The Best of the Year in Media 2016 part 1 - Television

The Best of the year in Media 2016

Televison:

1.    Game of Thrones: Season Six (HBO) – This season of GoT started out slow, with them teasing out the resurrection of Jon Snow, but by the time the show gut punched the viewers with the “The Door” episode we knew we were within this shows creative grasps again. Then they raised the bar again for a television show with the “Battle of the Bastards” maybe the greatest warfare scene ever done for television and coming scary close to Saving Private Ryan level and for the first time in the shows history left the viewers feeling hopeful with the “ The Winds of Winter” episode that finally featured Daenerys’ sailing for Westeros. GoT continues to be the best show on television and as the last two seasons are prepared to air we will have to see if it finishes strong enough to be considered in the same conversation as the David Simon masterpiece The Wire. 

2.    Fargo: Season Two (FX) – I don’t think a show could be anymore different from GoT then Fargo is. The crime anthology show shares its location and tone with the Coen brothers movie of the same name, but that’s it. The writing team that Noah Hawley put together in the second season was brilliant, funny, quirky and smart. The show made you think, laugh and cry and maybe all at once. The multitude of ways that this season tied into the first season was genius as to pay off that privileged viewer that had watched and paid attention to the first season, but not confuse a new viewer if they hadn’t scene the first season. This season also featured a number of outstanding acting performances; the best was put in by Kirsten Dunst. I still get chills from her soliloquy from the last episode. I can’t wait to see what the writers of this show have for the next season. 

3.    Mr. Robot: Season Two (USA Network) – I’ll be honest I was not sure where Sam Esmail could take his series after its brilliant first season. I thought the story might have worked itself into a corner and possibly should have ended the story after one season. I could not have been more wrong. The second season might have been even better then the first with series twists being way less obvious then in the first season. The writers behind the series have fully embraced the limitless potential of an unreliable narrator and this series has turned into a post modernist journey of self discovery and what that looks like in our technology riddled society. The episode titled “EPS2.4_M4STER-S1AVE.AES” was the best hour of television I watched this year and perfectly defined what this show has to offer, introspective, humorist and asked a lot from the viewer as the show kept pushing back against them reminding them that they were watching a television show, just not the 90s family sit-com Alf. If you haven’t seen it, you just need to watch.

4.    Black Mirror: Season Three (Netflix) - I was a fan of Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror show way before it came to Netflix, but I was super happy to here its addition to the platform. Therefore more people could embrace its brilliance. The first six episodes of this new partnership offered up more of the same complex thought provoking science fiction that I had known the series for. Booker’s voice as a creator will be an important one as we navigate our relationship with technology as a society. He offers up a critical thoughtful lens for us about technology taking the time to ask the questions that we don’t seem to ask enough about technology and how it’s changing our world.

5.    Westworld: Season One (HBO) – I’ve never anticipated a show more then I did Westworld. I had read stories about it coming watched the preview videos and was in aw of the talent involved: Michael Crichton, J.J. Abrams, Jonathan Nolan, Ed Brubaker, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, and Jeffrey Wright to name a few. I loved the concept of robots searching for consciousness in a wild west theme park. It would seemingly touch on a popular science fiction troupe of what is it to be human? The show was highly successful in weaving a complex narrative structure that aloud for multiple “reveals” that kept the audience coming back right to seasons end. The next trick will be trying to do that again for a second season and going forward in general. Certainly the show seems to be rich with talent in the writers room and HBO seems willing to spend the money to make this show the next GoT. So lets just enjoy the ride.

The honorable mentions –    6. House of Cards: Season Four (Netflix)

      7. Daredevil: Season Two (Netflix)

      8. The Night of…Mini-series (HBO)

      9. Orange is the New Black: Season Four (Netflix)

      10. Vinyl: Season One (HBO).

Upcoming posts will feature the best in movies, music and comics. Cheers!

