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It seems things starting to pick up but most of my suspicious where true from Sam's son been dead and the flowers were for this anniversary although it still not so clear the why but I would assume its because the hijacked plain he help to safe. The series is starting to throw some curve balls while you start thinking one thing and then boom the show flips everything around and leaves you wondering what the hell is actually going on but then things clear out real quick. This episode called Baggage is were all the secrets start coming out, giving more and more context to the reason why Sam hijack the train, I really though the blew up Freddy but there was part of me thinking he didnt because how convenient it was that the video feed went out and he was at the cctv room of that station hhhmmmm, well turns out he did not kill that guy Freddy at the end of episode two like I assumed witch made me go back to my original theory that maybe Sam was the one planning all this to get the authorities attention but nope that got shut down real quick when we find out someone is controlling Sam too by sending him a picture of his wife Marsha. The whole setup looked like an explosion at first but it was just a fire that Sam started to make it look like a bomb went off, cutting the cameras at the same time so the cops would think Freddy blew up, but really Freddy was just wandering around outside the train yelling hello like an idiot instead of running far away from the danger witch seemed pretty stupid to me but I guess panic makes people do dumb shit, well what do I know, I have never been on that situation.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19854762/
• Platform: PEACKOCK

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Source There is also another twist that Sam does not know about yet, there is someone else on the train and that person just killed Freddy who Sam was starting to trust and almost become friends with I think, there is this girl who gets into the drivers cabin and then screams when she finds the body and you can see the shock on Sams face so she should be able to put together that it was not him but we will see if she is smart enough to figure that out or if panic takes over first, I bet on panic and not reasoning. Turns out this guy Anders who works on the train is actually in on the whole thing, he went up to were Freddy was and stabbed him or shot him or whatever he did, either way Freddy is dead for real now and that complicates everything because now Sam has to act like he actually did kill him to keep the plan moving forward witch puts him in even more hot water with the police. The bomb under the train was another big surprise for Sam because just when he thought he could get a message out and end this whole thing if they save his ex wife, but honestly thi sis just common sense because who is going to trust Sam was going to do everything he was ask for just because, now he finds out everyone is stil in danger anyway and he can not let the engineer tell anyone or else they all die, one of the cops found evidence at the bomb makers house showing there was real explosives and even found powder on the ground where the train was parked the night before so they know for sure there is a real bomb somewhere on that train.

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Source Then there is this scene with Sam's ex wife Marsha who also confronts the guy watching her, its part of the crew that is using Sam, she lost it and grabs an axe to beat the shit out of his windshield witch was pretty badass weak at the same time because it was all the weight of the axe and not her strength, but now they are face to face and I do not think it ends well for her, she probably gets captured or worse and that just puts Sam in even more trouble down the line. I loved that scene though because she is not just sitting around being a victim, she doesn't care anymore, she then trying to fight back and protect herself witch shows she has the same kind of fire that Sam has, these two neighbors also show up and seem like good people who are trying to warn her about the strange car parked down the road but was very meh because even when she knew right away didnt ask for help, one of them even has a shotgun witch makes me think they might come in handy later if shit really goes down but nah the script just fly by. The whole Kai thing is really what drives this episode emotionally, finding out that Sam lost his son exactly one year ago today and that he thinks John Bailey Brown had him killed because of the hijaking from season one, that gives Sam a real reason to be doing all this crazy stuff even if he is not actually in charge of the plan like we all thought he was at first.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #hijack, #baggage, #recap, #season, #episode, #train, #bomb, #sam, #nelson, #idris, #elba, #freddy, #anders, #marsha, #kai, #murder, #thriller, #suspense, #passengers, #twist, #control, #anniversary, #danger, #apple, #review

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Alright so at no point in time Im going to argue if this is as good as the OG series becuase its not, in fact through the first three episodes I was feeling like stop watching because how cringe it feels and looks, thats the reason why I didnt post about on a one by one episode basis because funny it was release how I enjoy the most tv series, on a weekly episode. Spartacus House of Ashur came out of nowhere and down the aline as the series progress this thing kicked way more ass than I was expecting after all these years since the original series wrapped up, its one of those rough jewels that often release on Hulu, Peacock or Starz. We are talking about a show that ended back in 2013 and here we are in 2025 getting this alternate timeline situation that actually works way better than it had any right to because from episode one its made clear that this is kinda dream or curse as how Ashur comes back to life to feel what is to be a Dominus. Nick Tarabay is back as Ashur and the man is absolutely killing it in this role, every episodes as he use to mention "Gods decide to fuck him in the A...", this is basically an alternate universe where he did not die betraying Spartacus during Vengeance, instead he won that fight, got all the glory and recognition from Rome and now he is running his own ludus but everyone still treats him like absolute shit because he is Syrian and killed everyones hero with a spear to the back which is not exactly the honorable way Romans like their victories even though by doing this he landed in the favor of some high rank Romans. The show does a great job showing how this guy is constantly trying to climb up from the bottom even though he technically has power now, every single time he gets close to something good he gets kicked back down again with rotten food thrown at him, people spitting on him and zero respect at all even though he is a free man now with his own gladiator house and some sweet ass female slaves at villa, so dont over think it just enjoy watching a man suffering constantly through every episode along with some very good savage gladiator fights.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29921437/
• Platform: PLATFORM

Source This tv series also has a stacked cast that turned out to be awesome and how they all bring their A game to every scene, yes the series is a few steps down from Spartacus but its almost the same vibes where each other subplot is good enough, from the gladiators personal life, to the Doctore, Ashur himself. Graham McTavish plays Chorus who is this doctore slash former champion gladiator and he is absolutely perfect for the role with that gruff voice and intimidating presence that demands respect, then you got Claudia Black showing up as this viper wife of some governor or senator and she is scary in all the best ways possible with her scheming and manipulating behind the scenes. The whole thing kicks off when Ashur decides to train a woman as a gladiator because that is exotic enough and different enough to get people interested again after his ludus got completely embarrassed in the first games they participated in, nobody wants her there at first because the ludus is supposed to be this brotherhood thing where men fight and die together but she absolutely earns her spot through pure violence and skill that cannot be denied. The action in this show is brutal, the show is very sexual and gory, the gore is over the top just like the original series with blood spraying everywhere and limbs getting chopped off in slow motion, there is tons of sex happening all over the place with full frontal nudity for both men and women, plus all these political games happening in Rome with senators and their wives trying to screw each other over for power and influence, I have always wonder if this was life back then, not in the sex and violence sence but in the conspiracy aspect of things as there are many stories how senators use to kill each other.

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Source The whole alternate timeline concept actually makes sense once they explain it through Lucretia who shows up in this weird afterlife type situation after Ashur gets his head chopped off by Naevia at the end of Vengance, she basically offers him a deal where he can come back to life in a different version of events where he survives and Spartacus dies instead which reshapes everything that happened after. Lucy Lawless comes back for this cameo and even though its brief she absolutely nails the manipulative seductress vibe that made her character so memorable in the original series, there is this creepy baby thing happening during her speech that I still do not understand but whatever, the point is Ashur takes the deal without hesitation because of course he does and now we get to see what happens when the slimy backstabber actually wins for once. The show is set around six months from my understanding after what would have been the end of War of the Damned if Spartacus had won, but in this timeline the rebellion is completely crushed and Rome is back in control with thousands of crucified slaves lining the roads as a reminder of what happens when you try to fight the system, lucky enough once it all seem to be over its Ashur and the men of his ludus who are assign to take down all the corpes from the rebellion, even though it was very poor CGI it was insane to watch all this men along the road crucified, between them there were some of Spartacus men and the show doesnt loose time and make reference to this gladiators so the connection to the original show is always there.

