DCU Blog - January 2023 Edition: DCU Chapter One Slate Announced And So Much More

James Gunn really did decide to wait until the last month to reveal part of his DCU Slate and boy, did he deliver in a six minute video to social media and press.

Chapter One titled, Gods And Monsters gave us quite a bit to mull over as well. Breaking it down, here we go ....

First of all of, Batman and Superman fans are getting fed yet again. The Batman - Part II will be released on October 3rd 2025 and will be part of DC's Elseworlds while The Brave And The Bold (older Batman with Damien Wayne as Robin) will be part of James Gunn and Peter Safran's DCU.

James Gunn has confirmed that Superman: Legacy will release on July 11th 2025 as well as Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow. It has yet to be confirmed if Sasha Calle will reprise her role for the movie.

Also getting movies are The Authority and Swamp Thing with release dates to be confirmed for both projects.

The Flash will reboot the universe but actors such as Ezra Miller, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa and Zachary Levi may still factor into this new universe. Speaking of Wonder Woman though.

HBO Max will be going all in on several shows. Paradise Lost: Wonder Woman will be a prequel series set on Themyscira in the vein of Game Of Thrones.

Lanterns will be a True Detective style space cop series focusing mainly on Hal Jordan and John Stewart with other Lanterns set to appear. Booster Gold will also be getting a series.

Viola Davis Waller series will also use characters from Peacemaker as the show was confirmed to be going ahead.

An animated series titled, Creature Commandos, written by James Gunn will also go ahead too with some of the characters eventually making it into live action projects.

Talent who will be working with James Gunn and Peter Safran include Christina Hodson, Jeremy Slater, Drew Goddard, Cristal Henry and Tom King to name a few.

Gunn and Safran also had a meeting with former Batgirl directors Adi' El Arbi and Bilall Fallah for a potential DC project.

Meanwhile in expected news, both Titans and Doom Patrol will end with their remaining episodes due to be released on HBO Max in the new few months.

Superman And Lois has at least one or two seasons left. Michael Culditz has been cast as Lex Luthor for the upcoming third season, airing March 14th on the CW.

Stephen Amell, Keiynan Lonsdale, David Ramsey and Sendhil Ramamurthy will be reprising their respective roles in the final season of The Flash, starting February 8th on the CW.

Sunny Mabel and Ethan Embry have been cast as the parents of Stephanie Brown for the Gotham Knights show, airing March 14th on the CW.

The Penguin series begins production in February in New York and will set up The Batman - Part II while Marsha Stephanie Blake has been cast in an undisclosed role.

Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine's Day Special will premiere on HBO Max from February 9th.

Wow, that was a doozy to get through. What a way to kick off the first month of 2023. Looks like DC has one hell of a future ahead of it.

My Review of Pulp Fiction (1994)

 

Written by Quentin Tarantino And Roger Avery

Directed by Quentin Tarantino 

Jules: "Besides I've already been through too shit this morning over this case to hand it to your dumb ass."

There are a lot of quotes I could've used to open this review and many of them were very lengthy, which is par for the course when it comes to any movie made by Quentin Tarantino, good or bad. Stating the bleeding obvious, this particular movie would fall into the category of one of his best movies to date though.

Broken into four connecting stories, this film opened with a couple at a diner. Pumpkin (Tim Roth) and Yolanda (Amanda Plummer) find themselves deciding to rob the place. Unfortunately for them they chose the wrong diner to rob and the wrong guy to antagonise to boot. While Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) was almost willing to help them in their goal, he wouldn't hand over a certain case. Then his partner, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) stepped into the fray and let's just say that things didn't end well for Pumpkin and Yolanda.

Of course, Pumpkin and Yolanda's story while opening and effectively ending the movie wasn't even the most violent part of it. For the most part, it was the scenes involving both Vincent and Jules, the hitmen of the piece that had a lot of violent scenes in them. We get to see these two very different men working together, with Jules going through something of an epiphany towards the final act while Vincent has his own adventures.

