My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Patient Zero"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl

Clara: "Is this a dream? Did I die?"

Mike: "Actually, Clara, you're the dream now."

We're slap bang in the middle of the show and it was time to mostly step back again and look at some origins. Half this episode focused on Byron Forst and the second half filled some other gaps.

The episode opened with a captive Dr Ray having the misfortune of watching Byron having sex with a stewardess, who would be later killed off in the episode. Byron wasn't pleased that he had 855 days left before he could explode.

In fact Byron nearly killed Dr Ray until the latter persuaded him that he could find a way to keep Byron alive. Then there was Byron monologuing his great plan to Franny. I absolutely love the unbridled hatred that Franny showed Byron but I'd also love to know what made her marry him in the first place and have two children with him? I'm sure we'll find out soon.

Anyways, do you remember Joey Pollari popping up in the second episode in Italy, getting no dialogue and being taken out by The Assassin? Well, the second half of this episode was dedicated to the events that led to Byron wanting Mike McGuinn to suffer as he died. 

Yes, in an unsurprising turn of events, Mike looked a lot different. In fact you could say that he looked like Eddie Kaye Thomas. Mike was working in Zone 1 at the Corporation and was friends with a trans woman named Clara Gardner (Rev Yolanda). In fact their friendship was rather sweet as Mike and Clara both lifted each other up while not being afraid to dish out some needed truths.

Mike also had a crush on Zone 4 worker Jennifer King (Laura Dreyfuss) but learned that she was engaged. I do think Clara might have been a tad harsh about Jen when cheering Mike but an incident involving a chimp named Larry going berserk in Zone 4 gave Mike an idea.

Yes, he stole the Beauty and the boosters needed to prevent combusting and gave it to himself. Then he gave it to Clara and she ended up looking like Lux Pascal. Both of them were happy with their new bodies. Then we circled back to Mike being killed. I would've liked more of Joey Pollari in this show.

- Cooper, Jordan and Jeremy all sat out the events of this episode but the trailer for next week showed the latter two meeting.

- I assume we will properly meet both Byron and Franny's children before the season ends, right? They've been mentioned a lot.

- Standout music: Tame Impala's Run From The Sun Like Dracula.

- Chronology: Two years before the events of the first episode.

Beautiful Patient Zero did fill in a few needed gaps but that was two flashbacks in a row. There's a daft musical sequence that played in Ashton Kutcher's physique. I think the Mike and Clara story was better though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Industry - Season 3 (2024, HBO/BBC1)

 

Written by Mickey Down And Konrad Kay

Directed by Isabella Eklöf And Zoé Wittock And Mickey Down And Konrad Kay

Eric/Robert (in unison): "I am a man and I am relentless."

There are a few things I have to got to say about this third season. First of all, it's my favourite season of the show so far and secondly, it felt like it was being primed as a final season for the show. The last episode really did work as a potential series finale.

Of course, this season didn't end the show because the fourth season has been airing but had things been different, this would've been a glorious ending for the show. The stakes felt higher and the writing felt more elevated than it had already been. Not to mention so many dynamics shifted.

For example, Harper Stern was no longer working at Pierpoint. Instead she had moved on to working at FutureDawn. It didn't take Harper long to play partners Anna Gearing (Elena Saurel) and Petra Koenig (Sarah Goldberg) off each other. Harper was on a roll this season with her bullshit as the likes of Eric, Yasmin and Rishi all got caught in her crossfire. This led to one of the best fight scenes between Harper and Yasmin.

Speaking of Yasmin, how the hell did Marisa Abela not get an Emmy nomination for this season alone? It's easily her best work as Yasmin went through a very public fallout of her father's sex crimes coming to light. On top of that, the season largely teased the idea that she might have murdered him before flashbacks revealed a far murkier answer to that particular question.

Of course this season also addressed the dynamic between her and Robert as both of them got involved with Lumi CEO (a green energy company) Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington). The latter's a spoiled manchild that treated Robert like a dogsbody before eventually getting engaged to Yasmin. It's not a relationship that's really built on love by the looks of it.

By the end of this season, not only are both Robert and Yasmin out of Pierpoint but the former also left thd country for his own opportunities in California. Pierpoint itself was also taken out of the equation with Eric being well and truly screwed over. It definitely felt like the end of an era here, adding to my earlier sentiment that this season felt like a final season to me.