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Source One of the most intresting things about this show is how it focuses on Ashur constantly fighting for legitimacy even though he technicaly has everything he ever wanted, he has to deal with senators and their wives who look down on him, he has to manage gladiators who either hate him or do not respect him because they know he killed Spartacus in a cowardly way but the most intense fight is always trying to land in the favor of senators, its that political power, considering that he didnt even wanted to get into politics but be in the favor of senators so his ludus can have a place in the arena to fight, its that golden ticket that he constantly keeps chasing until he gets it but staying in the arena across time seem harder than even getting in. There is this one gladiator named Salvius who is constantly quoting Spartacus and talking about freedom and doing the right thing which obviously pisses Ashur off , at first I thought this guy was going to be like a secondary hero or someone who would help lead another rebelion but the show does this great thing where it keeps you guessing about who actually matters and who is just there to fill out the roster. The gladiator fights are insane with all the slow motion camera work from 300 and people flying through the air doing crazy flips and spins, they even have guys jumping off the arena walls to land attacks which some of the Roman elite complain about as being unchivalrous or whatever but everyone else is just entertained as hell, one dude gets his face completly smashed in with a warhammer and they do not cut away at all, you see every brutal second of it which is exactly what people want from this franchise.

P.S : Browsing for stuff to watch just notice there are two more episodes, this is a first time for me to post without knowing how many more episodes were to go but seems the series is not over, there still two episodes more 9 and 10, turning the hole thing into a mini series, I really though they cut it at 8 episodes, anyways this as my overall thoughts about the series still

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #spartacus, #ashur, #gladiator, #rome, #starz, #sequel, #alternate, #timeline, #revenge, #blood, #violence, #drama, #action, #betrayal, #power, #ludus, #warrior, #roman, #combat, #arena, #series, #television, #brutal, #fighting, #slaves

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A beauty that will ignite you

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Today watched Anaconda on my way home, recently decided to stop watching Youtube for some time and just watch more movies and series, sometimes I want to watch certain content and due to time constrictions I cant and the other night I wonder how much time I spend on Youtube daily, anyways this thing turned out way different than what I was expecting from those trailers that came out months ago, when I first saw the marketing material I thought we were getting another lazy reboot where Hollywood just tries to milk a franchise people remember from the 90s you know the whole JLo and Ice Cube thing where giant snakes ate people and it was kinda scary back then but does not really hold up anymore if you watch it today, but instead of going that route director Tom Gormican actually did something pretty wild with it, he made it a comedy where Jack Black and Paul Rudd play childhood friends who literally want to remake Anaconda themselves because it was their favorite movie growing up and they head to the Amazon to make it happen, well it was all based on a lie but still sounds stupid right like who would green light that idea but the thing is the movie knows exactly what it is and it leans into that whole meta thing where it makes fun of how studios reboot everything these days. The whole thing becomes this spoof of Hollywood and how they handle reboots and that is where the movie actually worked for me, I was laughing way more than I thought I would specially with Steve Zahn who was the funniest part of the whole damn thing. Sure the CGI on the anaconda looks like crap and the horror aspect is completely gone which might piss off people who loved the original franchise for the kills and the suspense, but if you go in expecting a fun time with some clever jabs at the movie industry you will probably walk out feeling pretty entertained, nothing groundbreaking but way better than what those trailers were making it look like.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33244668/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The setup is pretty straightforward when you break it down, Jack Black plays Doug who works as a wedding videographer in Buffalo making wedding videos and he is completely miserable doing it because he feels like he never met his full potential in life, his boss keeps telling him you are great at your job and you could end up with a B or even a B plus life which just sounds depressing. Paul Rudd plays Griff who moved to LA to become an actor but he is struggling hard, the movie opens with him trying to get through one line of dialogue as a background actor and he cannot do it so he gets fired on the spot which was funny. Then you got Thandiwe Newton playing Claire who is a lawyer going through a divorce because her man left her for his dental hygienist, and Steve Zahn plays Kenny who is the dumbest one of the group and an alcoholic but he says he is sober well Buffalo sober which means just beer and wine and some of the lighter liquors. When they all get together in Buffalo, Griff surprises them by saying he got the rights to remake Anaconda which sounds completely fake but everyone believes him because they are all desperate for something to change in their lives. They pool their money together and somehow scrape up funding going from millions to a few thousands budget, the most they could get a loan for was $9k, the acting is just hilarious, then they head off to the Amazon to make their movie without any kind of filming permits or legal paperwork which is crazy considering Claire is supposed to be a lawyer but nobody thinks about any of that stuff, the movie does a decent job showing how Doug's wife played by Ione Skye is actually supportive telling him you should do this I can tell you lost your fire and here is an opportunity which was nice to see.

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Source Once they get to the Amazon things start getting chaotic real quick, they hire this snake handler named Santiago played by Selton Melo who has an anaconda they are going to use as a prop but Paul Rudd is terrified of snakes. They try to shoot their first scene with the Anaconda and Griff keeps getting closer to the snake and freaking out until he finally throws it overboard and the snake gets caught in the blades of the motor and gets torn to pieces which was brutal but I couldnt stop laughing, Santiago is heartbroken and they have a funeral for the snake which was both sad and funny at the same time but that night Santiago and Griff decide to hunt for another Anaconda both almost drunk and Santiago gets eaten by a real huge Anaconda. Then they decided to go after him and thats when they meet the illegal gold miners who protect their territory and go after them but this woman named Ana played by Daniela Melchior who at first seems like she is running from bad guys but it turns out she is actually the bad guy, she is doing illegal gold mining too and the people chasing her are cops trying to arrest her so it was kind of confusing at first who where the good guys. The whole Ana subplot felt pretty unnecessary to me because it never really connects with the main story in any meaningful way, she ends up joining their group and Doug even starts focusing more on her character in their movie which creates friction with Griff. While they are floating down the river on their boat they see this huge yacht with a film crew behind it and it turns out to be Sony actually making a real Anaconda reboot, that is when everyone realizes Griff lied about having the rights and never had permission to make this movie in the first place which should have been obvious from the start but again these characters are all idiots so it makes sense they did not figure it out sooner, its funny how a girl on Sony's boat make jokes about how everyone is out of ideas so decide to reboot a stupid movie from the 90s.

