IaMDatfilmBitch (IMDB)

Sound plays a big part in any TV/movie production, and The Outsider is a perfect example of that. I’ve only finished episode 1, but so far, my favorite thing about the show are the scenes with little to no dialogue. The actors’ body language and the score work well together to convey emotion, and tell the story in a way that’s not needed for many words. For instance, we don’t hear any dialogue until about four minutes into the pilot. A man and his dog are going for a walk. Blood is spotted along their trail. The man eventually stops in his tracks, clearly horrified by what lies before him but is hidden from the audience. When the cops arrive, it just confirms the idea that a terrible crime has been committed. Later, Terry’s wife goes to check on their daughters at 3AM. The music intensifies as one daughter is missing from her bed. It escalates even further as we discover her sitting at the edge of her bed, staring into space. “NO!” she finally screams out, snapping out of a trance and scaring the shit out of both me and her mother alike! That eerie music was enough to make that scene extra suspenseful.

But my favorite no-dialogue scenes involve Mrs. Peterson, who’s son Terry is accused of murdering. First, Detective Ralph and his partner visit Mrs. Peterson’s home. We don’t know who’s home this is initially, or why the cops are there. “I hope this isn’t about those overdue library books,” the woman at the door jokes once she sees the police badges. Ralph and his partner don’t crack a smile. In fact, they don’t respond at all. The shot goes back and forth from Ralph to the woman as we see her smile fade, and watch her put two and two together. The scene cuts to the street, showing neighboring homes, and we hear a loud, painful scream that could only come from a mourning mother. The identity of this woman suddenly clicks, all while words were barely uttered.

Towards the end of the episode, we watch Mrs. Peterson go from cleaning up family dinner to destroying her home in an instant. She repeatedly strikes a bat against the table and breaks dishes, but we don’t hear any of that. We just hear sorrowful music. We understand that this is an act of rage and grief. Mrs. Peterson hurts herself in the act and has to go to the hospital, another silent scene. The doctor emerges to talk to Mr. Peterson and their eldest son. Mr. Peterson walks away upset. Their son hunches over in his seat, puts his head in his hands, and rocks back and forth in a stressed, saddened manner. It’s not clear what happened to Mrs. Peterson. I don’t think she could’ve died from that injury. But again, the emotions conveyed along with the music represent something awful. 

Just finished watching the pilot episode of The Morning Show and wow, I can’t wait to watch the rest of the series. I definitely think I cried way too much for a pilot, but I also think that’s a good thing. This is not one of those shows where I’m like, “lemme keep watching and give it a chance.” No. They pulled me in with the first episode and I’m anxious to see where this goes.

I first teared up when Hannah told Bradley the story of how her boss Mitch forced himself on her. Hannah reported it to Mitch’s higher up Fred, but Fred just offered Hannah a promotion to keep her quiet and cover up this incident. I’ve never been in Hannah’s situation before but I felt for her. I mean, of course, what sane, moral, human being with a heart wouldn’t. But it could also be a testament to Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s acting. It almost felt like I wasn’t watching a TV series; like I was actually in the room listening to this story. The trauma and heartache was evident in her reliving this horror. But she tried to remain strong and convince Bradley that she’s fine. But Bradley was right to worry.

I teared up again to discover Hannah had committed suicide. It’s disgusting that there are tons of people like Mitch who can just violate someone and go on with their lives like nothing happened. Meanwhile victims are sometimes the ones terrified of what’ll happen if the truth comes out. It broke my heart to know this has happened too many times in reality, where victims will go to such lengths as Hannah to avoid dealing with the aftermath.

Lastly, I shed some more tears when Bradley and Alex went from being rivals to becoming a team. Live on air, they took down the network and exposed them for constantly covering up sexual misconduct in the workplace. Hannah’s death was the last straw, and I was proud of them for doing what was right. 

I assume in the rest of the series, it’ll be a war between those with basic human decency who are on the victims’ side, and the offenders who run the network. I’m hoping that there will be a happy ending where Fred and Mitch lose their jobs and are thrown in jail. But even in the real world, the happy ending we hope for isn’t always what we get...