As for Rishi, talk about a character journey. Sagar Radia was another actor who I'm shocked didn't get Emmy nominated. There's a whole episode dedicated to Rishi's gambling addiction and it's one of the best episodes of television that I've ever seen. It also came to a devastating head in the finale that made me actively dread where thecshow will go with the character next season.

- Episode titles were Il Mattino ha L'Oro in Bocca, Smoke And Mirrors, It, White Mischief, Company Man, Nikki Beach, or: So Many Ways to Lose, Useful Idiot and Infinite Largesse.

- Eric fired Kenny at the start of the season. Kenny came back with Daria and Jackie at the behest of Harper making her own moves against Eric.

- Yasmin was implied to be abused by her father as a child. Her lawyer, Denise (Fiona Button) was the sister of her former boyfriend, Seb.

- Nicole died at the start of the season and Robert was traumatised by her death. We saw Robert on a drug trip in the second half of the season.

- Other prominent characters this season included Sweetpea Golighty (Miriam Petche), James Ashford (Tom Stourton), Viscount Alexander Norton (Andrew Havill), Ali El Mansour (Fady Elsayed), Vinay Sarkar (Asim Chaudhry) and Tom Wolsey (Harry Hadden-Paton) to name a few.

- Chronology: Some time since the events of the second season. Rishi's episode was set during Christmas.

I absolutely love this season. If the show had ended with this one, it would've been one hell of a note to have ended the show. I'm glad it hasn't ended though because I've really gotten into it over these last few weeks. This show really proves that when a show can be allowed to grow its audience, it can truly deliver.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Saw II (2005)

 

Written by Leigh Whannell And Darren Lynn Bousman

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

John: "Those who don't appreciate life do not deserve life."

Eric: "My son appreciates his life."

John: "But do you appreciate yours? Do you appreciate your son's?"

And I'm on to the first of many sequels for this franchise. If the first movie kept it reasonably simple, then this was the beginning of making this incredibly complicated going forward.

First of all, there's the prominence of John Kramer (Tobin Bell) aka Jigsaw Killer himself. After the brief screen time he had in the first movie, he's a far bigger threat this time around. Oh and he's got cancer, so threatening his life won't do shit to get him to do the right thing.

That was something that corrupt Detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) had to find out the hard way. His sins caught up with him when his estranged son, Daniel (Eric Knudsen) was one of many unfortunate people caught up in Jigsaw's second round of torturous games.

Let's look at the batch of victims themselves. There's Daniel and a returning Amanda (Shawnee Smith) being dragged into this mess but they're also joined by Addison (Emmanuelle Vaugier), Laura (Beverley Mitchell), Xavier (Franky G), Jonas (Glenn Plummer), Obi (Timothy Burd) and Gus (Tony Nappo). They're all nearly cannon fodder.

To be fair, they're all people mostly linked with crime and put through the usual tests that fitted their flaws. The emphasis was largely on Amanda and Daniel. Both of them made it out of the movie alive. The not so shocking reveal though was Amanda actually working with John all along.

It's heavily telegraphed in the movie that Amanda viewed John as someone who saved her from herself, so it was fitting that she became his accomplice. Then there's Eric. He was largely a selfish character throughout and his fate ended on a cliffhanger to boot.

- Other characters of note in this movie included Alison Kerry (Dina Meyer), Rigg (Lyriq Bent) and Michael (Noam Jenkins). The latter was the opening kill.

- Billy the Puppet had a lot more screen time in this movie.

- Standout music: Marilyn Manson's Irresponsible Hate Anthem.

- Chronology: Not long after the events of the first movie.

I'll admit that Saw II made for a decent sequel. I think this movie helped to cement both John Kramer and Amanda as oddly sympathetic villain protagonists. Meanwhile, the actual protagonist Eric Matthews felt rather unsympathetic by comparison. Funny that.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Saw (2004)

 

Written by Leigh Whannell 

Directed by James Wan

John (to Adam): "Most people are so ungrateful to be alive, but not you, not anymore. GAME OVER!"

I've been iffy about this franchise. I don't hate it but it's definitely a franchise that wants to have it's cake and eat it. You've got a horror antagonist that seemed delight in abducting people and putting them through psychological warfare and have then killed in often sadistic ways.