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Source The movie really picks up in the second half when the giant anaconda shows up and starts killing people, the snake destroyed Sony's yacht and killed their whole crew so now it is coming after the main characters. The snake attacks and kills Ana after she reveals her true colors and holds the group at gunpoint trying to force them to carry the gold for her, but the Anaconda jumps from the water and she gets dragged underwater which was a deserved ending for a character that never really fit into the story anyway, the time span she was on the movie was very little and meant nothing but still I get what type of movie is this so I was like meh dont care. Griff leaves the group after arguing with Doug about the whole lying situation and goes to join the Sony crew but he arrives too late because the anaconda already wrecked everything and killed most of them. Eventually they all end up at what looks like a filming location which is Sony's setup for their version of Anaconda, and who do they bump into but MF Ice Cube at the very last minute while they had the real Anaconda about to snatch them, he start shooting flares just as in the original movie until got the thing to run back. He saves them and then says I cannot stay with you because I have to go save JLo and Eric Stoltz which was a great callback to the original, the whole meta thing where they acknowledge the first movie exists and these characters are in that universe was clever even if it did not make total sense logically because if Sony is making a reboot why would the original cast be there.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #anaconda, #reboot, #comedy, #jackblack, #paulrudd, #stevezahn, #thandiwe, #meta, #hollywood, #amazon, #snake, #brazil, #movie, #review, #sony, #spoof, #jungle, #friends, #midlife, #remake, #icecube, #jlo, #creature, #entertainment, #funny

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I finally got to see The Running Man 2025 and man this thing should have been a home run all the way through, you got Edgar Wright directing who made some of most memorable action movies like Baby Driver, you got Glenn Powell who has basically become one of the biggest action stars out there because the guy has talent and has that Tom Cruise vibe going on and you got this insane Stephen King story that feels very nostalgic in 2025 for anyone who has seen the original Arnold movie. The movie delivers on a lot of levels, the action is sick, the world feels gritty and real instead of some flashy sci fi bullshit and Powell absolutely kills it as Ben Richards, he nails both the desperate dad trying to save his daughter and the badass who has nothing left to lose, but the truth is that the movie runs over two hours and it really did not need to be that long, there are chunks in the middle where Ben keeps meeting new people and having these conversations that slow everything down when the movie should be moving like a bullet with constant non stop action scenes and I do not understand why they did not go with this concept, Running Man, never stops running, never stops fighting. I would assume that Edgar Wright wanted to include a lot from the book and make Stephen King happy but sometimes less is more and trimming like 20 minutes would have made this thing way tighter and more exciting from start to finish. I also felt like the script is not as sharp as his other movies either, it does not have that same effect as The Worlds End did, some of the jokes land but others just fall flat. Luckily Powell does so much heavy lifting with his performance and the action sequences that are so well done that it saves the movie from feeling generic, plus the supporting cast is stacked with Josh Brolin being perfectly slimy as the producer Dan Killian and Coleman Domingo bringing all his charisma as the host Bobby Thompson. I really enjoy how the movie does not just make it about Ben versus the hunters, its Ben versus the entire system that painted him as a criminal for reporting dangerous workplace conditions, the game is rigged from the start and watching him try to flip the script is what makes it more than just another action remake.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14107334/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The setup is pretty straightforward even if its depressing, its some year in the future and America is completely screwed, the economy is totaled and poor people are super poor while rich people are super rich, its basically a nightmare version of our world turned up to eleven. Ben Richards is this regular working guy who reported his boss for unsafe working conditions at his job and instead of getting thanked for it he gets blacklisted and painted as a criminal by the system, now he cannot get work anywhere and his daughter Cathy is sick with this flu thing and he cannot even afford real medicine so he has to buy fake stuff that just makes her feel better temporarily. The whole beginning really hammers down how messed up this world is and how people like Ben are just completely screwed no matter what they do, I know it might sound very much as it is nowadays but the movie tries to paint it way worse, so when he signs up for The Running Man game show where contestants have to survive thirty days while hunters try to kill them you totally understand why he would do something that crazy, its literally his only option left. The show is run by this super slimy producer character Dan Killian played by Josh Brolin who is perfectly cast as this evil corporate guy who will do anything for ratings and does not care about human life at all, Coleman Domingo shows up as Bobby Thompson the host of the show and he got tons of charisma like always but the movie does not give him enough to do which feels like a wasted opportunity considering how good he is. The rules are simple, you have to film yourself every twelve hours and drop off the footage at specific locations so they can keep the show live, if you survive you get money and if you make it thirty days you win, Ben gets money for his family if he wins and his family gets taken care of so its literally life or death for him and everyone he loves.

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Source Glenn Powell is the main reason to watch this movie and he does such a great job that its because of his performance that he basically saves this movie from being completely forgettable in parts, he brings this intensity and desperation to Ben Richards that makes you root for him even when the script is letting him down with repetitive side characters. The way Powell plays both sides of the character, the loving father who is willing to do anything for his family and the killer who has to become dangerous to survive really works and you can tell he gave it everything he got physically and emotionally, every scene where he talks about his daughter or thinks about his family hits hard because you believe that this guy really would burn down the entire world to protect the people he loves. The action scenes are where the movie really shines and you can tell Edgar Wright still knows how to shoot exciting set pieces, there is this insane sequence on a plane towards the end where Ben has to fight off multiple hunters in this tiny space and its shot so well with all these clever camera angles and brutal fight choreography that makes you wince, problem is we saw most of this stuff in the trailers already so it does not have quite the same impact when you finally see it in context. There is also this part earlier on where Ben meets this character Elton played by Michael Cera who is this activist guy with all this equipment and booby traps in his place and its got that booby trap vibe but way more violent and creative, the Michael Cera character is supposed to be this tech genius with all this equipment in his place who just happens to help Ben at the perfect time which feels super convenient. What really frustrates me is that the movie sets up all these interesting ideas about how the game works and how society is falling apart but then it never really follows through on any of them in a satisfying way, like there is this whole thing about citizens being able to report Ben for money but it only matters in like two scenes and then gets dropped completely, instead of feeling basically claustrophobic just like when John Wick had that contract on him and all cellphones start to ring.

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Source The hunters who are supposed to be these badass killers chasing Ben down are completely generic and boring with zero personality or charisma, in the original Arnold Schwarzenegger Running Man from the 80s you had these memorable gladiator type characters with crazy costumes and one liners that made them fun to watch even when they were the bad guys but here you just get these blank masked dudes who show up shoot some guns and then disappear without leaving any impression at all. There is this one hunter played by Lee Pace who is supposed to be this big reveal at the end when he takes off his mask but the movie never builds him up properly so when the twist happens you just kind of shrug and move on, it feels like they had this whole backstory planned for him about how he was a previous winner who got turned into a hunter but they cut most of it out in editing which is a shame. The movie also has this weird pacing issue where Ben keeps stumbling into these convenient situations that help him survive, like he just happens to run into this underground radio host Bradley who has all this equipment and information that Ben needs at that exact moment, then he meets this rich girl Amelia who is driving down the highway in her fancy car right when he needs a ride and she just happens to have access to the private plane that becomes important later that you are like come on. Its like the universe is constantly bending over backwards to help him out instead of making him really work for his survival, I know movies require some coincidences to move the plot forward but this one goes way overboard to the point where you stop believing that any of this could actually happen in a realistic way.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #runningman, #glennpowell, #edgarwright, #stephenking, #actionmovie, #thriller, #dystopian, #survival, #joshbrolin, #colemanomingo, #moviereview, #remake, #adaptation, #hunters, #corruption, #system, #violence, #fight, #plane, #ratings, #gameshow, #television, #america, #twothousandtwentyfive, #entertainment

