TV Binge: Carnival Row (Season 1, 2019)

Carnival Row (Season 1, 2019)

Creators: Travis Beacham & Rene Echevarria

Cast: Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne, Tamzin Merchant, David Gyasi, Simon McBurney, Andrew Gower, Karla Crome, Arty Froushan, Indira Varma, Jared Harris, Jamie Harris, Alice Krige, Maeve Dermody

A human detective and a fairy rekindle a dangerous affair in a Victorian fantasy world, where the city’s uneasy peace collapses when a string of murders reveals an unimaginable monster. – IMDB

I still remember the first time I saw the trailer pop up for Carnival Row and I thought that this was right up my alley. Dark fantasy settings are usually my jam. Adding that I haven’t seen Cara Delevingne in a whole lot of movies and Orlando Bloom doesn’t ring a bell to me other than Lord of the Rings or Pirates of the Caribbean, I thought they looked pretty good in the roles.

With all that said, Carnival Row is pretty good especially with the setting. Plus it builds a decent foundation for its characters, giving them enough backstory to understand them but also enough mystery to want to learn more about them and this world. The first 2-3 episodes is more of a foundation building so feels a little slower to get into but the whole parallel is done pretty well and the atmosphere plus the whole world-building is pretty fascinating especially when it comes to how its a pretty much a world of humans and creatures. The creatures have some variety and isn’t just about the faes. Not to mention, the creature designs which is mostly an appearance difference from facial features or body part difference to humans is done pretty well. It feels like its only a quick glimpse into this world as there is pretty much only a few types of creatures introduced throughout the show’s 8 episodes however enough to grasp the different creatures that could come into play. The effects are done really well. The werewolf segment wasn’t too long but that transformation was done well even if its probably one of the fastest transformations that I’ve seen, much like the fauns which have a fantastic design. For a show revolving a lot around the faeries, the animation on those wings looks really good. All the above are things I do love since it helps with being more immersed into the world which is often the first step to enjoying these series.

Carnival Row has a few plot lines in terms of the relationships and humans versus creatures conflicts which creates the divide and perhaps their bond, whichever applies. On that level, its not completely unique from other ones but executed fairly well. It has to do with having a cast that does work here especially when it comes to some of the humans who have a lot of hate and how they choose to act on it. Of course, there are also love relationships. The central one between the main leads, Vignette (Cara Delevingne) and Rycroft (Orlando Bloom) who struggle through their love, hate and lies. The secondary one is more about a change in views towards creatures as the characters of elite and proud Imogen (Tamzin Merchant) face their faun neighbor Agreus (David Gyasi), as it starts as an alliance to each win from the situation on a social level but ends up being a different result. These characters are strengthened by these connections.

With that said, the chemistry between Vignette and Rycroft is pretty good. They go through a lot of the change but the emotional struggle between them when they meet again goes the length of the season. It shows their change and the effects that the human and creature relationship could bring on a lot more problems for both of them. But then, there’s always a little more to the situation and that brings out the mystery elements about who is involved in the murders going on. The mystery is executed incredibly well. The progression of clues and discovery makes it so intriguing as answers bring on more questions and the big mystery really being who is behind all this with a master plan and the purpose/motive of all of it.

Overall, the mystery side of the story does stand out a lot more. The balance between that and the relationship between Vignette and Rycroft works out pretty well to give the show enough foundation to build on for future seasons but keeping things relatively simple as well to make it intriguing to learn about this world gradually through the other plot lines by introducing a general idea of all of the moving parts in this world from the humans and different creatures to the political structure to the hidden societies to the main characters and their back stories before pushing it to a rather good turning point as a big finale to build up for a second season.

Netflix A-Z: The Good Doctor (2011)

Have any of you wondered where Orlando Bloom went? Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean and then spotted in some romantic comedies then, he has kind of vanished. Apparently, he was in this drama thriller back in 2011 called The Good Doctor. Its kind of in the indie category on Netflix but then not really either. With $6Mil budget, it hardly is, I’d imagine. However, I didn’t know that before starting this up and with the heart of wanting the next movie to be a thriller, I chose The Good Doctor, not exactly sure whether the premise would interest me.