Review: The Man Who Grew Young

The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What happens when the universe ends? Well, in The Man Who Grew Young by Daniel Quinn and Tim Eldred, the universe starts winding up like a giant yo-yo and everything that has ever lived and died lives again, but in reverse order. Basically, the history of the world begins at the end and moves towards what we know as the beginning. This is the basic concept of the graphic novel, but not nearly where it stops. Like in all Quinn books, the author dissects our culture and society like a surgeon with a scalpel, peeling back the layers of skin to reveal the veins and bones inside.
I was somewhat nervous when I first decided to read this graphic novel. For one thing, Quinn has written some of the best novels I’ve ever read, but sequential art is a different beast and not all prose writers are able to make the successful leap from writing to paint a picture to writing about a painted picture. Second, I wasn’t sure if he could come up with an interesting enough plot for a book that relies on visuals. Afterall, Quinn’s first novel Ishmael was on the surface a series of conversions between a man and an ape. Third, I had never heard of Tim Eldred, the man who did the art for the book. All of these worries plagued me as I sat down to read The Man Who Grew Young.
But Quinn quickly put my worries to rest with his opening scene, which introduced the protagonist, Adam Taylor, who, along with his son and a bunch of other people, are gathered in a cemetery. We normally associate cemeteries with death, sadness and mourning, but Quinn does an excellent job of reversing this experience. The use of superb dialogue helps reveal the jubilant mood of the scene.
“At the party somebody said we were “waking” my mom, is she awake already?” a young boy says to his grandmother. This is a beautiful use of language, because it puts such a unique twist on the concept of death: the dead can be woken.
With insightful, internal dialogue we are sucked into the story like lint into a vacuum. We soon learn that Adam Taylor is someone special as he travels back through the years without rejoining with his mother. We see him move back from the Manhattan project, through the discovery of America, back to the first native people of Africa.
Tim Eldred, who we learn in the introduction is from the PBS animated television show Dragon Tales, provides the art for the graphic novel. His art is functional and doesn’t hurt the story, which perhaps is highly suited to the subject matter in this graphic novel, because it makes the primary focus the story and allows it to shine through. I would have preferred more panels in some instances, because the panel to panel flow was really jumpy and he was asking the reader on some occasions to do too much work in between panels. Other than that, however, Eldred did a nice job and his full-page spreads were spectacular.
The Man who Grew Young is an imaginative, creative and poignant graphic novel that elevates sequential art to an all-time high and raises the bar for every other writer in the field. Quinn’s original concept is so simple it’s genius; it has you wondering, why didn’t I think of that? Most importantly, he doesn’t abandon the concept prematurely, but explores it thoroughly until the reader is exhilarated and left with the need to once again pass on Quinn’s inspirational message to others. Quinn is one of the most brilliant contemporary writers, and The Man Who Grew Young is a wondrous achievement that should win him great acclaim in the comic industry.


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What's Interesting in Previews Feb. 2017

What’s Interesting in Previews for December 2016 .

Of Books Mostly coming out in February 2017 or Later 

DC Comics

Deathstroke Vol.1: The Professional TPB by Christopher Priest and Various – I’ve never read a Deathstoke book, until DC announced that they had hired Christopher Priest to write the book and I have not been disappointed. Deathstoke under Priest is just as complex a narrative as his work on Black Panther over a decade ago. 

JSA: The Golden Age Deluxe Edition HC by James Robinson and Paul Smith – One of my all time favourite stories. The Golden Age is an alternate history story of the Justice Society, which had me sitting on the age of my seat the entire way. I’m happy it’s finally getting the deluxe treatment by DC. It’s certainly an Evergreen title for them, as the original story came out in 1995.   

The Flintstones Vol. 1 TPB by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh – The Flintstones has been a surprise hit. Writer Mark Russell has proven the political satire skills he showed on Prez was no fluke and he has continued his thoughtful punchy stories here with the Flintstones.

