makes it very worth watching is the Robert Carlisle performance as Rumplestiltskin. I like the other characters, but I love not only how the character is basically the devil characters, making loaded deals with everyone for what the want, but always giving them giant ultimatums. Keeping track of everything that he does is a major point to the story. And how he interacts with the other antagonist, the Evil Queen. The basic plot is that all of the fairybook characters we know of from the old stories and Disney movies are all under a curse where they're stuck in the aptly named Storybrooke Maine. Which is actually BC, but as per the usual the shows can't take place in Canada, but, again, that's a discussion for another time. So, if you haven't, watch Once Upon a Time, it's a lot of fun.

I did say I was going to talk about comics as well. The three that I follow right when they're first released are Berserk, Vinland Saga, and The Walking Dead. I used to be a huge Otaku so I still check the manga sites for the more badass manga, and that's where Berserk and Vinland Saga come from. But in their defense they're based on European history and fantasy (in Berserk's case) and they're impeccably drawn. Some of the panels in Berserk are so breathtaking they could be taken straight from the graphic novel as is and work as a framed piece, without being colored. And that explains why it takes forever for the new chapters to come out. Grumble. Well, Vinland Saga takes pretty long too. The Walking Dead, on the other hand, is American and comes out every month. I am eagerly awaiting the new issue which will come out any day now. All are worth reading and are all quite long, with Vinland Saga being the shortest at 80 issues, which is not short by any means, so they definitely have staying power.

And, last but not least, I am so excited for the new season of Game of Thrones! I watched all of the pre-production videos and I am in love with it already! Well, I knew I would be, but you really can tell that HBO is putting all of its effort into it and it will continue to be a masterpiece. This and The Walking Dead are my prime examples of how television nowadays have more clout and more creativity than movies do. The Emmys should have more hype than they do, but at least there are still the Golden Globes. In either case, both are leaps and bounds better than the Oscars.

Stay tuned, written reviews will be up soon!

Weekly TV Recap 02/12/12

 The main focus of this week is the return of The Walking Dead. I compare it to the comic and in every way get very excited while discussing it with my camera. I also mention Castle and Vampire Diaries.

V-Log Update

So I'm changing the schedule for the v-log yet again. In light of The Walking Dead premiere on Sunday, I felt it best to tape the v-log right after watching all the big shows and then release it the following Monday. In reality it's only a day later, but I feel like I've missed a whole week by doing this. On another note, I still have yet to finish watching the last few episodes of Chuck and Merlin, but I plan to before Sunday night. And then The Walking Dead! Can't wait, only 28 hours to go!

'Merlin' Review (May 3, 2011)

Merlin Review (first posted on my 'practice' blog May 3, 2011)

I just finished watching the third, and to date most recent, season of Merlin by the BBC. Initially I was put off by the changes that were made to the original Arthurian Legends, but after watching the show in its entirety I was pleasantly surprised. Being a television series it has more time to flesh out the minor characters and because it is done by the BBC it has access to all the costumes in the BBC vault. At the same time though, because it is a periodical television series it has episode and plot constraints that sometimes don't help it all that much.

I'll be honest, the season that I enjoyed the most, in every respect, was the third season. The first season had some serious growing pains, though the main actors were enjoyable, the second season was trying too hard to be funny and dramatic, but the third season brought it all together. Initially I was annoyed with how all the main characters were different from the original story, but then after watching the show I realized that this was a modern re-imagining of the classic story. The thing is with a classic story is that the same story has been retold a million times. What Merlin did was make changes that worked and made sense to the current generation. All the constraints made on the characters, from Merlin to Uther and everyone in between, gave good dramatic tension. Merlin having to hide his magic from everyone did cause a lot of interesting developments, but ever since the first episodes of the first season I wanted him to be revealed. That and Uther to die, but then I warmed up to his character and was pleased by Anthony Head's acting abilities by the end of the third season. But what made Merlin a joy to watch was all the minor characters, most particularly those who would become the Knights of the Round Table. Lancelot with his honor, Gwaine with his impetuosity, Leon with his loyalty, and I was even pleasantly surprised to see Percival introduced near the end, he being the knight that embodied innocence, at least from what I understand. Other tellings of the Arthurian Legends don't follow the knights nearly as much and I was pleasantly surprised to see Merlin do so. And before I forget I like that this version doesn't go into the Christian aspect of the Arthurians Legends, so much so that they change the Holy Grail into the Cup of Life in the third season.