Let’s check it out!

The Good Doctor (2011)

Director: Lance Daly

Cast: Orlando Bloom, Riley Keough, Taraji P. Henson, Rob Morrow, Michael Pena

A young doctor goes to unconscionable extremes in order to remain in the service of a female patient with a kidney disorder.-IMDB 

Regrets. I’m going through regrets. The Good Doctor took me three separate sittings to go through. I guess I can see the merit in the movie but man, the execution and the pacing was like watching paint dry. I think it is my problem but at the same time, I do like a lot of slow-paced movies. In fact, some of my favorites, not guilty pleasures, are actually rather slow-paced movies. The Good Doctor was just not for me. There was a lot of quiet staring on Orlando Bloom’s character’s part. Plus, the ending of more than obvious what was going to happen eventually even if the finale was probably the best part because it gives the audience something to think about. There’s a message here about how selfish intentions can be destructive and dangerous but it never presents itself in an intriguing way.

My previous statement about Orlando Bloom has nothing to do with his range of acting. It really just goes to the point that the character was probably designed to be more quiet and reserved. The personality of Dr. Martin Blake was portrayed in a way that his actions and the way he interacted was awkward. There was something gravely and eerily wrong with him. He had issues interacting with others and when he meets this young female patient, she makes it seem natural. The scenes where they talk shows a level of two people with similarly awkward personalities in the things they talk about and ask randomly. Dr. Martin Blake’s character does develop as the lack of dialogue also helps us learn about him through his actions and takes a more suspenseful path. The fault may highly be that the movie isn’t paced well so his quiet personality drags on and near the finale seems to overstay its welcome.

 However, there are tangent characters that work well here. Rob Morrow plays as the presiding doctor over Dr. Blake. His character, Dr. Waylans is the person that Dr. Blake tries to impress. In many ways, the question is whether Dr. Waylans suspects the things that Dr. Blake is doing. His character observes a lot and sometimes causes a moment of tension as you wonder whether he knows more than he is showing. Another character that proves as an effective hurdle is Nurse Theresa played by Taraji P. Henson. She gives Dr. Blake a hard time for the most part. She questions him constantly and causes a small feud that runs throughout probably a good portion of the film on and off. While it doesn’t seem necessary to have those parts, the character was a welcome change.

Overall, there isn’t really much to say about The Good Doctor. It has a decent idea except the execution and the pacing is extremely lacking making it for a grating experience. Orlando Bloom does the best with what he can. Although his character is required to emote and has a lack of dialogue which has its challenges and he carries the emotions well enough. Riley Keough also carries a well performance although her character isn’t accentuated too much. The better characters here are the supporting one notably from Rob Morrow and Taraji P. Henson.

Have you seen The Good Doctor?

Next up is H selection! Any guesses? Hint: An Irish actress

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)

Moving along with the marathon, we arrive at the 3rd instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean with At World’s End.  If you haven’t read my reviews on the first two, you can check it out HERE and HERE! I saw this one in theatres with my mom in Hong Kong back in 2007 when I was in Asia for the entire summer.  Hong Kong had made its main promotion with Chow Yun-Fat‘s role as Sao Feng so my mom was interested as he was popular in her generation.

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley, Tom Hollander, Chow Yun-Fat, Bill Nighy, Geoffrey Rush, Naomie Harris

Dead Man’s Chest left us with a cliffhanger ending and this one picks up pretty much right after it.  Out comes Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) leading the crew along with Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) in search of a new ship and help from Captain Sao Feng (Chow Yun-Fat), a ruthless Chinese pirate, in order to save Captain Jack Sparrow (each for their own reasons) from Davy Jones Locker. With the “song” being sung, Sao Feng and Barbossa has to find Jack Sparrow in order to have their meeting for the Brethren Court at Shipwreck Cove, and at the same time, not fall for another game of deceit/betrayal set up or manipulated by others controlled by East India Company and Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander) and as well as not fall prey to Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) and his Flying Dutchman.