The Wild Storm #1 by Warren Ellis and Jon Davis-Hunt – In the late 90s the Wildstorm line of books was still at Image comics and was being reinvented by Alan Moore, James Robinson and Warren Ellis. Under their pens the line became some of the best books being published and I’m sure was one of the main selling points for DC to purchase the IP’s from Jim Lee. The line and IP’s as of late have not been very strong sales wise or creatively, so I find it interesting that DC has turned back to Warren Ellis, who all things considered was the main creative force of quality comics under the Wildstorm banner in the past. Ellis also has his demons, for as many times Ellis has produced work like Authority or Planetary he has also done books like Desolation Jones, which just cease publication. Marvel has also tapped Ellis in the past to spear head a line of their X-Books. And I would say that the Marvel Counter–X books are closer to Desolation Jones then Authority. So, I think the Wild Storm will be super interesting to see if DC has a new hit or if fans will be wondering what ever happened to that book?   

Justice league of America: Rebirth #1 by Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis – Can you say Synergy? I know DC wants to, with this terrible offering of mixed and matched characters that only have one thing in common. They are all characters on DC television shows. A team of Black Canary and Vixen from Green Arrow, The Ray, and the Atom from DC Legends of Tomorrow, Killer Frost from The Flash and add Lobo who rumour has it will be a DC movie soon and then to make sure you can call it a Justice League book and to boost sales Batman. I feel bad for Steve Orlando who is being rewarded with stellar writing on his Midnighter book with this flaming pile of forced narrative garbage. It will be interesting if he can polish this piece of coal into a diamond? I’m not sure how he could?  

Marvel Comics

Kingpin #1 Matthew Rosenberg and Ben Torres – Rosenberg’s body of work is not very large yet, but it is impressive. His stories at Black Mask have all been very original and his work on the Kingpin: Civil War II tie in book was great. I look forward to his new fresh voice in the industry and especially in crime comics. 

Spider-man’s Tangled Web Omnibus HC by Various – I’m not sure there’s a Spider-man book I can recommend more then this. Back in the Bill Jemas era at Marvel comics they took risks and did books not for sales but for quality stories. There was no finer example of this then Tangled Web. It features Spidey stories from Garth Ennis, Greg Rucka (who won the Eisner for his), Peter Milligan, Bruce Jones, Kaare Andrews, Darwyn Cooke (some of his very rare Marvel work), Brian Azarello, Paul Pope, Ted McKeever, John McCrea, Eduardo Risso, Duncan Fregredo, Lee Weeks, Sean Phillips, and Jim Mahfood. Ok if there’s not a creator there you like, then you don’t like comics. I can’t wait to get this book.

  

Night Raven: From the marvel UK vaults TPB by Various – So Marvel is pulling stories from their Marvel UK imprint featuring stories by Alan Moore, Steve Parkhouse, David Lloyd and John Bolton. Hell Yes. I’m a big fan of most of Moore’s work, so to find new stories from back in the early to mid eighties when these stories must be from is something I find very interesting. 

Image Comics

The Old Guard #1 by Greg Rucka and Leandro Fernandez – What Greg Rucka has a new monthly comic? Done. Sign me up. Ok ok it’s awesome to see him work with Leandro Fernandez again. After all it’s been awhile since they were working on Queen & Country together.

Velvet Deluxe HC by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting – I admit I pretty much love everything Ed Brubaker writes, but his teaming with Steve Epting on this political spy thriller is just special. The series featured the best art of Epting’s career so far. And the spy thriller seemed to be in the same vein as something John Le Carre would have written.

Dynamite

John Carter The End by Brian Wood and Alex Cox – I’ll be honest I thought the John Carter movie was pretty fun, but I’m a sucker for the old Pulp characters. I’m also a fan of these “The End” type stories that Marvel brought to the forefront. So a mix of the two plus Brian Wood who is one of my favourite writers and who is currently in a great groove with books like Briggs Landing and The Black Road makes this title a lock for me to check out.