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With only one espisode away from the finale you can really feel everything coming together with all the characters getting closer to each other and how every of the last three episodes have turn into some kind of contast test for Lucy while other characters and now getting more action. This episode did a ton of work setting up what I assume is gonna be a huge showdown between everyone involved, Cooper, Lucy, Maximus and whoever else is left standing by the time we get to the end of this season, its all building to something big and you can feel it in every scene, specially towards the end when Mr House came on screen and I would only assume he is on Ghoul side. The coolest part of this whole thing was definately watching Maximus and Cooper team up to fight those Death Claws with that sick New California Republic armor, like holy shit that armor looked incredible on screen and the action was so well done with very brutal kills and gory moments, I dont know if to actually say the effects and cgi was good because then again this Deathclaws are not dangerous at all considering how easy they were to beat. We also got way more backstory on Steph witch was really interesting because I already knew she was sketchy as hell but now we finaly know why she is doing what she is doing and where she came from, turns out she was stuck in a Canadian internment camp during the bombs and had to kill her way south to survive, eventualy got brainwashed by Vault Tech to become an overseer witch explains a whole lot about her character and why she acts the way she does now. Lucy is still struggling with the moral side of things trying to figure out if what Steph is doing with all the brainwashing is actualy better than just killing people like Cooper would do without thinking twice, its a tough call and I really like that the show is not giving us easy answers about what is right or wrong in this messed up world they live in, keeps you thinking about it after the episode ends.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12637874/
• Platform: PLATFORM

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Source Lucy eventualy decides she needs to shut the whole mainframe down so she tricks her dad into thinking she was on board with his plan, she even puts on a nice dress, to be honest she look so hot, she acts like everythings fine during dinner while secretly planning on her head to destroy the mainframe that controls all the brainwashing devices. She asks Hank how to stop the process and he tells her its irreversible once its done but she can destroy the mainframe in the basement to stop more people from getting brainwashed, so Lucy heads down there and her idea is to plant explosives to blow it up. The best part is when she gets to the basement and finds this creepy setup with Representative Welchs head hooked up to the system like she was being used as some kind of living processor, that reveal was crazy because it shows just how far Vault Tech is willing to go to control people, they are literaly using a politicians brain to run their brainwashing operation. Lucy just stands there and stop because now the show is showing its true colors and Im not so sure how this applies with the games?, on one hand she can stop her dad from brainwashing more people but on the other hand she knows those people out in the wasteland are gonna go back to killing each other witch is also terrible, its a no win situation and the show does a great job showing how complicated morality is in this world. Meanwhile Cooper and Maximus are on there way to Vegas trying to find Lucy and they run into this ghoul named Thaddeus who has been slowly turning into something else, his arm literaly falls off during there conversation and he just acts like its no big deal witch was hilarious, Thaddeus also reveals he knows where Lucy is being held so Cooper agrees to take them to the Lucky 38 casino in Vegas but they have to cross the strip first witch is infested with Death Claws, well the word infested might sound terrifying but sadly its not.

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IMG-05https://t6.picb.cc/2026/01/29/loVBxG.png Source Cooper comes up with a plan to use old NCR armor to get through Freeside because people still respect that symbol even though the NCR is long gone, its basicaly just using nostalgia and brand recognition to manipulate people into following them witch is pretty smart but also kind of sad when you think about it, literally no hope for the wasteland. Maximus put on the armor and people start gathering around them like they just saw a hero from the old days, Maximus is loving it but Cooper knows its all fake and that these people are desperate for something to believe in, you can see it on his face that he hates using them like this but he does it anyway because they need to get to Lucy. The Death Claw fight happens when they finaly reach the strip and its disappointing with just a couple of minutes of chaos, one Death Claw shows up first and Cooper starts shooting it with electric rounds but they barely slow it down, Maximus jumps in with his power armor and starts fighting it hand to hand until and surprisingly was having the advantage but during the fight his power armor gets stuck and he cant move, the Death Claw turns toward Cooper and is about to rip him apart when Maximus gets free and takes its head off with one swing, it was such a badass moment but then more Death Claws show up and things get even worse and this is what I think was a missed opportunity to let Maximus and Ghoul get creative and fight the rest of the Deathclaws. Thaddeus stay behind this time because he is freaking out the whole time because his body is falling apart and he cant help fight. The initial deal was that if Maximus gives the Ghoul the cold fusion device he will help them get to Lucy , Maximus doesnt want to give it up because he knows Lucy wanted to give it to someone good but Cooper convinces him that sometimes you have to do bad things to save good people witch is pretty much Coopers whole philosophy at this point.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #fallout, #season2, #episode7, #thehandoff, #recap, #deathclaw, #cooper, #maximus, #lucy, #steph, #hank, #vaulttech, #brainwashing, #vegas, #ncr, #armor, #action, #gore, #backstory, #canadian, #internment, #mrhouse, #coldfusion, #finale, #wasteland

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Greenland Migration is not better than the first one but its still pretty decent if you got time to kill and do not mind watching Gerard Butler spend 90 minutes running from lightning bolts, lava and every other natural disaster the planet can throw at him. The whole thing picks up like five or six years after the first movie ended where the Garity family had to escape the bunker in Greenland because supplies are running out and the planet is still a complete mess with earthquakes, volcanoes, huge ass tsunamis and these crazy lightning strikes happening everywhere and after a big earthquake that probably totally destroy the bunker they were in, had to get out considering the amount of radiation and the chaos that was to escape along with the rest of the people in the bunker who turn wild, they decide to head across Europe looking for a new place to live which sounds easy enough until you remember the whole world is still falling apart around them and people are dying left and right from radiation sickness and the rest of the world that turn survivor mode. What I liked about Migration is the same thing I liked about the first one, it does not feel like one of those brainless action movies were things just blow up for two hours and you do not care about anybody on screen, you actually give a damn about this family trying to survive and there is real tension between them about how to stay alive when nobody knows what the hell they are doing, the kid is now like 15 or 16 instead of being 10 years old so he is acting out and doing stupid teenager shit which causes problems because his parents are trying to keep him alive while also dealing with all these disasters trying to kill them every five minutes, I do have to agree there are moments where things are just too convenient although keep always in mind this is not a Nolan level type of movie.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14850054/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The special effects look pretty solid most of the time showing how destroyed everything is, with these big wide shots of one person standing in a wasteland with chaos happening everywhere around them, altho there was one scene where they had to cross this canyon and it looked fake AF, you could tell it was all green screen and it took me out of it for a minute but everything else looked good enough, luckily they didnt spend that much time on this particular area. My biggest issue with this movie is how clean everyone looks at the end of the movie, like these people just went through absolute hell for weeks maybe even months traveling across a destroyed continent and Gerard Butler comes out looking like he just stepped out of the shower consider then even went through a fkn war zone literally in the trenches, also how most people die because a human shot them, I would prefer if more people die from the natural disasters which makes zero sense and really bothered me because come on if you are going to make a post apocalyptic movie at least make people look like they been through some actual shit. The ending also felt rushed and kind of anticlimactic to me, they finally reach this crater that everybody has been talking about the whole movie and I wanted more closure or at least a bigger payoff after everything they went through but it just kind of stops and thats it, like the movie ran out of money or something and they had to wrap it up real quick.