At World’s End is somewhat hard to pinpoint as to whether I like it or not.  For one, the movie itself is very long and the plot keeps switching and switching from one betrayal, to another deceit to something else.  It seems like they wanted to wrap up the series desperately (but then they came out with On Stranger Tides which I will watch tonight probably). The plot becomes  a bit more serious with a few scenes of more dumbed down humor compared to before. Jack Sparrow’s appearance is kept to be the same craziness but it has less wit than before.  However, some characters did rise up to a better development.

For one, Orlando Bloom is always charming but before, his goal was just always Elizabeth and Elizabeth and even more Elizabeth.  This time, he’s got a brain of his own and his own agenda.  This makes him have a totally and completely renewed (and attractive) vibe to his character making him the one I loved seeing on screen.  Then, we have this whole fresh vibe between him and Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth.  On that same note, Elizabeth Swann really developed as well. She now has to tough up and face her choices with how things ended in Dead Man’s Chest and how to deal with the events to come in this one.  Both of them was a joy to watch on screen 🙂

Now lets look at the other tidbits! Chow Yun-Fat wasn’t on screen a whole lot (so much for the Hong Kong promotion, my mom felt cheated).  He was alright though as he usually is. That little part didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  This movie had a lot of not very useful parts.  Maybe because the plot was all over the place and sometimes I wasn’t really sure where everything or anything was going.  On a side note, Davy Jones was still pretty awesome plus we saw more of Naomie Harris as Tia Dalma who is mysterious and dark so she adds a bit of darkness.  Hmm…and the whole thing was very CGI, good or bad depends on the person 😉 I found it fitting, fun, thrilling.

At World’s End is still quite a thrilling adventure to watch however, what makes it lose its steam a bit is the mass amount of plot with so many characters brought back or added in with more screen time.  What does help is that there are characters that develop and they bring on a different vibe to the whole story along with some darkness.  Overall, its a decent movie for the Pirates series.  I loved the first two and this one I occasionally watch as well, just because of the length I usually split it in various parts throughout the day or maybe two days. Not the best in the series but still enjoyable!

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)

Pirates marathon officially continues! After the success of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, we have the sequel followed up by Dead’s Man Chest. Johnny Depp returns as the rogue Captain Jack Sparrow to explore and conquer difficulties in the Caribbeans with yet another set of adventures. I saw this one in theatres back in 2006 when it first released with my best friend.

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Stellan Skarsgard, Bill Nighy, Jack Davenport, Tom Hollander

Gore Verbinski is back with this second instalment of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest! After the previous instalment with Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) helps Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) from being hung, they now are separated on their wedding day and held in jail under the order of  Lord Beckett (Tom Hollander).  However, he gives Will a deal that if he can bring back Jack’s compass then he will give them back their freedom.  When Will finally catches up with Jack Sparrow, he gets deceived into getting caught in the way to cheat his way out of Jack Sparrow’s release from the pursuit of Davy Jones (Bill Nighy), the captain of Flying Dutchman that homes a bunch of pirates living in the middle of life and death.   On the pursuit of a key that opens something, they end up going through a lot of fights and frantic escapes with each having their own agenda.

Dead Man’s Chest is the one in my memory that I loved the most! Gore Verbinski did a fantastic job in the first one and coming back as the director in the second one helps this one out a lot.  This time, he brings in a whole lot more fun and action.  What really catches me is the action mixed with funny moments.  The interaction is hilarious even the sword fights are hilarious. Plus, maybe its the initial thought of when I first saw this  movie in theatres, I was with my best friend and it had some really memorable moments that makes this movie feel even closer to my heart.

