A Sunday Review

TV this week:

• Sherlock: "The Blind Banker" - Ooooh, I like this show. The visualizations that go along with Sherlock's thinking work nicely to keep the viewer in the game, while still being subtle enough to not be annoying. I keep finding out that I'm figuring out stuff a little before Sherlock... not because I'm any smarter than him, but because I'm looking from the outside and have the cues given to me by the filming. But it makes the story easier to watch because the viewer feels for a moment like they are one-up on Sherlock Holmes. Enjoyed this, slightly disappointed that there is only one more. But on the other hand, hey, there's one more!
• Sherlock: "The Great Game" - Fantastic episode... but oh, very not good in so many ways. The whole ongoing bit with Mycroft is amusing, but the reveal at the end of the story with the big villain was *much* more interesting than I expected. John continues to be the star of this show, despite Sherlock, and I love that Watson's blog is how people are learning about Sherlock's adventures. The ending of this episode is totally unfair, and I am officially complaining to the management about it right now.


• Beast Legends: "Winged Lion" - This time they make a manticore. They do some work to get the actual dimensions of a cave lion for the body. The lengths they go to get images of golden eagles was impressive. And the goofy animation they ended up with was nice. A fairly good episode.
• Beast Legends: "Wildman of Vietnam" - Looking for a Vietnam Bigfoot apparently just isn't as interesting to me as the more fantastic creatures they come up with. Possibly because I think of Bigfoot as a possibly real creature instead of a completely fantastic creature. Whatever the reason, this episode ended up annoying me instead of impressing me.


• Young Justice: "Independence Day" - Wait, Aqualad's real name is Kaldur'ahm? How cool is that? Ahem. Sorry. The sidekicks of several Justice Leaguers are allowed into the Hall of Justice, and eventually they strike off on their own, discovering a new hero along the way. I was absolutely thrilled by Aqualad. He's awesome. Writers too often forget that Aquaman lives at the bottom of the freaking ocean, and therefore is very strong and fast on land. These writers got it right. He didn't hesitate to jump into the fight against a possibly stronger opponent, and his water weapons are very cool visually. I want a lot more of his history now. Unfortunately, I've got to wait awhile. If I have any complaint, it's due to the lack of female characters in this pilot. I'm well aware that the original Teen Titans and the original Young Justice both started out with three guys and later expanded, so I'm not going to be picky about it. But the character added at the end isn't going to be enough for me. I wanna see Maxine Hunkel (Cyclone) as part of the team.

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This week's movie was Lennon Naked, starring Christopher Eccleston as John Lennon. I wasn't interested in this at all, but hubby-Eric DVRed it, so I watched it with him. It was a strange view of Lennon, taking a few years of his life and showing how his relationships with other people affected him. This wasn't a hit piece on him, although it certainly didn't paint him in a wonderful light. The strength of the piece is Eccleston's incredible job of taking on Lennon's persona enough that I usually forgot who it was acting. Naoko Mori of Torchwood played Yoko Ono, and the Masterpiece version we watched was introduced by David Tennant, so it was a Doctor Who movie for us despite the subject matter.

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This week's comic book related review is Amelia Rules! True Things (Adults Don't Want Kids To Know) by Jimmy Gownley. Let me start by saying if you have read and enjoyed any other Amelia Rules! story, you ought to get this one. Especially if you are a fan of Tanner. It's Amelia's 11th birthday, and the party goes well, but that's about all that does for awhile. As usual, there's more adventure, more drama, and lots of exciting moments for the Amelia fan to enjoy and savor. Even if you haven't read Amelia Rules! before, you might like this. Give it a try and find out. This is a great book to give kids, but adults will love it too.

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My library book this week was Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry. This is the companion book to the TV miniseries that I already reviewed. I enjoyed the series, with some disappointments (like the short amount of time some states got), and I enjoyed the book even more. Originally, I didn't intend to read the whole book, just skim through it to get an idea, read a couple of states I know, and then return it to the library. But hubby-Eric snagged it before I could start reading, and read it cover-to-cover. So I had to renew it at the library, and then found myself drawn into it and ended up reading the whole thing. This is NOT a travel guide. If you take it as such, you will be disappointed. This is a series of snapshots of the United States from the viewpoint of a foreign man with very particular tastes and opinions. There are definitely moments I disagree with him, and other moments I feel he's caught the spirit of America spot on. I'm sad that his coverage of Washington State was limited to Seattle, and a relatively tiny portion of Seattle at that, but at least we got more pages than poor Idaho. I'd love to see him do a follow-up, and visit places he didn't get to see on his first visit.

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist