Lost in Space Season 2 – Announcement & Official Trailer

We won’t have to wait much longer for Netflix’s Lost in Space Season 2 as it was just announced at New York’s Comic-Con it’s coming to the streaming service on December 24th, 2019.  Netflix also released the first trailer for season 2 shown below.

It feels like ages have passed since I finished watching that last episode of Season 1 thinking I can’t wait for Season 2 but that wait is coming to a close very fast.  Season 2 is going to take place seven months after the events of Season 1 wrapping up, and this season is going to have some major plots to work through.  Everyone is a bit older, hopefully wiser, and somewhat battle-scarred from the previous tasks they went through.  So I’m sure we are going to see some of the coming of age drama and the kids taking on a bit more of a grown-up roll.

Netflix also revealed a new cast member is joining the crew for Season 2 which is JJ Field playing the character of Ben Adler, the “Chief of Advanced Systems and Artificial Intelligence”.  This new character seems to have a big tie into the overall larger plot of the story unfolding as a clip shown during the panel had Alder telling the Robinsons of another AI, called Scarecrow which will tie the story together from the mysteries the Robinsons uncovered in Season 1.

Netflix wasn’t shy about showing new things coming to the show as they also previewed a clip of the Robinsons turning the Jupiter into a “Space Sailboat” to cross a sea on one of the planets they’ve landed on.  It looks like Season 2 will see the Robinsons exploring multiple planets in the five-planet system they discovered at the end of Season 1, and also find out more details about the origins of the mysterious Robot and where it truly came from.   I’m sure throughout the 10 episodes of Season 2 we will see more surprises and mysteries that the Robinsons will have to uncover and of course get themselves out of those tricky situations they are oh so good at.

 

Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House: Season 1 Review

One of my favorite series on Netflix over the last few months has definitely been The Haunting of Hill House.  If you are a huge fan of the novel from Shirley Jackson written back in 1959 then you need to see this adaptation of the popular horror novel.  One of the best parts about this show is the drama it brings to the screen, but also a level of terrifying moments that truly dig deep into the roots of the horror genre.

Following the Crain family and the ghosts of their past in 10 emotional packed episodes left me with needing to see more of this show now.  The show starts with the Crain children, who, after growing apart, are tragically brought back together after one of the siblings dies. The Haunting of Hill House is loaded with a timeline you have to keep up with pretty close as each timeline is impacted throughout the season.

When the kids are young and still living in Hill House, they continually get visions of ghosts, zombies, and a tall slender man, but these visions follow them into adulthood, but most of these ghosts they face seem to be of their own making.  There’s a complex theme throughout the story concerning the house’s complicity in all of the kids’ failings as adults. This is where the show begins to take a really scary turn as things begin to manifest in the adult’s lives, and the plot really begins to thicken with a rich story.

When the story begins to expand on the children’s lives, Hill House and their father the scares kick off big time.  In the flashbacks with the children, the directory used an amazing slow camera pan technique that really added a dark feeling to the overall story. While the children are the main focus of the narrative for Hill House, a family tale of ghosts and curses wouldn’t be complete without Mom & Dad.  Hugh and Olivia Crane are introduced early on in the show but with a twist that unfolds throughout the entire season.  Carla Gugino plays Olivia Crain, and Hugh Crain is played by Timothy Hutton which the two made a great pair and delivered some amazing performances.

Olivia like here children are affected by the house, but you also see a woman who is losing grip on reality which could be due to a troubled marriage, and stress of raising her five children.  The director did something brilliant through the telling of the story and how things unfold to create a doubt in your mind as the viewer.  You truly aren’t sure if what you are watching unfold on screen is because of a crazy family with mental issues, or if this family truly is seeing ghosts and have been living in a haunted house.  Personally, the Haunting of Hill House has been one of the best Netflix original horror series released to date.  Season 2 can’t get here fast enough to continue the unfolding of America’s most haunted family and haunted house.

Lost in Space – Season 1 Review

Hello everyone!