Together the two of them did take out a group while retrieving a suitcase for their mob boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) when they weren't in need of a cleaner Winston Wolff (Harvey Kietel) to take care of one of their bigger messes. Both Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta have an excellent rapport with one another and make for an excellent team but of course, there's another actor with whom Travolta also had his best on screen chemistry with.

I'm of course talking about Uma Thurman who gave an amazing performance as Marsellus's wife, Mia. The chemistry between Thurman and Travolta was off the charts, especially in their diner scene together as both Mia and Vincent enjoyed sizing the other up for their own amusement. A little incident with the wrong drugs of course nearly took their rapport down a dark path and Vincent didn't need to be on Mia's husband's bad side, considering how he dealt with those who wronged him.

That led to Bruce Willis's boxer, Butch Coolidge who conned Marsellus out of money, inadvertently killed his competition and wasn't best pleased with his girlfriend, Fabienne (Maria de Medeiros) misplacing his father's watch. However that was the least of Butch's problems when both him and Marsellus wind up getting taken captive by the depraved Maynard (Duane Whitaker) and Zed (Peter Greene) in without a doubt the most gruesome scene resulting in the most deserving of just desserts for measure. 

Yup, for a movie that could've easily taken any of these plots and had them stand on their own, the way all of them converge on each other worked rather brilliantly here. The performances from the mains, in particular Travolta, Jackson, Thurman and Willis are sublime but no one slouches here. Some of the language might be a bit shocking for this age but it's fine within the context of the movie itself.

- Tarantino played the role of Jimmie while Eric Stoltz played the drug dealer, Lance who helped Vincent revive Mia. We also learned that Mia was in a pilot that never made to air.

- Other talented actors who appeared in smaller roles in this ,movie included Rosanna Arquette, Bronagh Gallagher, Steve Buschemi and Christopher Walken.

- Standout music: Jungle Boogie by Kool And The Gang, Son Of A Preacher Man by Dusty Springfield and Let's Stay Together by Al Green.

- Chronology: The film came out in 1994, so I'm assuming it's around that time for it to.

Pulp Fiction without a doubt has to be the movie that's a gold standard for Quentin Tarantino, highlighting his strengths as a writer and director. It's a gripping yarn from start to finish with plenty of memorable moments and shocking sequences and a lot of quotable scenes. 

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of The Banshees Of Inisherin (2022)

 

Written And Directed by Martin McDonagh

Padraic (to Colm): "Some things there's no moving on from and I think that's a good thing."

If you've ever lost a friend or found yourself almost excommunicated from a friendship circle, then this might be the movie for you. They say a man is an island but try being a man on an island surrounded by other dull men. That seemed to be something of a point to this movie.

Nice but admittedly dull Padraic Suilleabhain (Colin Farrell) found himself in the position where life long friend, Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson) no longer wanted to spend time with him on the count of Padraic being dull. A simple premise that took rather dark turn as the movie progressed, given Padraic's determination to save his friendship with Colm.

Colm's reasons for not wanting to spend more time with Padraic don't entirely portray him in the most positive light but Padraic's lack of boundaries when told that Colm didn't want to be his friend didn't exactly do him any favours either. It even got to the point where Colm not only threatened to cut his own fingers if Padriac kept pestering him, but Colm ended up delivering on that promise with some rather alarming consequences for Jenny the Donkey, who was my favourite character in this movie.

Both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson give some career defining performances here with both Padraic and Colm's falling out impacting nearly everyone around them. It's implied throughout the movie that Colm suffers from depression, yet it's not the reason why he doesn't want to be Padraic's friend any more. Sill though, given Colm liked writing music, cutting off his own fingers to emphasise a point wasn't the best way to get it across.

Naturally the death of Jenny the Donkey spurred Padraic into revenge and he certainly took in quite an extreme fashion. Fortunately by not killing Colm's dog but by burning his house to the ground instead. In the end, it didn't really resolve anything and it's safe to say that things didn't entirely improve with either Padraic or Colm.  I guess there's some things in life you don't move on from.

Of course, while both Padraic and Colm are the centre of this film, there are two other characters who are also given some wonderful moments to shine. The first being Padraic's sister, Siobhan (Kerry Condon), who while sympathetic for her brother's plight was also smart enough to get off the titular island and make a life for herself elsewhere. 