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When I realized my favorite gang of thieves would be doing another robbery, I assumed Part Three would be repetitive and unnecessary. But I was quickly proven wrong. First off, the location of the robbery was different of course. The gang couldn’t return to the same goal of printing their own money in the Royal Mint of Spain. Instead, they planned to melt and steal gold from the Bank of Spain. The gang itself wasn’t the same either. We lost Berlin and Moscow, but gained Stockholm & Lisbon from prior seasons, as well as some brand new members like Palermo, Marseille and Bogotá. Lastly, and probably most importantly, the police in charge of the case were different. Colonel Tamayo and Inspector Sierra replaced Colonel Prieto and Inspector Murrillo (aka Lisbon). This new team of police is much smarter, more unpredictable, and therefore a bigger threat than the Professor is used to.

The plan for this robbery (originally formulated by Berlin and Palermo which we see via flashbacks) was set into motion after Rio was arrested in Panama. Tokyo sought the Professor’s help, and he reunited the gang from all corners of the world to do what they do best. Initially, I didn’t understand how a robbery would get Rio back. But it began to make sense as the season progressed. The Professor would negotiate the release of a few hostages in exchange for Rio. I was extremely nervous when the police just let Rio waltz into the Bank to rejoin the gang. It can’t be that easy, I kept thinking, please don’t kill him! But the exchange was successful. The cops did plant a mic and GPS tracker inside Rio’s body, but of course the Professor had a solution for that. Nothing to worry about right?

WRONG! The last two episodes were so intense and ended with me bawling my eyes out. Rio breaks up with Tokyo, which is basically like setting off a ticking time bomb! My heart raced with fear that she would cause someone to get hurt again. Inspector Sierra uses Nairobi’s son against her, and Nairobi gets shot in the process (I’m praying my fav will still be alive in Part Four). And the Professor falls for Sierra’s trap as he listens while Lisbon is captured and the cops pretend to execute her. “This isn’t a robbery, or a challenge to the system,” he later tells Palermo, “This is war!” The gang destroys an armored police tank outside the bank, and the war begins.

Numerous times throughout the series, the Professor stresses rule #1: no romantic relationships. But even he couldn’t help but break that rule. We’ve seen the rash decisions made by people in love, such as Tokyo with Rio or Nairobi with her son or Arturo with Monica (really how dumb was Arturo to go back into the robbery a second time). Now we see it with the the Professor and Lisbon, which may be the most dangerous love story of them all. The gang has so much support from the public because they’re seen as Robin Hoods; taking from the corrupt system and giving back to the people without really harming anyone. Will they still be treated with such praise after setting a police tank on fire? I’m still rooting for my gang but the police are definitely winning this time around. I just can’t believe I have to wait until January to see what happens next...

Part One

By the end of Part 1, Oslo is basically a vegetable after being bashed in the head by a hostage, and Angel is in the hospital fighting for his life after a car crash. I hoped that no one else would have a near-death experience in Part 2. Unfortunately, we don’t always get what we hope for. Sometimes that can be a good thing because unpredictability makes good TV. Still, it broke my heart watching Helsinki put Oslo out of his misery, and to lose both Moscow and Berlin, all in Part 2.

I assumed Berlin and the Professor were related. The Professor put Berlin in charge of the others, and they were the only two who knew each other’s real names. However, I was thrown off when Berlin spoke of the Professor’s father and didn’t say “our father.” But as Berlin bravely sacrifices himself so the others can escape, he tells the Professor “I love you so much little brother. Don’t forget it.” Maybe the pair share a mother? Realizing that possibility on top of everything else we know about Berlin (his illness, his malicious yet oddly likeable nature, his unlikeliness to sacrifice himself for anyone) made his death even harder to watch.

I also bawled like a baby during the scenes after Moscow was shot. You could tell he was losing consciousness when he spoke to Tokyo as if she was his wife. He confided in his “wife” about Denver’s hatred towards him for lying about abandoning her all these years. But thank God for Monica Gaztambide (I love how Denver always refers to her by her full name). She told Denver to go see his father or he’d regret it for the rest of his life. Denver was able to retract the last harsh words he’d angrily said to his father; Moscow confessed his real name, and I sobbed some more as the man we now knew as Agustin Ramos was laid to rest.

Moscow would’ve never been shot if it wasn’t for crazy ass Tokyo! Her track record includes shooting a cop; threatening Allison Parker; nearly killing Berlin in a game of Russian Roulette, which got her kicked out of the Mint and sent to the police; then escaping the police and reentering the Mint. I can’t lie, that last act was cool as hell. Tokyo rode a motorbike up the stairs and back into the Mint while dodging the police’s gunfire. But the stray bullets ended up hitting Moscow who was only trying to cover her. Tokyo’s wild & dangerous actions were usually motivated by her love for Rio. But I can’t be too mad at her; she’s not the only one who’s done crazy things for love.