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Source What works in Migrations favor is the pacing because the whole thing is only about an hour and 30 minutes so it never drags or feels boring, they also kept moving the hole time and never stop in the same place for over a night, you care about what happens to the family even tho some of there decisions are pretty dumb, the disasters look brutal when people get taken out by the elements and you feel bad for them, but yeah the first movie was definitely better because it had more focus on how society collapses and people turn on each other when everything goes to hell instead of just being a road trip movie with some explosions and earthquakes thrown in, on this movie people are already settle in, when they got to London you could tell how society was still standing, a bit savage but still there were merchants, people selling food so the story never shows the emptiness of the surface after the explosions. Gerard Butler is doing his usual thing here where he plays the tough dad who will do anything to protect his family and he does a good job with it even tho the script does not give him much to work with, Morena Baccarin who plays his wife Allison seems a little off in this one like her performance feels weird and I could not figure out if it was the writing or just her acting choices but something felt strange about her character at time feels like she was not as worry as John for the future she was more like wing it and see whats the outcome, the kid who plays their son Nathan is fine I guess but he aged like three extra years somehow because the math does not add up from the first movie to this one but it really didnt bother me that much, this is not a very efficient movie at keeping the facts straight so keep that in consideration.

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Source One thing that really bugged me about the whole movie is how these people still have provisions after five years in a bunker that was only stocked for two years, like where are they getting food and water and medicine from, Nathan was loaded in medicine, are they still manufacturing weapons and insulin and all this other stuff because the movie never explains it and just expects you to go along with it. Also there is this scene where they meet this old lady in London who is taking care of people in a nursing home and she has wine and food and a car with gas in it and I was just sitting there thinking how the fuck does she have all this stuff five years after the world ended, specially when they constantly keep saying the more they move into Europe the more dangerous is, it makes no sense at all but the movie does not care and just keeps moving forward. They also run into this French guy later on who has solar panels and a car battery powering his whole house and he is taking care of his wife who has radiation sickness and I guess that part made more sense but still the logistics of how people are surviving in this world do not add up and it kept distracting me from the actual story.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #greenland, #migration, #sequel, #disaster, #apocalyptic, #survival, #gerard, #butler, #family, #bunker, #earthquakes, #radiation, #europe, #crater, #volcanoes, #tsunami, #effects, #action, #entertaining, #rushed, #ending, #movie, #review, #streaming, #theaters

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Drops of God Season 2 Episode 1 got release a few days ago, I know this is a small drama a lot of ppl either dont know about or just dont care but I do enjoy it for some reason, like the first season wrapped everything up pretty nicely with Camille and Issai finally finding some peace after that intense wine competition and now here we are getting another letter from dead daddy Alexander Leger because apparently one season of his mind games was not enough for anyone involved. The episode is trying to do this whole artistic pivot thing going from the high energy wine battles we got used to in season 1 to this slow burn mystery vibe and Im still thinking if thats a smart move or just the writers not knowing what else to do with these characters outside of there fathers shadow because honestly this is the type of thing that remains as a mini series. The free diving scenes in Okinawa look absolutely gorgeous no doubt about it, all that blue water and silence showing us how empty Issai feels inside even though he won the estate or at least half of it witch should have been enough but clearly was not, but damn it takes forever to get anywhere with the actual story and at some point you start wondering if they are just padding the runtime with pretty shots of bubbles and water. The whole unlabeled bottle mystery is interesting on paper because it flips the script on Camille and Issai completely, she cannot taste anything from this perfect wine while he suddenly gets these crazy visions of floating in the ocean witch is the complete opposite of season 1 where she was the natural and he was the robot with facts and data about soil types and vineyards. That role reversal could have been cool to watch play out but then Camille goes and pours the rest of this priceless wine down the sink like a damn child throwing a tantrum because she did not get her magical vision moment, I get that she is trying to reject her fathers control from beyond the grave but come on that bottle could be the key to everything and you just trash it because your annoyed at a dead man who cannot even respond anymore.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6867482/
• Platform: AppleTV+

Source The mystery itself turns into this fetch quest where Issai is running around talking to lawyers and auctioneers and old Spanish families and some lady with dementia in Marseilles, it feels like a video game side mission more than the intense wine drama we signed up for when we watched season 1 and the pacing just drags when it should be picking up speed and getting us excited about whats coming next for these two. Issai almost drowning twice in one episode to get clues is getting old real fast too like yeah we get it he is desperate and depressed and looking for meaning in his life after he literally told Camille she took everything from him but are we really going to watch him black out underwater every week for a whole season because that sounds exhausting, I thought the free diving stuff was beautiful and worked as a metaphor for his internal darkness but doing it over and over again just makes it feel repetitive instead of meaningful. The best part is when Camille finally shows up at the hospital after Issai nearly kills himself diving into a cave at 17 meters deep witch is insane without proper training but he said he have done like 40 before and pass out trying to do 50 so why pass out with a weak as 17m dive, but she is doing her sister stuff and she agrees to join the hunt not because she cares about the wine or her fathers games but because she does not want her brother to die chasing ghosts that might not even exist in the real world. That actually felt like real character growth for her and set up this buddy cop dynamic that could be interesting if they do not screw it up by making them fight every episode over stupid things, the chemistry between these two actors is still fantastic and probably the main reason to keep watching this thing even when the plot feels like its spinning its wheels trying to justify another season of content when the first one had such a satisfying ending for everyone involved except maybe the dead guy. Overall this premiere looks expensive as hell and the acting is solid especially the chemistry between Camille and Issai witch is what actually makes the story worth watching, but it feels like the show is trying to be two diferent things at once and those two vibes are fighting each other hard for control of the steering wheel.

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Source The opening with Issai doing free diving in Okinawa is visually stunning but also confusing as hell because your not really sure what your watching at first, hes just sinking into this dark blue water trying to reach 50 meters on a single breath witch seems completely insane and dangerous for someone who is not a profesional diver with years of training under his belt. The show spends what feels like 10 minutes just watching him sink into the darkness and almost black out from lack of oxygen, its supposed to represent his internal emptiness and depression after winning the competition but losing his sense of purpose in life but honestly it just felt like the director wanted to show off how good there underwater camera work was. When Issai finally tastes the unlabeled wine later in the episode he gets this vision of the Sea of Tranquility witch is aparently the part of the moon where the Apollo astronauts landed back in the day, but its also just him floating in this calm ocean under moonlight and you cannot really tell if its the actual moon or just some weird coral or jellyfish being lit in a strange way by the underwater lights. The vision thing is interesting because in season 1 Camille was the one who got all the visions and memories from tasting wine while Issai was just a walking encyclopedia of facts and data, but now the roles are completely reversed like an UNO card and shes the one left in the dark tasting nothing while he gets transported to this beautiful peaceful place that he desperately needs in his life right now. The problem is Camille does not understand his vision and basically dismisses it as nonsense instead of taking him seriously and asking more questions about what he saw and why it matters to him so much, she treats him like a child who needs protecting instead of a partner who deserves respect and thats going to cause problems between them as the season goes on and they try to work together on this quest there father left behind.