The second character then would be more emotionally immature but likable Dominic (Barry Keoghan) who suffered abuse from his Garda father, Peadar (Gary Lydon) while also having some brilliant scenes with both Padraic and Siobhan as well as a genuinely tragic outcome towards the end. Keoghan along with Condon also delivered a truly memorable performance here.

- There was a Banshee in the form of the old woman, Mrs McCormick (Sheila Flitton) who predicted the two deaths in this film.

- Irish viewers will recognise comedy duo, the D'Unbelievables who had minor roles here.

- Standout music: Some nice score music from Carter Burwell as well as Brendan Gleeson's performance of the movie's title. 

- Chronology: April 1923, taking in parts of the Irish Civil War.

The Banshees Of Inisherin is a gloomy but interesting look at two very different men and their dissolving friendship. It's a brilliant film, filled with great character moments and wonderful performances from all four main players. Not to mention a very bittersweet ending. 

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

 

Written And Directed by Dan Kwan And Daniel Schienrt

Evelyn (to Joy): "Of all the places I could be, I just want to be here with you."

First of all, you don't have to be Marvel or DC to play around with the Multiverse and neither do you need a ridiculously high budget either as this smaller affair managed to prove in spades. Yes, with the Oscars nods this week, this review was overdue.

The premise for this ambitious adventure felt straightforward enough. You have a middle aged Chinese immigrant, Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) barely getting through life, struggling to run a failing laundromat with her well meaning but meek husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) as well as dealing her disapproving father, Gong Gong (James Hong) and stubborn daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu). Basically, Evelyn's life is a bit of a car crash.

Not to mention the fact that Evelyn and Waymond are being audited by the IRS and the auditor in question, Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis) seems more determined to focus on Evelyn's many shortcomings than anything else. Then to really send Evelyn over the edge, an alternative version of her husband kept popping up as Evelyn soon came to grips with the idea of a Multiverse and that every bad decision she's ever made has had it's own consequences and spawned different realities.

Watching Evelyn comes to grips with the Multiverse concept as well as seeing some truly bonkers versions of reality made this film a lot of fun. For instance, the idea of Evelyn living in a world where everyone had hot dogs for fingers was by far one of the strangest ideas in this movie. Other versions had Evelyn living different types of lives and having a variety of skills that out Evelyn had to access at different points in order to deal with the main problem of the movie.

The main problem being Jobu Tupaki, who had been reveled to be a version that could access every version of Joy and throughout the movie, you had both mother and daughter both combating and ultimately having to understand one another. There's a nice subplot with Evelyn having difficulties accepting Joy's girlfriend, Becky (Tallie Medel) but the conflicts between Joy and Evelyn ran deeper than that and the ultimately resolution between the two was far more rewarding too.

All the fractured relationships that Evelyn has in this movie - Waymond, Gong Gong and Deirdre are beautifully explored, take several interesting turns and are all resolved just as effectively as the main dynamic with Joy. Even a brief rivalry that Evelyn had with a raccoon dependent chef named Chad (Harry Shum Jr) was given a beautiful conclusion.

There's so much in this movie worthy of gushing over and the best part that for a movie that might feel small in parts, it's bigger in others. It's gorgeously ambitious with some beautiful action sequences, costumes and FX but excelled with all the fantastic character moments. There isn't a single performance that lets the side down and every character was compelling in their own way.  Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu deserve all the awards here.

- The movie was split into three parts, hence the title of the movie and we had Evelyn speaking English, Cantonese and Mandarin. Not to mention subtitles for the rock versions of Evelyn and Joy.

- I have to give a shout out to Jenny Slate's dog mother character but I do not approve of using a dog during a highly coordinated fight scenes. 

- I'm pretty certain one sequence in this movie had clips of some of Michelle Yeoh's past movies when we dipped into her movie star reality.

- Chronology: Chinese New Year played a big part in this movie with the party at the laundromat.