Being English in both history, context, and even where it is produced, I found Merlin to be a fresh, but at the same time old, look at fantasy. On one side of the titular character's life you have the court intrigue of a medieval realm, and on the other the fantasy and magic of English folklore. The most interesting and fun to watch moments were those that included fairies or other magical creatures, my favorite example being from The Changeling in season three, where a princess is possessed by a fairy and proceeds to be utterly awkward. The dragon is also an interesting character, even though he is mostly used as a deus ex machina plot device. The Arthurian Legends are embedded in English cultural identity and this more modern version of them have made them interesting again.

What can I say, the costumes in Merlin are spectacular. My favorite historical period is the Medieval Period, and I am also trained as a costumer, so seeing such a high level of quality in the costumes makes me ecstatic. The most obvious costuming element present in Merlin is the armor and chain-mail. But the thing that makes it amazing is that all of the warriors are wearing REAL metal armor and chain-mail. I have utmost respect for Anthony Head and any other actor for having to wear the chain-mail and armor because it is terribly heavy, but most especially Bradley James because he wears the chain-mail and armor in every episode he appears in, which because he's Arthur is every episode of the television series. But not only was the armor perfect, but all the rest of the costumes were as well, even though they also had growing pains in the first season. I'll use Merlin, the titular character, as my example. Merlin, because he is a servant, wears simple clothing. But even though it is simple, his costume is still full of texture, probably wool, and color, which was common in the Medieval period. I particularly love Merlin's scarf.

It should be mentioned that I also found the sets and props pretty cool, but I won't review them because I didn't take a critical look at them when I was watching the show. They made a great setting for this medieval fantasy. Also, Excalibur (even though it hasn't been stated as such) was a particularly beautiful sword.

Even though I do enjoy the characters, costumes, and all of the other design concepts, I'm a little on the fence with the writing for the particular episodes. Well, my only issue is that a lot of the episodes have resolutions that pretty much have the same consequence as the end of most of the other episodes. Pretty much this is how an episode goes: the villain of the episode is defeated, Uther is still alive, Merlin's powers are still a secret, Arthur is prince and Morgana (at least in Season 3) is pissed off her plan didn't work. This doesn't denote bad writing and is common in most television series, but I grew tired of guessing how the episode was going to end. This style of episode writing does have a plus side in that it allows Merlin to find out more about magic and the minor characters and this information becomes important in the season finales, especially that of season three. Actually season three brings characters back from previous seasons so that was very interesting to those of us who watched the entire show.

Merlin, created by Julian Jones, Julian Murphy, Johnny Capps, and Jake Mitchie, produced by the BBC, is a series worth watching. The design is beautiful, the characters realistic and interesting, and the production value keeps getting better. Sometimes the writing is predictable, but the big plot twists are worth waiting for. Plus the comedy is decent and the character drama, most particularly in the finales, is quite compelling. Initially any fan, including myself, will be put off by the changes to the ages old Arthurian Legends, but this show will win them over. It certainly did so for me.

Emerald City Comicon Cosplay

Hey all! That time of year has come again, the time when I come up with what epic cosplay I will make for the first couple of big cons of the year: Emerald City Comicon and Sakuracon . I will for sure go to Emerald City, and probably Sakuracon as well. My sister will be River Song from Doctor Who:

And I'm going to be a Weeping Angel:


My additional concept would be to do my own version of The Queen of Hearts in Tudor style:

Tudor Queen of Hearts by ~Trikucian on deviantART

All I know is that doing the angel AND the gown would take a ton of time, and I also want to make a Commander Shepard N7 armor for the summer. Doctor Who is owned by the BBC.

Weekly TV Recap 02/05/12 Part 2

In part 2 I talk about the rest of the cast of Community, as well as some noteworthy episodes, and then go on to the BBC's Sherlock. Forgive the jump cuts, I get very tongue-tied during this v-log.

Weekly TV Recap 02/05/12 Part 1

In the first part of this week's v-log I discuss Vampire Diaries and Community. Part 2 coming up very soon!