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Source The actual detective work part of the episode is where things really start to drag and lose momentum, how the fuck is he in so many different places in such a short amount of time, the episodes really didnt take in consideration the aspect of time, Issai talks to Talian the lawyer who points him to an auctioneer in Paris named Lecatra who then points to the Lopez family in Spain who finally point to this old widow named Audrey in Marseilles who has dementia and can barely remember her own husbands name let alone details about a wine bottle he bought 30 years ago on some trip. Its just breadcrumbs leading to more breadcrumbs and none of it feels urgent or exciting and he just gets to this dead end and though why not going diving the thing that almost killed me. Issai just keeps moving from place to place asking the same questions over and over again to people who dont have real answers for him witch gets boring fast compared to the high stakes blind tasting competitions from last season. The Spanish winemakers scene was kind of cool because it showed us a new location and they had a perfect opportunity to introduce a bit of more mystery but they just ditch it when the Spanish winemaker said immediately he didnt know anything about the two bottles without label, I mean nothing like a dead end, that make it felt rushed and underdeveloped like they didnt have time to really explore the culture or add some sauce to the mistery before moving on to the next clue in the chain. The whole episode feels like its setting up Issai as this self destructive character who will risk everything including his own life to find meaning and purpose again, but it also feels like the show is going to repeat this same beat over and over again every episode and that sounds like the perfect path to disaster if they dont switch things up soon and give us some actual progress on the mystery instead of just near death experiences.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #dropsofgod , #dropsofgodseason2 , #appletv , #appletvplus , #winetv , #wineseries , #camille , #issei , #alexandreleger , #winetasting , #blindtasting , #winelover , #inheritance , #legacy , #siblings , #winecollection , #biodynamic , #sustainability , #climatechange , #wineculture , #mystery , #quest , #winemaking , #sommelier , #emmywinner

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This is a cross post of @gwajnberg/the-outsider-a-good-stephen by @gwajnberg.

My review about The Outsider

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Christy was one of those biopics that sounds intense from what I saw on the trailer aside that I saw her beginnings when I was little, my father was huge boxing fan and I was not really into it back then but still watch fights here and there. Biopics are not easy to make at all and this one delivers in some spots but leaves you feeling like somethings missing by the end, specially for a movie running 2 hours and 15 minutes long which feels like forever when you realize how much they rush through. Sydney Sweeney does solid work transforming into Christy Martin and you can tell she put in effort to disappear into the role with the weight gain and everything but I feel like the movie skips over some parts of the story and instead of a proper biopic looks more like a domestic abuse story to be honest. The domestic abuse situation with her husband Jim played by Ben Foster feels rushed and not fully explained, like we see him being controlling and abusive but the movie never really digs into how someone as strong and smart as Christy got trapped in that situation for so damn long or why she kept going back, at least that how I see it, sometimes I find that not only biopics are hard to make but even hard to enjoy unless you really know the complete story and if so Im sure viewers end up disappointed when part of the story is skipped, for a movie this long you would think they could spend more time showing us how that relationship turned so toxic instead of just telling us at the end that she did not even know how to buy groceries or tie her shoes. That detail caught me way off guard because nothing in the movie made it seem like he was controlling her to that extreme level where she could not function without him, it felt like they threw that in there just to make us understand how bad things were but it comes too late in the story to really matter at all. The whole closeted lesbian angle is there throughout the entire thing and her mother is absolutely trash for how she treats her daughter, more concerned about rumors than her own kids safety which was infuriating to watch especially when Christy tries to open up about anything and her mom basically tells her to shut up and deal with it because the church might hear about it, what a POS mother ngl.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32323252/
• Platform: PLATFORM

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Source Sydney Sweeney really does transform here and its probably one of her best performances since Euphoria where she actually had to act and not just look pretty for the camera, she gains weight for the role and looks completely different from what we normally see in tight clothe although I dont complain about her in tight jeans. You can see her working hard to bring this character to life from the beginning when Christy is just a coal miners daughter from West Virginia trying to find her thing in boxing, she goes from this young girl at a strong man contest in 1989 to fighting on national television for Don King and the whole journey is interesting to watch even when the script does not give her enough to work with or explain things properly. The boxing scenes are done pretty well and you feel the impact of the punches, they do not shy away from showing how brutal the sport can be and how much damage these women take in the ring which I thought was a good choice because it makes you understand why Christy was so important to womens boxing back in the day, she paved the way for people like other female boxers even though the movie does not really focus much on her later career fights. Ben Foster is absolutely unrecognizable as Jim Martin and he nails the creepy abusive husband role in a way that made me a bit uncomfortable every time hes on screen like you already know you want someone to beat him up badly, I did not even realize it was him at first until I looked it up after because he put on weight and looks completely different with the makeup and everything, from the moment you meet this guy you instantly hate him and theres not one single moment where you think maybe hes not that bad or maybe he really does care about Christy at all. He always knew exactly what he was after, like getting her that meeting with Don King and training her to become a champion but its all about control and keeping her dependent on him for everything including her career and her money and even her identity, the dude is a complete asshole from start to finish and you just want someone to punch him in the face for two hours straight.

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Source The movie builds Christys story starting in 1989 when she wins her first fight and catches the attention of people who think she might have something special, she meets Jim Martin who becomes her trainer and eventually her husband even though she does not seem into him at all because shes actually into women which becomes a huge part of the story. The relationship with Jim starts off weird and gets worse over time as the movie goes on, he controls what she eats and how she looks and who she talks to and what she says in interviews and it becomes this suffocating thing where Christy cannot breath without his permission, its like watching someone slowly drown and nobody is throwing them a life preserver. Theres this constant threat of violence hanging over her head because Jim keeps telling her that if she ever leaves him he will kill her; literally, and he says it multiple times throughout the movie so you know its not just an empty threat and sure enough when she finally tries to leave him for real he stabs her like multiple times and shoots her and somehow she survives which is the craziest part of the whole story, what a mf badass bitch, not even men take all that and then carry themself to the hospital, I was like damn literally "Ill be back...", I did not see that coming at all even though he kept threatening to do it the whole time. The mother Joyce played by Merritt Wever just the same as terrible as Jim in her own way, she runs the household while Christys dad and brother work in the coal mines and she has this weird traditional mindset where she thinks Christy just needs to find a good man and stop all this boxing nonsense and definitely stop hanging around with women who might be lesbians because what will the church people think. When Christy tries to talk to her mom about the abuse shes dealing with from Jim, Joyce basically sides with Jim and acts like Christys making it all up or exaggerating things and even threatens to tell Jim about the conversation which is just insane behavior from a mother who should be protecting her daughter instead of throwing her under the bus like that, you just want to reach through the screen and shake some sense into this woman, still we human never stop to come up with impressive ways to screw things up.