Everything Everywhere All At Once had everything, including a potential reality destroying bagel and delivered one of the best movies from last year. I should've seen this one a lot sooner than I did but now that I have seen it, the hype for it was more than justified. An absolutely gripping, mind bending movie from start to finish with everything coming together wonderfully. I loved this one.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of M3gan (2023)

 

Written by Akela Cooper And James Wan

Directed by Gerard Johnstone

M3gan (to Cady): "I know, it's insane, right?"

Well, it's January and already the horror for 2023 got off to a rather campy start with this impossible to ignore film. Seriously, you'd almost have an easier time ignoring a certain James Cameron sequel than this overnight sensation. One movie in and it looks like our titular character might be here to stay. So what is this one all about?

This movie started off with a young girl named Cady (Violet McGraw) losing her parents in a tragic road accident and being sent to live with her aunt Gemma (Allison Williams). Gemma's not really a maternal type and was more fixated on creating a new toy instead of adding improvements to the one that her boss, David (Ronny Chieng) insisted on. Think knock off Furbies as the thing that David would've preferred Gemma had put her energy into.

The toy instead that Gemma was more interested in getting off the ground was Model 3 Generative Android or M3gan (Amie Donald/Jenna Davis) for short. Also while the initial tests with her co-workers Tess (Jen Van Eps) and Cole (Brian Jordan Alvarez) weren't exactly promising, it was Cady's influence that ultimately brought M3gan to life and along with that, a lot of problems to boot.

Of course things with M3gan start off well for both Gemma and Cady. For the latter, to meant avoiding emotional responsibility for her niece to begin with as well as a potential career boost but for Cady, her connection to M3gan was a means of avoiding her own grief for her parents loss and having a true friend. However because this wasn't a particular long film, it also didn't take both Gemma and Cady too long to realise that there were certain drawbacks with depending on M3gan.

The notable one being that like any other inanimate object that comes to life and especially in this genre, M3gan had something of a homicidal streak to her. Not soon after bonding with Cady, M3gan took her programming that one step further and began to kill for Cady too. This meant a class bully, nosy neighbour and the latter's dog all became victims of M3gan. I really do hate when horror movies kill animals by the way.

As for Cady and Gemma, their complicated living relationship got really examined through the machinations of M3gan and both of them realised just how much of a danger that the latter well and truly posed to them. Of course it did a lot of crazy stuff to happen around them before they both got on the same page about M3gan.

Fortunately between the two of them finally connecting with one another and the use of another family member, Bruce, M3gan's reign of terror came to something of a temporary pause. This movie belonging to the genre that it belonged to though. Well, let's just say this wont be the last we see of M3gan. It's gonna take a lot more than Gemma and Cady to keep her down.

- There are only five kills by M3gan in this movie. The remaining two included David and his put down assistant Kurt (Stephane Garneu-Monte).

- Originally this film was meant to be R-Rated but they realise it could work as a PG-13 horror and it does.

- Standout music: M3gan singing the David Guetta/Sia hit Titanium of course. Toy Soldiers also got used rather well here too.

- Chronology: It's set in the first half of 2022 in Washington. A sequel titled M3gan 2.0 will be released from January 17th 2025.

M3gan has somewhat set a very strong bar for this year's horror entries. It took a well known trope, added a technological flavour to it as well as exploring a fractured family dynamic and the obvious dangers of allowing technology to parent children. Oh and some rather inventive and the type of dancing that's been meme'd to death. Overall, a very enjoyable movie

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of The Menu (2022)

 

Written by Seth Reiss And Will Tracy

Directed by Mark Mylod

Margot (to Slowik): "You're a chef. Your single purpose on this Earth is to serve people food that they might actually like, and you have failed. You've failed. And you've bored me. And the worst part is I'm still fucking hungry."

And for something completely different but devilishly appetising, might I suggest this rather tense course? Let's just say, it's a movie you'd want to savour and with that, I will try to refrain from any more terrible food puns but I'm not promising anything here.

Picture it: an island where a slew of guests find themselves dining at Hawthornes where the head chef, Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) selected them all personally to dine on a seven course meal, along with palette cleanser and rather out there means of entertainment. Sounds like an offer, you'd almost be insane to refuse. However as it transpired, every single diner, with the exception of one probably wished they had just done that instead.