Take Monica Gaztambide for example. She became an ally to her kidnappers after falling in love with Denver. I was so proud when she picked up a gun and started shooting at the police. She went from a secretary who was impregnated by her married boss, to a brave, gunslinging robber with the alias Stockholm. You go girl! Then there’s Inspector Raquel Murrillo. By the time she discovered the Professor’s true identity, it was too late; she was already in love with him. Raquel went from being the lead cop on the case, to joining the gang of people she was trying to prosecute.

Part 2 ended on a high note, and it seemed like it could’ve been the end of the series. But I see there’s a Part 3, and I just hope everyone continues to live happily ever after. I was excited to see Raquel & the Professor reunited in the Philippines where they had originally planned to run away together. They reconnected the same way they met, with Raquel asking for a charger, and the Professor turning around to offer his. Too adorable! In Part 3, I hope Raquel still has custody of her daughter and maybe moved her family to the Philippines to be with the Professor. I pray that Denver & Monica are happily married and taking good care of their baby. I want Nairobi to take Helsinki’s offer to live with him so that she’s not alone until she figures out what to do about her son. And as toxic as Tokyo and Rio are, I wish the best for them too. But I’m nervous because like I said before, we don’t always get what we hope for...

Part One

I found my Halloween costume for this year! I gotta order my red jumpsuit and Salvador Dalí mask so I can shout “Soy Allison Parker y soy la puta ama!” (translation, “I am Allison Parker & I’m the fuckin boss!”), or so I can sing “bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao CIAO!”

In case you can’t tell, I love La Casa de Papel (or Money Heist as the show is called in English), and I’ve only finished Part 1! I’m not Hispanic, but I can read & understand Spanish a little due to a combo of school, and having mainly Hispanic/Latinx friends my whole life. But I’m certainly no pro; I still had to watch this show with English subtitles. Plus Spain-Spanish is different from the Spanish I’m used to hearing. For instance, I know the word boss is “jefe” in Spanish and was confused when Allison Parker used “ama” instead. I also noticed they pronounce a lot of their words with a “th” sound, like “grathias” instead of “gracias.” A show that’s entertaining and that’s teaching me things (I had to google things too like muñeiras, which I learned is a traditional dance), what’s not to love?!

The entertainment comes from the captivating storyline of course. A group of strangers spend five months planning the robbery of La Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre, aka the Royal Mint of Spain where money is printed. But this is no ordinary take-the-money-and-leave type job. The gang expects to spend 10 days or so in the Mint, using employees as hostages to print as much money as possible for them to steal (like 2.6 billion USD worth!). In Part 1, we simultaneously watch the planning and execution of the heist. A man who calls himself The Professor is the mastermind behind it all. He has studied every single detail, and has provided a solution for any possible error that could occur. He reminds me of Jigsaw of the Saw franchise. But even years of preparation can’t control human emotions, so only about 80% of things go as expected. The Professor himself even screwed up, risking almost everything for some pussy & falling in love with the lead cop on the case, Inspector Murrillo! 😩

At the end of Part 1, Murrillo has a lead on the house where the gang lived and planned for five months. She asks her new boyfriend, who she has no idea is The Professor, to drive her there. The Professor looks extremely worried the entire drive, but once Murrillo discovers the house and the DNA left all over it, The Professor smiles. Was this part of his plan too?!

It’s crazy that this show has me rooting for both the good and bad sides of this robbery. Of course I want Murrillo to catch her freakin boyfriend, and I want the hostages to be successful in their escape attempts. But I also want the plan to work out for the gang. Whenever something goes wrong, like Oslo gets bashed in the head or Berlin threatens to kill Denver for disobeying an order, or Tokyo shoots a cop, I grab my chest in a panic! Getting to know these criminals through the eyes of Tokyo as the narrator has made me quite fond of them. Nairobi is my favorite of them all. She’s a badass but caring woman who won’t let anyone ruin the plan for her, and ruin the opportunity to reunite with her son. Helsinki is my second favorite. He serves as comic relief with his big, teddy bear aura, and his broken Spanish since it’s not his first language. He also admitted to being gay and it’s funny to see Arturo squirm, thinking Helsinki’s hitting on him.