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Source Jess Gabor shows up as Rosie who is Christys girlfriend and the whole storyline with her brings this intensity to the movie that makes you understand why Christy falls for her, she was great in the role. Katy OBrian plays Lisa Holewyne who is Christys boxing rival and eventually becomes her wife in real life after all this goes down, I actually wanted way more of both these characters in this movie because they were good and you can see the chemistry there. The whole lesbian thing is handled in a way that shows how much Christy has to hide her true self from everyone including her family and the boxing community and even the media, she goes on press tours and actually slams other female fighters for being lesbians while she was hiding the same thing about herself which is kind of sad but also shows how much pressure she was under to maintain this straight image that Jim wanted her to project to the world. Don King shows up played by Chad Coleman and hes got some good moments where he puts Jim in his place and makes it clear that Christy is the real star not her husband, but even Don is not really a good guy in this he just sees Christy as a way to make money off womens boxing which was a new thing at the time and he wanted to cash in. The movie focuses more on the domestic abuse situation than the actual boxing career which makes sense for the story they are trying to tell but it does leave you wanting to see more of her actual fights and what made her such a big deal in the sport, would have been nice to see how that all connected together instead of just showing us bits and pieces and moving on to the next thing.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #christy, #sydneysweeney, #benfoster, #biopic, #boxing, #christymartin, #domesticabuse, #survival, #lesbian, #closeted, #jimmartin, #toxic, #relationship, #donking, #katieobrien, #merittweaver, #abuse, #fighter, #womensboxing, #violence, #westvirginia, #transformation, #oscar, #performance, #review

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Alright so I just wrapped up Steal (2026), last episode on my way home and I got to be real with you, this show had me feeling all kinds of frustration at times, its all up and downs, it starts out with so much damn potential but somehow manages to completely lose itself by the halfway point, Sophie Turner and Archie Madekwe do their best to make this thing work even at the end she tried, the whole series feels like its trying way too hard to be clever when really its just messy and boring by the end of it, now dont think its completely boring because even when its on the floor it still throwing some punches, sucks because the setup actually sounded interesting when I first heard about it. You got this pension fund robbery where billions of dollars are getting stolen from regular working people who are just trying to retire someday, two office workers get stuck right in the middle, forced to help these criminals pull off the heist of there lifes, that could have been a really cool tense story about morals and survival but instead we get six episodes that four of them drag like crazy, characters who I stopped caring about halfway through because none of them felt real or interesting enough to give a damn about at all. The silent scenes are cool at first, they create this weird uncomfortable vibe but after a while it just feels like filling up space without actually adding anything useful to the story, by episode four I almost did not even finish it, witch is saying alot because I usually power through shows even when they get bad. You got to love Sophie Turner character Zara who felt real even trying to fight back at the end, not giving a sht anymore, everyone else either annoyed me or just were gone for whole chunks of the show without any explanation at all, the big twist at the end was okay I guess, I did not see it coming but I also did not really care by that point, the pacing killed all my excitement way before we got there, even with all that urgent music trying to make me feel something I was not feeling, Prime Video clearly spent some money on this thing, it looks solid, good visuals can not save a story that does not know what it wants to be or where it wants to go though, it just kept twisting itself into knots trying to look smart when really it was just confusing and kinda dull.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32499731/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Source The first episode actually starts pretty strong witch got my hopes up for what was coming next, we meet Zara Dunn who works at this investment company called Lochmill Capital, she seems like your average office worker dealing with average office problems, nosebleeds and boring meetings, until a group of armed thieves swarm the place and take everyone hostage during a busy trading day, the tension is real right from the start. Zara brings in this intern named Myrtle Clark right before everything goes to hell, showing her around the office, introducing her to Luke who also works in the trade processing department, then boom these criminals show up with guns and force everyone to freeze up and hand over there phones, witch escalates fast. The leader tells Zara and Luke to stand up because they can use the trading system, he makes Luke load a flash drive onto his computer with six trade accounts worth over four billion pounds, witch is when you realize these thieves are not here for petty cash, they want to steal peoples retirement money, billions from regular people trying to retire. Luke is freaking out the entire time while Zara stays calm and collected, makes you wonder if maybe she knows more about wth is going on, the robbers force them to sign off on these trades and send them to a custodian bank, the whole sequence feels urgent and scary because you can see how terrified everyone is, they are organized and efficient, they know exactly what they are doing witch makes them feel dangerous. At the end of the episode one of the employees manages to alert someone in a nearby building about the hostage situation, police show up, DCI Rhys and his team secure the area and start questioning everyone who had direct contact with the thieves, pretty standard procedure.

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Source Episode two is where things start falling apart for me but still ok because you would though they need to slow things down after such a banger opening, but the pacing just completely dies and never recovers, Zara got the five million pounds in her crypto wallet after the heist, she transfers it to an external cold wallet, yeah now days heist tv series been done around cold wallets, the show makes it seem like the money is physically inside this little device, witch is not how that works but lets leave the details aside. She runs around her apartment trying to figure out where to hide it, first behind the refrigerator then under the floorboard at her moms house in some old memory box, the whole sequence drags on forever, creates this subplot about her trying to keep the money hidden from the police but it takes way too long to get anywhere. Luke also got paid but he is panicking, wants to confess to the cops because he can not handle the guilt but you get something is off, something didnt go to plan. Zara tells him to shut up and not say anything or they will both go to prison for helping the thieves, Luke keeps freaking out and almost ruins everything multiple times witch gets old real fast, you can only watch someone panic for so long before you stop caring. DCI Rhys starts investigating the heist, he is dealing with his own problems because he owes one hundred thousand pounds to some dangerous people, needs to find the money quick, this subplot with Rhys and his debt could have been interesting but it never really goes anywhere, just feels like filler to stretch out the runtime. The episode also introduces this whole cryptocurrency thing where the stolen money gets transferred using Bitcoin, a lot of talk about cold wallets and blockchain addresses but none of it feels accurate or realistic, you could tell they were just throwing around buzzwords without really understanding how any of it works, Zara has to hide the device to protect the money but that is not how crypto works at all, the money is on the blockchain and the device is just a tool to access it, all the drama about hiding the device feels pointless but I get it they afraid someone might hack it or once they find it then take it for investigation and accuse her.

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The middle episodes three and four are where I almost gave up on the show entirely, nothing happens and the characters just keep making stupid decissions over and over again because if there is a constant variable on this series is Zara taking the worst desicions you could imagine and done get me started with Luke who gets kidnapped by the thieves because he is too shaky and confess to Zara he is going to the police over the fkn phone and then call DCI Rhys to snitch. Zara shows up just in time to see him getting dragged away witch was some of the tense moments of the series, how it just keeps kicking and dont want to die yet. I never really care about Luke during the series because you could tell he is a lier and snitch. Flashbacks show us that Zara and others within her department were resentful towards Lochmill executives who were profiting from there work, here is where apparently Luke got approached by some people offering one hundred thousand pounds to help with the robbery on a Call of Duty session, sounds made up but if they know who you are I wouldnt find it impossible, Zara joined in after getting denied a promotion she deserved, so now we know she was in on it from the beginning, witch explains her calm behavior during the heist. What I enjoy the most about the series is how they really build up Zara character going from her apparently knowing nothing about the heist on episode one and just saving that girl when offering herself and even saving Luke's weak ass when he was in shock because he never though they were stealing 4 BILLION DOLLARS in pensions. We also get to know Zara way way more from her mom, how she had basically thrown her life away until that point and how the entire office thought she was the biggest looser of the entire floor trying to cope at partying every weekend. The show also introduces this character named Milo who apparently orchestrated the whole heist, has twenty million pounds hidden away but we barely see him until the very end so he didnt matter to the core of the story that is Zara, his character feels like an afterthought, there is also this financial investigator named Darren Yoshida who is supposed to be helping the police but is a bit dodgy and almost look like he didnt want to help at all.

