Category: TV

I have watched more than a few episodes of the new DuckTales with my daughter, and all I can say is that they nailed it.  It is more of a comedy than when I was a kid, but I can live with that.  The core of the show is still Scrooge McDuck and his nephews going on outlandish adventures and halving a lot of fun doing it.  It has been good to see Disney return to adventure cartoons, and hand drawn ones at that.

I was happy they updated Mrs. Beakley and Webby quite a bit.  In the original they didn’t get a lot to do except annoy the boys, but now Webby is capable, but just a little socially awkward, and Mrs. Beakley is some sort of spy.  Why she is working for Scrooge we don’t know yet.

The new voice actors take a little getting used to, but once you do they are all great and very expressive.  I was a little worried that when they went out and hired a bunch of recognizable names that a few of the actors would just phone it in, but so far that hasn’t been the case.

If you have Disney XD, DuckTales is well worth your time.  If you don’t, you should put it on your list of things to watch when you can.  DuckTales was a major part of my childhood, and I am glad to see Disney took the time to reboot it with care.  I am hoping the new Big Hero 6 cartoon is just as good.  If so, Disney XD might have become my new favorite channel.

Generally when a show or movie comes out with little to no fanfare it means the studio or channel doesn’t have a lot of faith in it, or that it isn’t very good.  Which is why it was surprising that Mindhunter, developed by David Fincher and Charlize Theron, just showed up on Netflix this October the 13^th with barely a word to the press, because it is gripping television.

The show is about the beginning of the Behavioral Science Unit in the FBI.  Their job is to try and find out why serial killers and sociopaths act the way they do by interviewing the deranged killers that have already been caught, and then use that information to catch other criminals or hopefully prevent more of these kinds of murders from happening in the future.  Of course, they weren’t called serial killers in 1977 because the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit hadn’t named them that yet.

While Mindhunter is based on a non-fiction book about real events, they did change the names of the Agents involved.  I believe they did this to give them more freedom to play with how this affected the Agents’ personal lives.  The serial killers on the other hand all go by their real names, and the interviews with these ‘gentlemen’ are quite disturbing.  Mindhunter doesn’t get the audience hooked with a lot of gore or terrible imagery, but by hearing what these guys did to their victims from their own lips, and seeing the affect this has on the Agents as they try to get ‘close’ to them, so that killers will open up and share their dark secrets.

The cast is fantastic.  The core of the Behavioral Science Unit played by Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv all bring something different to the group, and seeing how their characters change from the beginning to the end of the show engrossing.  The guys they got to play the serial killers, especially Cameron Britton as Edmund Kemper, are all disturbingly believable.

Then there is David Fincher.  He is a still a master director, and the episodes he directs personally all manage to have you on the seat of your pants even though nothing except talking is really going on.  I am pretty sure the guy that made Facebook interesting could make a movie about water boiling at this point, and I would watch it.

It goes without saying this show is not for kids.  Mostly due to the langue and the pictures these guys look at from time to time, and there is some nudity that feels a bit out of place.  However, if you are of age Mindhunter is great show that somehow turns the police procedural on its head by focusing on the research instead of the crime scenes or chase sequences.  In fact, no one at any point gets chased in this show, well at least the first season.  Here is hoping season two will be just as good.

The Handmaid’s Tale is a terrifying show produced by Hulu, but it is not terrifying because of a ghost or a psychotic madman but because it shows a future to the United States that for some seems unfortunately possible.  While it would take a lot for that future to take place, you don’t have to look too hard through history to find examples free nations taken by tyranny: Iran, Venezuela or everyone’s favorite villains Nazi Germany, just to name a few.  It turns out that desperate people make bad decisions.

In the not to distant future most women in the world have become unable to have children, and this sends the world in to a downward spiral.  A Pseudo-Christian group has used the unrest in America to take over, and the women that are able to have kids are forced to breed with the leaders of this group to give those men and their wives children.  These unfortunate women are called Handmaids.  The show follows a Handmaid by the name of Offred (Elisabeth Moss).

The Handmaid’s Tale never backs away from anything.  It shows this bleak future in unflinching detail.  While I know some Christians are upset at the show because they are worried people might get the wrong idea about Christianity, you don’t have to know much about Christian theology to know that rulers of ‘Gilead’ (The Former USA) have warped the Bible for their own evil purposes.  Which is probably why most people in Gilead aren’t allowed to read the Bible.

A show about institutionalized rape would be hard to believe or get in to without good performances, and thankfully The Handmaid’s Tale has a lot of talent on screen.  There aren’t many weak performances, and Elisabeth Moss is able to work her way through the wide array of Offred’s emotions almost perfectly.  Considering about half of the show is just Elisabeth Moss close ups, she does an amazing job getting the audience to feel what Offred is going though.

The Handmaid’s Tale is not for the weak of heart, and it shows the fall of the USA, which some people may take issue with, but sadly The Handmaid’s Tale uses the past for its version of the future, so we would be wise to listen to what it has to say.  Even if we reject its conclusion.  The Handmaid’s Tale is worth watching if you have access to Hulu, or maybe just paying for Hulu for a month to watch it.  Who knows, you may even get through the show during your seven day free trial.