One thing that works for this sequel is the cast.  We have a lot of the initial cast sticking around but after the first’s quest, they have grown and matured.  I’m all about character development and if anything, as much as it was a development in Jack Sparrow’s character, we also see the deeper side of Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner, not together but being independent of each other. Jack Sparrow is still the crazy, unexpected pirate who is obsessed over rum, lies about everything to everyone and is confused as always.  This time around, I started feeling that Jack Sparrow in Pirates is equivalent to John McClane in Die Hard.  Its what keeps the audience intrigued because he not only brings us action but he also brings us laughs 🙂

Another reason that I love Pirates is because yes, Orlando Bloom is hot but I do love Keira Knightley.  She is an awesome actress and I possibly own *almost* all of her movies.  I haven’t seen them all but she’s always quite impressive as her roles vary in character and style.  In this one, she starts off as the rebellious governor’s daughter and eventually finds that her true nature is quite like a pirate but then, she still finds the men around her quite silly at times, and childish.  Its a really charming and likable character.

Additonal mentions go out to Bill Nighy who plays Davy Jones.  What actually makes me laugh when I watch this movie is remembering how my best friend’s comment that Davy Jones was attractive. LOL! Weird tastes! Even Bill Nighy in real person would not make me connect with “attractive” but he was a mean and awesome character.  I love Davy Jones! He made the movie even better than it already was in my book 🙂 Plus, we have Stellan Skarsgard.  He`s not in it a whole lot but he plays a pretty awesome Bootstrap Bill and Will’s father.

So far, on this rewatch, Dead Man’s Chest is still more entertaining than the first one.  I love them both a lot but this one seems more fun and I really loved this villain a whole lot more.

I know there’s a lot of mixed reviews on this one.  What do you think about Dead Man’s Chest? Do you think the original is better?

Reboot! Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Back in April, I posted up this review as a guest contributor over at Tyson`s Head in a Vice.  However, as he has changed the direction of his blog and decided to take down that project.  I have carried over the review over here! If you haven`t read this, then here is your chance! If you have read it, please had on over to Head in a Vice because its an awesome blog! You will love every minute of it 🙂

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush

When a young boy Will is picked up by a government ship by Commissioner Swann and his crew, his daughter Elizabeth Swann hides the pirate golden coin around his neck to protect him.  Years later when they are older, Elizabeth (Keira Knightley) looks at this secret coin and chooses to wear it around her neck, which sends off an invisible signal to the pirate ship, Black Pearl and causes her to be kidnapped.  Amongst the chaos, Will (Orlando Bloom) teams up with Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) who was left marooned on an abandoned island because of the captain of the Black Pearl and is on a quest to seek it as well.  On the Black Pearl, Elizabeth meets Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and learns that the crew is cursed because of their greed and this is why they need to get back the last coin to undo the curse.

I love the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.  Its always fun and it has Johnny Depp in one of his best roles.  He has some epic lines and he’s so happy-go-lucky and does some of the most surprising things.  Bring in Orlando Bloom fresh out from after handsome Legolas from Lord of the Rings trilogy and one of my favorite actresses, Keira Knightley and you’ve got me deeply in love with this series.  The fun factor gives me the opportunity to watch it over and over again.  Its somewhat turned into an annual marathon event.

Although this one isn’t my favorite in this franchise, it does give a good start.  We get to see everyone and how they are built in the characters they become.  The characters in the most part are very witty and enjoyable.  They have very catchy dialogue especially Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow and he matches it up with this awesome pirate accent.  Its has a great balance between adventure and humor. On the other hand, it also brings in questions of honesty and integrity and how far you would go to get what you want.

This review took me ages to write and its mostly because I loved it but I wasn’t really sure why I did and how to write it out. Its really fun, adventurous and funny.  Although in my opinion, the second one is the funniest one (but I know people might disagree with me).  However, this one really sets up the right path for the next one and that makes it total awesomeness.  Along with a great cast and we’re on our way to a great flick! Props to Disney for this one and giving us an iconic character in Jack Sparrow! Definitely one that I’d recommend for a fun time.

Just a little additional update…

Back in April, I had wanted to initiate a Pirates of the Caribbean marathon but I didn’t get to it! Just a heads up that I’ll be doing it soon! I already popped in the Pirates 2 into my player already 🙂 Just need to get a few reviews thats been sitting around up and then we’re in business to finish this up!