The exception to the re being of course an escort named Margot/Erin (Anya Taylor-Joy) who had not been on Slowik's 'list' but found herself caught up in his fiendish dinner plans nonetheless when she wasn't being practically bored to death by her foodie know it all client, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). Let's just say that Tyler's the kind of person who would take the fun out of fine dining and that's being generous about that guy, even if his last scene was bittersweet.

The back and forth between Margot and Slowik was what made this movie for me. Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy play off each other so well, both feeding a rivalry and odd kinship towards one another. It was definitely the latter part that sent Slowik's right hand woman, Elsa (Hong Chau) into something of a rage as Margot fond a way to gain the upper hand against Slowik and ultimately seal her own fate, compared to the rest of her doomed companions. Who knew a cheeseburger could be an actual life saver? 

But why was Slowik so hell bent on killing the people he selected? Tyler's attempts of being a food expert definitely seemed to rub him up the wrong way but then there were three business men Bryce (Rob Yang), Sore (Arturo Castro), and Dave (Mark St Cyr) whose boss that Slowik made one hell of an example as well as an older couple Richard (Reed Birney) and Anne (Judith Light) who couldn't tell the difference between a cod and a halibut, despite being one of his more frequent of customers.

Of course, let's not forget the Movie Star (John Leguizamo) and his unfortunate assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero) and of course, food critic Lillian (Janet McTeer) and her assistant, Ted (Paul Adelstein). Not to mention the relationship with his mother, Linda (Rebecca Koon) and the effect he had on his own staff, particularly the likes of Jeremy (Adam Aalderks) and Katherine (Christina Brucato) in some genuinely shocking and disturbing scenes.

As an antagonist, Slowik was a compelling character to watch. A man whose passion for the thing he loved more than anything had been somewhat drained from him while Margot proved to be the ultimate foil for him. As for the final course, I would highly not recommend it but it certainly made for an explosive ending to this sumptuous experience.

- Margot had previously been hired by Richard for a daughter experience with Anne confronting her in a rather subdued manner on the issue.

- I like to take food pics as much as the next person, but even I found Tyler doing it to be extremely annoying. Still though the fall from grace he experienced was rather extreme.

- Twelve dining guests, twelve apostles and for eleven of them, it really was the last supper. Very fitting that.

- Chronology: Set in a post COVID world, given some of the dialogue here.

The Menu turned out to be one hell of a chaotic feast. I knew from the trailer, it was going to offer something a bit different and it definitely did that in spades. Absolutely brilliant performances, a very sophisticated script and tense directing definitely left me more than satisfied. Saying that, I'm no rush to have any S'mores though.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Titanic (1997)

 

Written And Directed by James Cameron

Rose: "It's been eighty four years."

Apologies in advance, I meant to review this one last month for it's 25th anniversary but things got in the way. However with a certain sequel from director James Cameron currently eating up the box office and this movie in question getting a cinematic re-release next month, it was time to give this one another watch.

You all know the story of the real life tragedy surrounding the Titanic and with James Cameron, there's his take on the events, coupled with a compelling fictional love story with our main protagonists - upper class society debutante Rose Dewitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) and handsome steerage rogue/artist, Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio), and boy, is it one hell of a love story.

Told through the eyes of a much older Rose (Gloria Stuart), the story sees her younger self trapped in an engagement with tycoon Cal Hockley (Billy Zane) at the behest of her meddlesome mother, Ruth (Frances Fisher), Rose found herself in so much despair that she attempted to take her own life, until a chance intervention from Jack changed everything. From there on in, this movie depicts the connection between Rose and Jack and it's hard not to root for the pair.

Both Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet give some of their most career defining performances and while the pair would reunite for another project many years later, they're undeniably at their best here. Rose and Jack have one of the most iconic of love stories as they go through their differences and similarities and find themselves drawn to one another. Not even Cal, Ruth or the former's lackey Lovejoy (David Warner) can get in their way.

