This was a show that I was watching for simple reasons. Firstly, it's a studio Madhouse production, and when they put their name to something, I will pay attention. Secondly, the main character has a massive revolver as a head. To be completely honest, what more could you possibly ask for from a show? In all seriousness though, I was quite looking forward to this as I have heard good things about the manga that it was based on, and that built up my anticipation all the more.

Now that we are a quarter of the way into the show, I can say for certain that this show could throw anything at me, and I will believe that this was the story all along. After the revelation last episode with the fact that Seizaki was forced to confront the man that he was accusing in the hearing, we start directly after that moment. Here we have an exposition dump about the reason as to why the city that they are all inhabiting was created to begin with, and why there was corruption to begin with. It was a means to pass the laws that they wanted for the betterment of humanity, however whether these words could be believed or not is another matter altogether, and I for one have stopped trying to predict and figure out what is going to happen.

Laurel Briggs (Kate Villanova) may be thriving in regards to her business career, but at home, her marriage proves to be on rocky ground. In addition to her husband James' (Jason Cermak) past affair still weighing on her mind, Laurel's focus on her work has caused her to become distant and confrontational with her husband. So while away at a business conference following a fight with James, Laurel finds herself tempted by the flirtations of the handsome Kent Anderson (Matthew McCaull).

This episode of Babylon had a different structure to the previous episode, where the sequence of events were taken out of order, while simultaneously playing with different aspect ratios to denote various points in the timeline. The first thing that I thought of when I saw this storytelling method was the framing of the narrative within Persona 5, where the present is comprised of a police interrogation, while the flashbacks are what took place leading up to the interrogation.

Dr. Brook plows through the beginning of the show talking about the film Hombre (1967), which he finds to be an anti-Western. He says that most people miss the point of the movie. He points out that Native Americans have been mistreated. The entire movie revolves around the Paul Newman character, John “Hombre” Russell. Dr. Brook discusses plot points and lauds Newman’s acting and the direction. He proclaims that Russell has a strong sense of morals. Hombre, Dr. Brook explains, compromises on important issues. “Christianity is mentioned once but implied throughout the movie,” Dr. Brook says.

I just got back from seeing Joker. And, you know what the world needs? Another Joker review. There just has not been enough talk about this movie yet, so it's a good thing you are reading this. You need my opinion on it. Heck, why not? Everyone else and their dog has written about it and feels that you need their opinion on it, even if they HAVEN'T even seen it themselves. Why not throw my hat into the ring here?

Monday Leaderboard (the night's scores only)

On October 5th, amidst the excitement surrounding a new film release tipped as "Oscar-worthy," filmmaker and political activist Michael Moore took to Facebook to explain why it is essential that everyone watches Todd Phillipps's new masterpiece Joker. Here, I want to discuss why he is right, using one particular quote that stuck with me, whilst analysing other points from his post (link here) and expressing my own thoughts on the film.

Gooble gobble, one of us! We accept her, we accept her. Gooble gobble.

A lot of people have been bad mouthing DC movies for awhile because Marvel movies have done a lot better with their campy style of story telling. DC has always been the more serious version of superhero movies and people tend to forget this. They even wanted to change them to make them feel more like Marvel movies. It's a shame that a lot of companies are willing to make these changes because that's where the big bucks seem to be. I'm glad DC has stuck to their guns with Joker.

Robert Massimi.

I liked it. It was what I wanted most from this film, fun. And I did indeed squee at certain moments that brought me back to my childhood. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but it is a good film, I’d even say above average, and yet still, Imma say out some things I didn’t like and how I thought things could be done better, because my brain doesn’t know how to shut off.