So this week has been quite the blur due to the busy schedule and I had a couple days I wasn’t feeling well.  Needless to say I haven’t felt like writing the last couple days and my mind has been out of it today honestly.

I know this week was supposed to be about connecting and potentially co-working on things with someone….but with not feeling well and my brain being mush tonight’s post is all I could focus on and put together.

This post really has nothing to do with this weeks theme in Blaugust, but like I said my brain has been mush the last couple days and this is fresh on my mind.  My family and I love to binge watch a good show when one does come along which happened just recently with Netflix’s Lost in Space.  In my personal opinion it’s one of the greatest sci-fi remakes of our time and an amazing family adventure series as well!

First off let’s jump in with the….what made the show so great!

Creators Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless did an absolute amazing job bringing the show back to life and giving it a great 21st century look.  The world was absolutely beautiful and the characters in the story were so like-able….well most of the characters anyways.

Who wouldn’t love the Robinson family which personally was the shows strongest point for sure.  If you’re not familiar with the story…..here’s the what on the story!

If you haven’t seen the show yet, well then ****SPOILERS AHEAD****

Let’s start with the Christmas Star….yes that’s right the Christmas Star!  This object is a mysterious object that crashes into Earth which forces humanity to look for a new habitable world to call home.  Humans have a base ship of sorts called The Resolute which is leading the mission for finding this new home.  They also have smaller jump ships called Jupiter ships, which is what the Robinson family use for a large portion of there exploration.  The Resolute runs into a massive space-time disruption event of some sort which forces an evacuation of the Resolute, and a crash landing from the Robinson’s in one of the Jupiter ships on an unknown world.

The show really starts to take root here and show it’s colors and genius with the Robinson family at the center of it all!  One of the best parts of the show is how the Robinson’s are a dysfunctional mess but they don’t really see it at first and truly just stumble over one another.  Especially when it comes to working together.  The creative writing done in this show was crazy good and the writers used a ton of flashback scens to really tie the story in together. The flashback are what help bring all the information to the table and really allowed you to connect to the Robinson family.

That classic saying from the show so became a hit so many years ago is back as well!  Yes, that’s right, “danger Will Robinson” is back with a very creative new presentation of the beloved robot.  The robot has a very unique story and is quite different from any other that has ever been told to date.  One thing that does remain close to it’s original roots is Will’s relationship with the robot which becomes apparent quite early on of how distant Will’s father has been, and that’s why Will is looking to the robot for friendship.

As far as the Robinson ladies of the show they are pretty amazing when it comes to the dynamic they bring to the table.  Maureen, the mom, ultimately is the leader of the group.  The daughters also bring a weight to the show that really draws you into the family dynamic.  One of my favorite characters in the show is Judy, the oldest daughter which I think has the most baggage and biggest change in the show.  She has a massive weight on her shoulders and has gone through some pretty traumatic experiences in her life already even with only being 18.

Now let’s move on to the worst part of the show for me….the villain!

Dr. Smith played by Parker Posey is one of the most manipulative characters I’ve seen on screen before.  Dr. Smith comes into the good graces of the Robinson’s early on but they don’t understand the evil they just let into the family.  Dr. Smith lacks complexity which is ultimately why I don’t like her, but also because she’s the bad guy and I’m not a bad guy fan…no matter how good the actor is.  The writers even tried to give some backstory on Dr. Smith but I think by the time it happened people were probably already set on the decision of “I Hate This Character” and didn’t care.  Personally in my opinion Dr. Smith’s character added nothing to the story.

Overall though I think this series is a massive win and something you could sit down and enjoy with the family together!  The Robinsons are an amazing family and have a huge story of survival and redemption they tell all along the series.

Castlevania: Season 1 Review

Hollywood isn’t known for adapting popular video game franchises to film or television that ever become fan favorites.  For the most part over the years video games that have come to the big screen have flopped at best.  Every once in a while though you have a little gem like Castlevania come along that brings life back to this genre.