Speaking of Arturo, can we talk about the acting in this show?! As frustrating as Arturo can be sometimes (cheating on his wife & falling in love with his secretary, getting himself shot, etc.) he definitely deserves an award for his role. Berlin also does a perfect job of portraying a creepy villain with not too many morals or empathy for anyone. Anyway, I could go on and on talking about the awesomeness of this show, but I digress. I just hope Parts 2 and 3 are as good as Part 1, and that no one else has a near-death experience 🙏🏾

Part Two

I have a terrible memory, so of course I don’t remember much about the first two seasons of Dear White People. I just I know I enjoyed them enough to be excited about Season 3. But as I watched the first few episodes, my excitement quickly turned into confusion, and eventually boredom. By the end of the season, I felt like I wasted my time. I was actually glad when it ended. I did think it was cute in the beginning though how the characters were sort of self-aware. They said things like “if people didn’t change, life would be tedious and predictable like the third season of a Netflix show.” I laughed, assuming the writers purposely added such lines because they knew Season 3 of Dear White People would be different. And it definitely is different from its prior seasons, but it just wasn’t interesting in my opinion. 

One of the main differences was the absence of Sam’s radio show, which the Netflix series is named after! It’s like when Jane the Virgin lost her virginity; I questioned why the show continued to exist. Sam decided she was done with Dear White People because she didn’t want to become a sellout, like Candance Owens or Kanye West. Sure Sam’s best friend Joelle took over the show, but she only hosted it for like two episodes. Joelle came to the realization that show was a shoe that didn’t fit for her. So instead, we spent this season watching Sam try to discover the point of her junior thesis film project, and honestly, I was as lost as she was. 

We’re also missing the narrator this season since he revealed himself to be Dr. Edward Ruskins, a former professor at Winchester, and a member of a secret black society known as the Order of X. Sam and Lionel immediately abandon Dr. Ruskins after he tried to provide them with more riddles regarding the Order. They already jumped through enough hoops to find him in Season 2. So I get it, avoid the redundancy of a typical season 3 Netflix show by eliminating elements like the radio show, the narrator, and even the Order of X. But I liked the way Sam would angrily say “Dear White People” on her radio show, and the way she called the whites out on their shit. The season felt disorganized without a narrator to guide us through each episode. And most importantly, I was looking forward to learning more about the significance of the Order of X. I eventually got the last of the three things I wanted, but I was a bit annoyed that I had to wait all the way until the last episode. 

In this season’s finale, we discover that a division of the Order of X has the power to cover up its members’ unethical behavior, sort of like Olivia Pope & Associates in Scandal. For instance, Professor Moses Brown has sexually assaulted a student named Muffy, but Muffy refuses to talk. A black man managed to silence a white girl who’s the daughter of a state senator?! You know something fishy’s going on. And apparently, this isn’t the first time one of Moses’ sexual assault cases was covered up. With the help of Troy, Sam and Lionel plan to take down the Order. At least that’s what I read. I fell asleep on the ending twice and after the third time when I actually paid attention, I was still confused. So I’ll just take others’ word for it. Dr. Ruskins told Sam and Lionel that the Order is dead though and he needed them to revive it, which is also confusing. Maybe Ruskins meant revive as in get the Order back to what it used to be? Idk, but since this seemed to be the main plot point of the season, I felt like everything else was unnecessary.

I immediately fell in love with Jane the Virgin after the pilot episode. Most shows start off slow, and if I’m watching the second episode, it’s usually to give the show a chance. But off the bat, I felt Jane was funny, animated, dramatic and interesting all at the same time. Plus there were three Latin women at the forefront (double minorities whaaat?!). I just couldn’t get enough. But then there was a point in time where I questioned why I was still such a faithful viewer. Jane had lost her virginity, and although they cleverly renamed the show each episode by crossing out “Virgin” and replacing it with another way to describe her, I couldn’t help but think there wasn’t much more of a story to tell. But boy was I wrong!

I regained interest in the show after Jane’s husband Michael died at his LSAT exam. That was a plot twist I was not expecting at all. I should’ve known something was up though when the narrator began that episode with “When Michael Cordero Jr. was so & so years old…” instead of his normal “When Jane Gloriana Villanueva was so & so years old...” I was quite upset about that incident. I was always Team Michael when it came to Jane’s love triangle with him and Rafael. Also, this was now technically the second time the showrunners killed him, the first time being when he got shot on his wedding night. I prayed that maybe he’d recover this time around too. But the show fast forwarded three years into the future with Jane still not 100% over losing her husband. I knew that Michael had died for real this time, and was curious to see how Jane’s life had changed.