The final two episodes try to wrap everything up but it all feels rushed and unsatisfying, there is a big shootout at the Lochmill office where Morgan is hunting down Zara and Luke, yup long story go watch the series but this all happen after she offers him Milos instead of hers witch has twenty million on it, they go to Milos place and force him to give up his safe and wallet, he tries to escape using pepper spray and gets stabbed in the chest, pretty brutal and he was the risk manager come on, peper spray vs man with a knife and guns. Luke tries to call the police but Rhys shows up and finds Luke out cold because he does not know what is happening, the other thieves realize Morgan is gone and head to Lochmill triggering a massive shooting and surprisingly no cops no nothing with automatic guns just blasting the place. Morgan starts taking down the other criminals while Zara creates distractions, Rhys gets shot during the battle but him and Zara manage to slip away, Zara goes back for the cold wallet and runs into Morgan but she tasers him repeatedly until he passes out witch felt anticlimactic, Morgan was supposed to be this dangerous villain but he gets taken down so easily, although this scene took so long I was actually rooting for Zara just because she was the underdog here, even took a few punches to the face and was still standing. After everything settles the media reports that Milo orchestrated the robbery and committed suicide out of guilt, stolen funds implicated thirty two high profile figures, the four billion pounds got returned to Lochmill, but then Rhys figure out that Darren Yoshida was the real mastermind who moved the funds to expose corruption in offshore tax havens, he kept ten million for himself as leverage to change the world or some shit, like that much money would change anything. Zara and Rhys confront him but they just let him go witch makes no sense, Rhys should have called the police and wait there or record him confessing something like that, this people ran out of creativity for sure, he literaly helped steal four billion dollars and got people killed, then Zara reveals she kept Milos twenty million dollar cold wallet for herself, this entire episode was such a back and forward of who is getting any money out of this without going to jail. Then magically Zara decides to walk away from Lochmill entirely to start something new, that ending is supposed to feel satisfying but it just feels hollow, Zara never faced any real consequences for her actions or did anything extraordinary to keep Milo cold wallet, she just put all in read and hope it landed on red by leaving the cold wallet behind on a stash and hope she could pack it up next day when she leaves the office. The show tries to paint her as this complex person who was forced into a bad situation but really she is just selfish, screwed over a bunch of innocent people then got away with it, by the end I did not care what happened to her or anyone else, the show never gave me a reason to care for any of these characters, they were all assholes making dumb choices, I gave this series a 6.5 / 10 and I hope it ends here because I dont see how they can do a Season 2 out of this story, just dont.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #steal, #prime, #video, #review, #recap, #sophie, #turner, #heist, #thriller, #cryptocurrency, #bitcoin, #lochmill, #zara, #luke, #robbery, #pension, #disappointment, #boring, #twist, #pacing, #rating, #series, #drama, #crime, #2026

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I can already hear people saying that this series is crap, this for sure comes from viewers who were expecting another action series like HOTD but looking at this episode 2 I cannot feel like the whole thing is stuck in this weird place where it wants to be Game of Thrones so bad but it just cannot get there because the source material is too damn simple, although ITS NOT BAD, it is too small scale for what everyone was expecting from it, a very drastic turn that nobody saw comming. Episode 2 starts with Sir Arland of Penny Tree walking out after having sex with some random woman and you see his dick just hanging there for no reason other than HBO trying to be edgy which was absolutely pointless, I just hate when they do that. I get it they want to show gritty realism or whatever but come on we do not need to see Sir Arland walking out with his junk hanging around when it adds nothing to the story, at least throw in some balance because this is just gross for the sake of being gross, they could have spend that budget on better armor instead of a giant prosthetic dick that nobody asked for. The whole episode then jumps into Dunk trying to get permission from every lord he can find to enter the damn tournament and none of them remember Sir Arland which is kind of sad but also makes sense since he was just a hedge knight who never won anything, Dunk keeps going on about how Sir Arland fought at this battle and broke seven lances against Baelor Targaryen but nobody gives a shit because he was a nobody who died on the side of the road like most hedge knights do. Episode 2 made justice for Dunk towards the end and we finally meet Baelor Targaryen who seems like a decent guy for once instead of the usual insane power hungry Targaryens we are used to seeing from House of the Dragon, Baelor actually remembers Sir Arland and gives Dunk permission to compete which is probably the nicest thing any other lord has done for Dunk in the series so far, his brother Maekar shows up too and he has that younger brother syndrome going on where he is jealous of Baelor and complains about his kids not being as good as Baelors kids which is honestly pretty funny to watch.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27497448/
• Platform: HBOMAX

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Source The whole episode also has Dunk realizing that Sir Arland wasnt actually this great knight he thought he was, nobody remembers him and he never won a tournament and he died on the side of a muddy road with an infected cut on his wrist, Dunk has been telling everyone how great Sir Arland was and how he fought at Redgrass Field and served all these great houses but the reality is that he was just another hedge knight who got by doing small jobs here and there and drinking too much. At the end of the episode Dunk is sitting by the campfire eating hard salt beef which is the title of the episode and he is reflecting on whether the life of a hedge knight is even worth it, sleeping beside roads and eating shitty food and having nobody remember your name when you die, but then he also remembers that Sir Arland raised him and taught him how to be honorable even if he wasnt perfect himself so Dunk decides he is going to be a champion and make Sir Arlands legacy mean something, turns out Dunk is Sir Arland legacy. Egg is there too playing soldier and pretending to fight in battles while Dunk is having this existential crisis about his life choices, the relationship between these two characters is really well done with Egg being smart and perceptive while Dunk is kind of naive and doesnt understand how the world works and starting to realize how evil and mean it is, its the case on episode 1 when those two woman were making fun of him and he directly ask what benefit they get out of it, very naive if you ask.

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Source The Targaryens showing up at Ashford is a big deal because normally they wouldnt bother with some backwater tournament but since they dont have dragons anymore they have to do alot more PR work to keep the lords happy and remind everyone they are still in power, you see Baelor and Maekar arrive with their kids and a bunch of Kingsguard in white armor which finally looks like it should instead of the weird gold stuff they had in Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Maekars son Aerion Brightflame shows up too and he is basically Draco Malfoy mixed with Joffrey, he assumes Dunk is a stable boy and then a serving man and when Dunk tells him he is a knight Aerion just laughs at him and says knights have fallen on hard times, you can tell right away this guy is going to be a problem later on and I bet he does something stupid that causes the big conflict and puts Dunk in hot water with every other lord probably. The jousting scene has some realy nice visuals with all the different houses represented like the Brackens and Blackwoods and the Tullys making a long trip from the Riverlands and of course the Targaryens with their dragon armor, the whole sequence look pretty good to me although it still doesnt have the same impact as in House of The Dragon when Daemon fought during the first episodes, over all there was more suspense and tension, in contrary this series is more about fun and drama and less killing and conspiracy, so thats where it falls short for whe everyone is expecting although if you take it for what it is then you are going to enjoy it.

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