If you are an 80’s baby you probably played Castlevania as it is one of the most iconic video games ever created!  With the series based off the Castlevania games it draws very heavily from the 1990’s Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse which follows Vlad Dracula Tepes (voiced by Preacher and Outlander’s Graham McTavish) has returned and unleashed a horde of demonic monsters against the peasants and clergymen of 15th Century Wallachia, and only a motley crew band of monster slayers which includes a discraced nobleman Trevor Belmont (The Hobbit’s Richard Armitage), magician/scholar Sypha Belnades (Alejandra Reynoso) and Dracula’s half-breed son Alucard (Battlestar Galactica’s James Callis) have the power to restore peace to the land.

Overall the Castlevania games are exploration in the world than story and plot, and this story isn’t one you’d think of when it comes to making an animated adaptation of. So why makes Castlevania different, and why did it have success? A lot of it had to do with who ran the show and who was in charge.  Executive producer Adi Shankar has sort of built a second career out of crafting unauthorized, adult-oriented reboots of popular franchises, including 2012’s Punisher: Dirty Laundry and 2015’s Power/Rangers. If you want to craft an R-rated overhaul of a popular video game franchise while still retaining the core appeal of that franchise, Shankar is the man you call!

Good shows come down to not only directing, producing, and people in charge but an amazing team of writers as well!  Writer Warren Ellis, a man known for blending high-concept science fiction and black, nihilistic humor in his stories, but he’s primarily known for his comic book work (Planetary, & Transmetropolitan).

Seeing the teaser for Castlevania immediately had me excited, but also cautious at the same time as adaptations like these are almost never done well!  So I waited, and waited, and waited some more before finally parking in front of the screen to hit play and Castlevania starts off on the right foot by focusing not on the Belmont family, but Dracula himself. The series opens with a fateful encounter between the reclusive vampire king and an aspiring scientist named Lisa (The Mentalist’s Emily Swallow). That opening scene nicely sets the tone for the series, establishing Dracula’s tenuous connection to the human world and giving him real motivations for terrorizing the land of Wallachia. While Dracula has little overt presence in the series after the first episode, it’s satisfying to see Ellis treat his main villain with depth.  Dracula has at least a shred of tragedy about him in any incarnation, but that angle is really played up here, and it’s done very well!

In addition to creating a sympathetic villain in Dracula, the early portions of the show help establish the general themes that dominate the episodes.  This adaptation is as much about fear and the reasoning of people, as it is man and monster.  Both Dracula and the monster hunters are forced to choose whether they believe humanity can rise above the dark age this show thrusts you into.  I love how the show pulls you into the live of Trevor Belmont which is the last surviving son of the disgraced family, one who’s tempted to simply sit back and let those who wronged his family suffer their just fate.

Netflix pulled out the stops and spared no expense to get some amazing actors for the voice cast, forgoing the familiar names in the voice acting world in favor of some very big-name actors. For the most part, the actors do justice to their characters. McTavish and Callis in particular stand out as they channel the pathos and suffering of their undead characters. There are times when the actors (Armitage especially) speak too softly and become drowned out by the music and sound effects, but there is a passion to the performances that you don’t always find in projects like this.

Amid all the crazy character drama and clashing between science and superstition, Castlevania never loses sight of the classic appeal to the game series. There’s plenty of action to go around, even though we don’t get to see a lot of the monsters from the game. The series does an amazing job of pulling the world of Castlevania to the screen for our eyes to see. This series may draw mainly from Castlevania III in terms of plot, but it’s far more influenced by games like Symphony of the Night when it comes to the lovely art style.

 

All Things Geekery Podcast Episode 4 – Stranger Things

In this episode:

• Iogro talks about some new changes that will be happening to the podcast over the next few months.
• We talk Netflix and some of it’s original series
• **Spoiler** about a new Destiny Lore series coming this year
• We take an in depth look at Netflix’s original series Stranger Things

 

 

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Social Contacts

Iogro Merrybelly / Victus Darkaero

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Blog @ http://www.ahobbitsjourney.com

Twitter @victus_darkaero

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Music Credit Erik Skiff