But boy was I wrong again! Michael came back from the dead! It was later revealed that he never really died. The evil crime-lord, Rose, faked his death, gave him amnesia, and sent him to Montana, all because she thought Michael had discovered her identity. At this point in the show, I was stressed, mostly because I’d become Team Rafael now. Things were going so good between the happy couple who was now living together with their son Mateo. Raf was even gonna propose! Michael’s return just made my heart sink, and again, I felt the need to keep watching and see how this would change Jane’s life.

Since Michael wasn’t the same person he was three years earlier, Jane ended up choosing Rafael, and they had a beautiful wedding in the series finale. I’m devastated that the show is over, but I’m extremely pleased with the conclusion. It gave me a vibe like The Office, where we’re watching these events occur and then it’s turned into a telenovela, or a documentary, for people in the show to view. I loved that each character’s story ended happily, and left me with a sense of closure. For instance, it was amazing to learn that Mateo was the narrator this whole time! 

I think the character I’ll miss most is Petra, Rafael’s ex-wife and other baby mama. Petra was a badass business woman who didn’t take shit from anyone, and did whatever it took to get what she wanted. Initially, that included a lot of lying and scheming without any sense of remorse. But she changed a lot by the end of the show. I was happy to see her as full owner of the Marbella Hotel, with a plan for franchising across the world, and reunited with her ex-girlfriend JR. I’m gonna miss her witty remarks, her hilariously adorable twin daughters, and her impeccable fashion sense. Her outfits made me want to go shopping in her closet. I’ll also miss Jane’s father, Rogelio de la Vega. I’ll mostly miss the way he said his own name which made me laugh every single time. But I’ll also miss his conceited yet sensitive nature, and his obsession with the color lavender. 

I really wanted to LOVE Spider-Man: Far From Home, but I thought it was just okay. It felt like something was missing that I couldn’t put my finger on. Maybe it was that Peter Parker-Tony Stark dynamic like in the prequel, Spider-Man: Homecoming? I realize that a Spider-Man movie can’t be all about Iron Man, even if he was alive. But Far From Home needed a little bit more … oomph. Some people say that this film actually was annoyingly all about Iron Man. Peter’s tryna fill Tony’s shoes, and Tony gave Peter the E.D.I.T.H. technology, and Tony’s assistant Happy was always around, and Peter created a new suit like Tony would, blah blah blah. But I thought those moments were nice. To me it just felt like they were paying homage to one of the greats, continuing where Endgame left off *shrugs*

My issue wasn’t with the Iron Man references, but with the recognizable green screens and CGI. Technology is so advanced now that there’s been plenty of movies & shows in recent years where you just know something is fake, but it doesn’t look like it at all. For instance, Game of Thrones did a great job of making me believe the Wildings were truly climbing a giant wall of ice. Even all the cool explosions in Avengers seemed dangerously real. Obviously I know that Mysterio didn’t actually destroy Europe, but they could’ve made it more believable. I expected a lot more from a Marvel film.

My other issue was with Peter and MJ. I get that they were supposed to be awkward teenagers, but it was lowkey annoying. Peter’s extremely shy behavior towards MJ was a bit cringeworthy, and their kiss at the end of the film could’ve been better, especially since the entire film was leading up to that moment. Peter constantly talked about his plan with MJ where he’d tell her how he felt about her. But I guess that’s how two awkward people would kiss, so maybe Tom Holland and Zendaya did a good job after all. Maybe this was good representation for other awkward teens. But for me, *cringe*

Lastly, I didn’t think Jake Gyllenhaal was a good choice for Mysterio. He didn’t feel like a villain to me, but again, I try to be understanding and want to think maybe that was the point, that Quentin Beck wasn’t a villain at all. He was a normal guy who was wronged by Tony Stark and then forced to become a villain. If that’s what they were going for, then bravo to Gyllenhaal. But if not, I just didn’t buy it. I was also extremely confused most of the film because here was Mysterio befriending Peter and working alongside Nick Fury, but all the trailers and promos clearly showed him as the bad guy. When his evil plan was revealed, it was not a twist at all. It was more of a “ohh ok that makes sense, thought I was going crazy” moment. The only so-called twist was that Mysterio’s whole super-hero act was illusions caused by drones.