Medium Mashup

Category: Reviews

Reviews of Movies, TV, and Games

  • Orange is the New Black Season 4 Review

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    Season 4 of Orange is the New Black is the best of the series. It fights back against criticism of the third season (which I actually liked) with a darker tone, a weightier central arc, and a renewed focus on the series’ central characters. And yet, simply calling this year’s run of episodes the best of an already-great show still feels like damning it with faint praise. This season is the most socially relevant piece of television released this year, and probably the strongest overall as well.

    Without going too far into specifics (although I will later in a spoiler-section), this season is far more concerned with race and power dynamics than previous seasons. The women’s prison setting of Orange is the New Black provides the perfect scenario to delve into such topics, which have been touched on in the past but never to the degree that they are here. The show’s complex characters and continued appeal to empathy help to reveal how complicated such matters often are. While a few characters are cast as outright villains, the ones who cause the most damage this year are ostensibly decent people, thrust into difficult positions that they are in no way ready for, or simply doing what they believe is right.

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  • The Conjuring 2 Review

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    I enjoyed watching The Conjuring 2. It’s competently made, features a few clever scares, and Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson lend the film a gravity that many horror pictures are missing. But the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am in the result. The first Conjuring film is one of the best horror features in years, a testament to traditional horror filmmaking and craft. In comparison, its sequel just feels routine.

    There’s a good reason for that: this film was very much rushed through production. It’s public knowledge that the demon-antagonist was completely redesigned just three months before the movie’s release, leading to a number of reshoots well into post-production. That sort of seat-of-your-pants filmmaking explains a lot about the movie, from the script, to the production, to the general lack of innovation on display.

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  • Inside Review

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    Despite having little-to-no promotion before its release, Playdead’s “Inside” has garnered lots of discussion and rave reviews. There’s a good reason for this: Inside is a great game, absolutely worth your time. However, because much of Inside’s joys come from its surprises, I have no intention of detailing the specific moments that make the game so interesting. Still, there’s plenty to say of Playdead’s technique here, and why Inside stands so high above other indie platformers.

    First of all, like Playdead’s previous game Limbo, Inside is a 2D platformer. However, unlike Limbo, Inside utilizes its foreground and background in much more significant and game-altering ways. It’s an interesting scenario, in which one must be aware of a three-dimensional environment while only actually interacting within two. This has a unique effect; it allows the environment to feel large and open, but also allows the developers to retain more control over the game and level design.

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  • Game of Thrones Season 6 Review

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    (This article contains spoilers for season 6 of Game of Thrones)

    For the first time in the history of the series, the writers of Game of Thrones really got to forge their own path this year. With only a few lingering plotlines held over from the books, we moved into uncharted territory, without the guidance and proven ability of original author George RR Martin. From the writers’ standpoint, this had to have been as intimidating as it was exciting; all of the season’s successes are attributable to them, but any of its failings are too. Had this year been weak it would have been an argument against them taking the reigns for themselves.

    Fortunately, that was not the case. Season 6 of Game of Thrones has been one of the most well-received of the series, with stunning set-pieces, major reveals, huge power-shifts, and characterization and dialogue that felt consistent with what came before. It wasn’t a perfect year, but showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss led with their strengths, making a show that was more propulsive than in years past.

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  • You’re the Worst Season 2 Review

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    (In case you missed it, my fiancee Reba and covered the entirety of You’re the Worst’s first season in our Podcast, Firsties! You can find that on the website, on Sound Cloud, on iTunes and other podcast apps under “Medium Mashup Podcasts,” and coming soon on Google Play Music’s podcast channel!)

    One of the few complaints I had about You’re the Worst’s hilarious and assured debut season was its tendency to stall regarding Jimmy and Gretchen’s relationship. By its midpoint, we had already seen several episodes that hammered home the same point: Jimmy and Gretchen made sense in a relationship and improved each other’s lives, but were consciously afraid of such things. Both characters had reasons to keep their distance, with Jimmy’s denial of love as a concept and Gretchen’s fear of commitment and maturity, but there was only so much there to sustain a full season of television.

    Fortunately, the start of the show’s second season largely does away with this particular conflict. Jimmy and Gretchen find themselves on solid ground from the start, and much of the conflict shifts to Lindsay’s divorce and Edgar’s interest in her. This period of the season does an excellent job of expanding on both characters, defining Edgar in ways completely independent from his PTSD, and showing just how far Lindsay can fall when desperate. Just like its first season, this section of season two succeeds by balancing very funny (and often crude) jokes with an actual care and interest in its characters.

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