However this first movie was more lower scale. Two men are trapped in a grotty room together with a dead body. The first man -  Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Lewes) was an inattentive husband and father to Alison (Monica Potter) and Diana (Makenzie Vega). This would come back to haunt him.

The second man named Adam (Leigh Whannell) seemed to be a mostly innocent guy but it turned out that he was spying on Lawrence's extracurricular activities. That put both men at odds and their mystery kidnapper Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) seemed to revel in testing their resolves while delving into their flaws.

For Lawrence there was the added dilemma of having both Alison and Diana being terrorised by Zep Hindle (Michael Emerson). It turned out the latter was being blackmailed by Jigsaw but fortunately Alison was able to save herself and Diana. If it were up to Lawrence, they wouldn't have made it out of the movie alive.

There's a lot of parts in this movie. You've got both Adam and Lawrence fighting for survival, Zep being as much as a victim as they are and the reveal of John Kramer as the real Jigsaw. I'll admit that was the best part of the movie along with hints of Kramer's backstory.

Another aspect of this movie involved detective duo David Tapp (Danny Glover) and Steven Sing (Ken Leung). Both men tried desperately to catch Jigsaw and save other victims. They didn't exactly succeed in either aspect and Sing himself ended up being another casualty. 

- This movie introduced us to Amanda (Shawnee Smith), a survivor of one of Jigsaw's previous games. Billy the Puppet appeared very briefly.

- This originally started life as a short movie and was even meant to film in Australia before budget reasons changed it to Los Angeles.

- Standout music: Pitbull Daycare's You Make Me Feel So Dead.

- Chronology: Present day in Los Angeles, including flashbacks for various characters.

The first Saw movie (maybe the first three) arguably was the strongest of the bunch. Later movies will over egg everything that made this ons work but for now, the psychological games and Jigsaw all worked pretty well. A strong debut.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: "Seven"

 

Written by Aziza Barnes And Annie Julia Wyman And Ira Parker

Directed by Sarah Adina Smith

Ser Duncan: "Who will stand and fight with me? Has courage deserted the nobles houses of Westeros? Are there no true knights among you?"

Ah, Ser Dunk. Talk about being damned either way. He went from punching out a spoiled Prince to fighting out that his squire was another prince and his life was also on the line. It was not his day/night throughout this episode.

Looking into the Egg or shall Prince Aegon Targaryen reveal. I can't say that I blame Dunk for taking it badly. I also don't blame him for accusing Egg of trying to make fun of him, even though the latter made it clear that he didn't intend any malice. Egg just really wanted to get away from his own family.

Egg's hatred for Aerion was made very apparent in this episode. He genuinely wanted to see his older brother dead and didn't care if Baelor disapproved of him saying it aloud. I also liked that when the chips were down, Egg maintained being Dunk's squire. Dunk kind of had no choice but to let him.

This episode further cemented how cruel and petty Aerion could be as a character. He couldn't simply let Dunk do trial by combat but insisted upon the trial by seven. He even managed to undermine Dunk's attempts to save himself by getting to Steffon. To be fair, I don't think it would've taken much to get Steffon to switch sides.

I guess what really elevated the episode was of course Baelor himself. Baelor has proven to be receptive to Dunk on the show and having him step in at the last minute to give Dunk the team he needed was a nice moment to cheer things on. I don't think Aerion will be pleased with more family members making their hatred for him publicly known.

As for Daeron, I think this episode made him a bit more tragic. Like other Targaryens, Daeron admitted to having prophetic dreams and even apologised for making things worse for Dunk. In a few scenes, I've grown to like his character.

- Aerion genuinely believes that he's a dragon in human form and he killed Egg's cat while threatening to castrate him. 

- Tanselle fled the scene  while Lyonel knighted Raymun to replace Steffon. I like that Raymun has become a good friend of Dunk's.

- This episode along with the latest one from Industry were released on HBO Max due to tonight's Super Bowl.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Seven was easily the best episode so far. A fantastic character study into everyone, but especially Dunk. A fantastic use of the Game Of Thrones/House Of The Dragon theme music and those last few minutes were sublime. This show really found it's groove.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of Shell (2024)

 

Written by Jack Stanley

Directed by Max Minghella

Samantha: "I guess I just wanted you to look at me and see someone else."

