hassambitw Reviews

Rick and Morty: Rick: A Mort Well Lived (2022) Season 6, Episode 2

A Classic Rick and Morty Adventure!

[7/10 · 12 September 2022]

With episode 2, I feel pretty confident that this season might be a return to form after the lackluster, very weird season 5.

In "Rick: A Mort Well Lived", we get what made this show great: a silly parody of a pop culture classic in "Die Hard", a sophisticated high-concept in simulation theory where we get to see everything from cults, radical religion, and the resulting existential turmoil. The Die Hard stuff was pretty standard humor we've come to expect by now, so either you're with it or against it. I think it's a nice way to show how beloved that franchise is for some people, hence the overreliance on mentioning "Die Hard" in every other sentence.

However, the main part of this episode was the video game "Roy" storyline. That leans more towards the relationship between Rick and Morty here, where we see Morty's different fragments of himself as fully fledged people capable of voicing how they feel which I thought was an ingenious way of showing how complex a person's personality can be; Some of him is stupid and silly, some a pacifist, some compassionate, and some rebellious. The takeaway from all this being that in a way, within all of us, a tiniest fragment of the world exists of every kind of person.

In the ending, we see some Morty's choose to stay in the video game because it's better than the "hell" outside where all the 5 billion parts of him will be condensed into one single being. It's disheartening to see the primary disciple, Marta, aligning with Rick because she trusted him and then falling apart upon realizing he still struggles to say "I love you", which hilariously causes a holy war by all the Morty's. It's moments like this which are funny yet painfully accurate - because sometimes we do see holy wars over slights like this. In the end, we get to see Marta forgive him yet again but stay in the video game where she will presumably live the rest of her days as Rick made sure of. So, Rick does come out with a greater appreciation for Morty, but is the Morty that came out lacking from the Morty from before? How will this impact future adventures? Is the 8% that stayed behind/died significant? Only time will tell, but this one's a classic!

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part III (2022) Season 1, Episode 3

Underwhelming, Anticlimactic, Nonsensical

[3/10 · 1 June 2022]

Regardless of how the first two episodes were, in my eyes, this one's the worst episode so far. I feel like people will only let it slide because of the last ten minutes, but if you think about the previous 30 minutes, it's borderline stupid.

Spoilers:

• The scene with the hitchhiker ride with the Stormtroopers
• Obi-Wan openly talking about him being Jedi in the backside (sure he was "whispering" but really?)
• The convenient timing of the double agent saving them
• Someone magically spotting Obi-Wan but the Stormtroopers had no idea he was a Jedi
• The vastly disappointing duel with Vader. His introduction, with a weak score, to how that whole part was orchestrated has never felt more disappointing and dull, which simply feels wrong. There is also a lot of tension lacking in their encounter. It felt very odd. Like I understand this Obi Wan is massively nerfed but I still think it could have been handled in a much better way.

• The teleportation of Reva towards the end in that tunnel which seemingly only went one way.

I really want to like this show but it seems like it's doing everything against that notion. Sad! In terms of what I liked this episode, Leia! I think the child actress is killing it and it's believable how outspoken and troublesome she is even at that small of an age.

Primal (2019– )

Beautiful, Emotional, Raw and Violent

[8/10 · 11 October 2019]

Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal, set in the Mesozoic era, depicts a story of a caveman named Spear, who, under tragic circumstances, is forced to ally with a T-Rex, Fang, in order to survive whatever obstacles it is they come across on their journey.

I'm three episodes in so far, and I'm hooked. Not only is it beautifully animated which makes every battle scene stand out and be visceral, but it does so much more to appeal to our internal emotions solely by the expressions on the characters' faces and their movements, without really humanizing anything. It reminds you that in this harsh world, to live is to eat, and to eat is to kill. The art style is gorgeous as well, with its world rich with subtle details to make it feel alive. The score for this hits a balance between something eerie and organic, with a bit of drums added in which adds to the tension during chases and whatnot.

This show is a gem. Please go see it and voice your support so we (hopefully) get to see more like this.

Game of Thrones (2011– )

And Now Our Watch Has Ended - An Overall Review after All Seasons

[8/10 · 20 May 2019]

There's probably nothing that can be said today that hasn't been said about Game of Thrones that should be news. Everything that you have heard about the show - from the wonderful visual effects, to the set design, the cinematography, the beautiful score to the acting - holds true till the very end. In that regard, this show (as of the writing of this review) is the benchmark and it'll be hard to get toppled over. The talented directors and writers over this 8 year period gave us a fantasy epic which has become a worldwide pop-culture phenomenon that will forever remain a huge part of many people's lives, and for that I am grateful.

The final season has just wrapped up, and unfortunately the show's legacy is now going to be two-fold. There was a time when people clamored to find out how Game of Thrones was going to conclude, a time where people were anxious because a show of this magnitude ending would leave a void in people's hearts that would be hard for any show to fill, a time where it seemed like this show was going to legitimize itself as *the* greatest show of all time. However, due to the nature of its conclusion, that is no longer the case. Game of Thrones is going to be remembered as quite possibly the greatest show with the greatest crashing of an ending.

The biggest issue of the series is going to come down to poor writing, poor pacing, and lack of episodes as it approached its final seasons. Season 7 and 8 represent mixed bags of goodies. You can tell what the goal of each big moment was and as a fan and I was all down for it. I'm not going to spoil what these moments were because i'd like new comers to not get deterred away from the massive onslaught by fans right now, but the thing to take away from this is that there's a significant dip in character arcs and there are choices that are made that just don't work because there was not enough time to execute them properly. I'm sure in the minds of the writers, they made sense because they have probably had in-depth discussions with each other about where each character is going to end up, but translating that to screen with fewer episodes where everything seems so overwhelmingly rushed skips the integral moments that help let the audience come along this journey. The pace at which the last two seasons have progressed contains frankly enough content to make at least 20 episodes, rather than just hastily putting it all in 13. We've received a conclusion that falls flat because it wasn't properly built up and earned. It's an ending which, while may represent the actual book ending, does not work for the direction the show was leading into.

All in all, I love Game of Thrones. It's still going to be up there regarded as one of the best series ever for good reason. It's just extremely disappointing and disheartening to witness the route it took towards the end which made it seem like the writers wanted to end the show as soon as possible (whether it be to work on other projects, or they simply did not really know how to expand it). It's going to leave the fanbase divided, but I hope over time people focus more on the good we got rather than the bad - because this show still deserves it.