However for the second half of the movie, the events of Titanic itself take precedent with both Jack and Rose fighting to survive and reunite with one another. Of course when the ship does eventually sink, the love story itself came to a rather tragic end with only Rose surviving to tell the tale to both her granddaughter, Lizzy (Suzy Amis) as well as explorers, Brock (Bill Paxton) and Lewis (Lewis Abernathy), the latter providing a little comic relief.

The moving between the present day Rose telling the story and the story worked as a device as well as the subplot of Brock's quest for a certain blue diamond that Cal had given Rose as an engagement gift and that the latter had worn while posing nude for a drawing with Jack. The diamond in question was the thing that Brock wouldn't get answers for but some secrets probably are best left in the ocean.

As for the final scene where the older Rose got all the closure she needed, it's one of those scenes that never failed to bring a tear. It's a beautiful way to end this incredible film. Seriously, you'd have to be entirely devoid of any romantic bone not to be gripped by the central love story in this whole movie.

- One of my favourite performances in this movie also came from Kathy Bates as Molly Brown. I especially loved her scenes with Jack.

- The party down in steerage with Jack and Rose was another highlight in this movie. I also loved both Fabrizio (Danny Nucci) and Tommy (Jason Barry) as characters.

- Standout music: Of course it's My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion as well as the score music by James Horner for the movie.

- Chronology: April 1912 during the events of this movie along with 1996 during the present day.

Without a doubt, Titanic is one of the best movies of all time. While there might be some creative liberties taken with certain historical moments, it's a gorgeously produced film with a compelling love story, fantastic lead performances, beautiful music, impressive action sequences and so. There's a reason why this movie has become a classic. 

Rating: 10 out of 10

Doctor Who - Series 14 Filming, Returning Character And More

Okay, it's been two weeks since I last did a Doctor Who blog and if anything else gets leaked this week, expect this blog to get something of an edit.

Anyways, Series 14 has resumed filming and with it, some casting details have emerged.

First of all, on the returning front, it wasn't that long ago that Jemma Redgrave returned to the series in the final two episodes of Series 13 as well as The Power Of The Doctor back in October. Today, the BBC confirmed that Redgrave will reprise her role as Kate Stewart in the upcoming series with the actress spotted filming scenes with Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday. 

As to why Kate Stewart and presumably UNIT are back has yet to be revealed but it's nice to see the character who debuted over a decade ago in the seventh series episode, The Power Of Three will also factor into the current era as well.

At this rate, Kate Stewart will have had as many onscreen interactions with the Doctor as her father did back in the day. That's pretty cool, isn't it?

As for new characters, Welsh actor Aneurin Barnard (recently seen in Netflix's 1899) will also appear in the current block as the mysterious Roger ap Gwilliam. The character, going by filming pics from last week seems to be a politician and may also be a recurring character and he's not the only one too. Ruth Madeley who will play Shirley Anne Bingham recently confirmed that her character will be recurring in this current era as well.

As for Russell T. Davies, he mentioned in DWM that the second episode of Series 14 will contain the words 'Liverpool' and 'non-diegetic' and will also start one of the most important shot in the show's history. Prior to Ncuti Gatwa's casting, Davies also mentioned seeing actors under 30 for the role of the Doctor as well women and non binary actors.

As for the episode currently being filmed, a slug like monster has been spotted on set during the week while Mark Tonderei who directed both The Ghost Monument and Rosa will also be directing for this series.

Series 14 continues to currently film and will air on both BBC1 and stream on Disney+ from November 2023.

My Review of Doom Patrol's 4x06: "Hope Patrol"

 

Written by Ezra Claytan Daniels

Directed by Chrostopher Manley

Wally: "Cliff Steele, I'm Wally Sage and you're the final piece."

Longevity really was the key and with Rita and Jane having lost theirs in previous episodes and Larry surrendering his for Keeg in this episode, Cliff really was the last one standing here with the old longevity. Will Wally succeed in taking it? We're gonna have to wait a while to find out.