If the idea of ageing actress resorting to an experimental beauty with dire consequences hadn't been explored enough in The Substance, then there's Shell. While former was in theatres, this one was doing the festival circuit. Does it work as an idea? I'd say yes it did.

The actress in question was Samantha Lake (Elisabeth Moss). She was known for a cheesy but feel good sitcom but the acting roles have dried up. Even when Samantha auditioned for a role that was suited to her, she lost out to the much younger Chloe Benson (Kaia Gerber). Chloe was a girl that Samantha used to babysit for back in the day.

Anyways Samantha's desperation to revive her acting career put her in the cross hairs of Dr. Hubert (Arian Moayed). He worked for Shell, which was founded by Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson). Samantha underwent the procedure and ended up making friends with Zoe. On top of that, she also booked an acting gig. Things were looking up for her.

However if you've watched The Substance and Death Becomes Her, you'll know there's a downside to those type of rejuvenations. Samantha kept getting these grotesque black moles on her skin and Chloe's disappearance quickly alerted Samantha to the dangers of Shell.

There's a point in the movie made about Samantha being too trusting. It's evident in the way that it took very little for Zoe to get her on side. It's also something that Zoe had no problem throwing back at Samantha when she didn't need to pretend to be nice.

Anyways, the cops/FBI were under Shell's payroll, Dr. Hubert helped Samantha stabilise her condition but was still untrustworthy, Chloe turned into some hideously monster that was darkly lit and Zoe got her just desserts. The ending was a bit happier for Samantha compared to the other movies I've mentioned in this review.

- Elisabeth Moss and Max Minghella (the director) worked together on The Handmaid's Tale (2017-2025).

- Elizabeth Berkley popped up at the start of the movie as Jenna Janero. It didn't end well for her.

- Standout music: Connie Francis's Young At Heart.

- Chronology: Present day Los Angeles. Samantha write a book about her experience months after the events of the movie.

Shell had some interesting enough ideas that were executed well enough but at the same time, I think they could've pushed them better. I'll give both Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson their due as I think they did well with their respective roles.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of Possession (1981)

 

Written by Andrzej Żuławski And Frederic Tuten

Directed by Andrzej Żuławski

Anna: "Goodness is only some kind of reflection upon evil. That's all it is."

With a remake of this movie on the horizon, it was definitely time to see what the fuss was about the original. A movie that wasn't a commercial success upon it's initial release but gained cult status over the years.

To start off with, this doesn't feel like a traditional horror movie about the nature of possession. For the most part, it's very much a kitchen sink drama with a small dose of espionage talk in the mix but even the latter bit felt somewhat muted until the last few minutes of the film.

The focus was on separating couple Mark (Sam Neill) and his dissatisfied wife, Anna (Isabelle Adjani). Their whole relationship was an exercise in pure destruction to watch. If they weren't screaming at each other in nearly every scene together, both of them were physically assaulting each other to boot. It's a bit exhausting at times.

On top of that, they've got a son named Bob (Michael Hogben) that neither make an effort to look after or reassure during their volatile outbursts. Although Mark did try to fight for custody of Bob early in the movie. Also, there was the matter of adultery itself and how it factored into both Mark and Anna's actions.

Mark started an affair with Bob's teacher, Helen. Helen looked exactly like Anna and was even played by the same actor. Anna was also sleeping with Heinrich (Heinz Bennent) but oddly enough, his best scenes were with Mark rather than Anna. Oh and he was eventually killed by Mark.

As for the possession itself, it was a creature driving both Mark and Anna (the latter moreso) into absolute madness. The creature eventually became Mark's doppelganger and by the end of the movie, the volatile couple were no more. In fact, the movie ended on a rather horrifying note.

- The upcoming US remake will be directed by Parker Finn and produced by Robert Pattinson. A Malaysian remake came out in 2024.

- There's a character called Man with Pink Socks, played by Maximilian Rüthlein. I think that's a neat name for a character.

- This film was actually banned in the UK until 1999 and was written while the director was going through a divorce.

- Chronology: 1970s West Berlin for the duration of the movie.

Possession (1981) was something of a wild movie. I don't think I love it but I couldn't keep my eyes off it either. It's such a fascinating look into an absolutely destructive pairing with a very bleak ending. It's definitely a movie that'll stick with you.

Rating: 8 out of 10