Everything really did come together in this mid season finale. Rita and Laura went from being babies back to their normal selves and then went on their investigation in order to find out more about Immortus. This meant sneaking into the Ant Farm, where Laura had to confront some old ghosts. On the plus side she had Rita to help her through it. A minus however would be the return of Wally Sage, who quite possibly is Immortus.

I have to admit that I barely remembered Wally so it we a good thing that the episode had some clips to remind me of the character. Wally's an ideas man and Orqwith is a world where ideas could absolutely be brought to life.  This was something that both Victor and Derek tried to use to their advantage by bringing Mr Invincible to live and it almost worked.

However with Wally being in charge of the world, he was able to take out Mr Invincible and use his Scissors Men in order to keep Victor, Derek, Cliff and Jane in place during a failed attempt to rescue Larry in this episode. This of course not being the first time with Larry needing to be saved. Good thing Larry has people willing to save him.

Rama was willing to save Larry at the start of the episode, in spite of being fully convinced that Immortus would help stabilise him. Larry did however manage to get Rama to believe that he would help him but where did Rama go during the second time Larry was captured? Does Immortus have Rama locked up somewhere else too? 

As for the rest of the episode, Willoughby came back to state the obvious to Cliff and Jane about Immortus while it appeared that Bunbury didn't survive either. Then there was the cliff hanger with the defrosted zombie butt as well as Rita and Laura also having to flee the Ant Farm. It's a good thing we do have six episodes to go.

- Cliff noticed the sexual tension between Larry and Rama. Rama definitely seems to be interested in Larry in a romantic sense.

- Speaking of sexual tension, there was plenty with both Jane and Shelley Byron as well during their brief scene in the latter's world.

- The remaining six episodes will be streamed on HBO Max later in 2023.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Hope Patrol made for a strong mid season finale with Immortus definitely beginning to rise and our gang of misfits absolutely screwed for good measure. These last six episodes in my opinion cannot come soon enough.

Rating: 8 out of 10

My Review of Welcome To Chippendales: "Switzerland"

 

Written by Rajiv Joseph And Robert Siegel

Directed by Richard Shepard

Steve (to Ray): "Without me, there is no Chippendales."

These last few episodes really hammered home the downfall of Steve Banerjee and with this finale, the remaining part of his end came at the hand of someone whom Steve had placed too much trust in. Yup, it was Ray who brought about the end for Steve Banerjee.

With a large portion of the episode set in Switzerland (hence the title), there was a hell of a cat and mouse game between Steve and Ray. The former had become increasingly paranoid following his role in Nick's death and the latter was desperate to extract a confession from his employer in order to spare himself jail time.

For a moment it seemed like Steve was more annoyed with Ray's failed attempt to take out three dancers ripping off Steve at the London Chippendales before realising that he was being recorded. There was genuinely great acting from both Kumail Nanjiani and Robin de Jesus in those scenes as both ken had their respective worlds fall apart, but more specifically, Steve realised that he couldn't get away from his crimes any more.

The jail scene between Steve and a ghostly appearance from Nick though was a nice way of giving us one more scene with the latter character. Nick poked and prodded away all of Steve's insecurities and excuses before Steve in his own desperate  attempt to spare Irene being penniless ended up taking his own life before he could be charged. 

It was a tragic end to a story mired in so much jealousy, insecurity and corruption. While I don't think the series needed eight episodes (a lot of these type of miniseries biopics could tell these stories with six episodes and cut a lot of filler), the story of Steve Banerjee and his rise and fall with Chippendales did make for some interesting content.

- The afterlife ending with Steve back in the club with Irene and Nick (I don't think I saw Denise or Ray there) was a bit of a cheesy last scene.

- I can't tell if Ray had a crush on Steve because the level of devotion he had towards the latter, in spite of giving him up to the FBI was something else.

- Standout music: More, More, More as it played out during the closing credits.

- Chronology: Around 1992 with scenes in London, Lucerne and Los Angeles. 

Switzerland capped off this limited series in a reasonably good manner and while UK and Irish viewers can enjoy the series from January 11th on Disney+, it's over for me. Overall, while it could've told the story in less episodes and felt a little less showy compared to some of these other type of limited series, I did enjoy this a lot.

Rating: 7 out of 10