Flavor of the Day

Glee S3E11: Michael

Tina — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:56:03 +0000

I stopped watching Glee some time ago. The plot lines are so confusing, it is no longer possible to willingly suspend disbelief. I am starting to care more about the rival show choirs instead of the lead characters. To be honest, only the Warblers performances got me through the second season.

However, this episode made me go back. There is hope after all. Granted, it is a theme episode, and you usually expect to forget about the plot and just enjoy the performances. This episode managed to weave in excellent storylines and amazing performances seamlessly.

They are starting to get their acceptance letters to their respective colleges. I am glad that they made it realistic this time. Hooray Kurt for being a finalist to NYADA! That bonding moment between Burt and Kurt was heartwarming. And I’m glad that Rachel toned down her more irritating habits in this episode.

And ooh, we’re finally getting some New Directions-vs-Warblers showdown. We now get to settle once and for all who is better between the two of them. I’m glad that the New Directions didn’t disappoint. You can tell that they were just dying to do a homage to Michael Jackson. They are THAT good. And my favorite performance? It’s got to be Sebastian-vs-Santana in Smooth Criminal. Made infinitely better by 2Cellos playing in the background. I absolutely love their Smooth Criminal cover, and I was just squealing with delight when I found out that they are in Glee.

Come on Ryan Murphy, we need more Glee episodes of this caliber. It doesn’t have to be dramatic all of the time.

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Sherlock S1E1: A Study in Pink

Tina — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:18:03 +0000

I will admit that this is not the first episode in this series that I watched. I was just checking out the third episode in this series while I was on the plane back home. I was immediately hooked, and I looked it up and completed the series. So hooked that I ordered the DVDs from Amazon, because they are not selling the DVDs locally. Shipping charges be damned.

This episode is based primarily on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story: A Study in Scarlet. It was quite amazing how they adapted the story in modern times. For instance, John Watson is blogging his adventures with Sherlock instead of keeping notes and writing memoirs. Another example would be the cars populating the streets of London instead of carriages. But this is without a doubt a proper Sherlock Holmes story. The way Sherlock explains his deduction is just like how you would expect him to do it in the canon: quite amazing when you first hear about it and yet so simple once you’ve caught up with his train of thought. (Not to mention it makes you feel like an idiot for not thinking about it in the first place.)

The story itself is similar to the original story, but not quite the same. The writers raised the stakes, so instead of the killer killing his enemies for revenge, we get a serial killer being sponsored by the big bad of the Sherlock Holmes universe: Moriarty. Elements of the canon are still there, like the message “Rache” and the victims choosing between two pills (and practically choosing between life and death). It was brilliant how they changed these canonical elements slightly, so the Sherlock Holmes fans will not base their deduction on the events of the book. I also liked they way they placed inline text within the scene instead of having the viewers look at close-up shots of phones. They also used that technique to give the viewers an insight on how Sherlock makes his deductions. It’s pretty instructive in a way, just in case you want to impress someone with a deduction ala Sherlock Holmes.

Probably the most important thing that got me hooked in the series is the interaction between Sherlock and John. I am glad that they decided to portray John Watson as someone who is not entirely stupid, just a bit slower that Sherlock when it comes to deductions. And of course, the actors playing Sherlock and John are really amazing. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman has a nice on-screen chemistry going on, and it is amusing to watch the development of their friendship in the span of 90 minutes. I also like their approach on Lestrade’s character. Unlike in the original books where Lestrade is entirely antagonistic, here we have Lestrade who respects Sherlock for his talents and yet frustrated by his arrogance. And the addition of Mycroft Holmes in the cast made me squeal in delight. Someone smarter has to keep Sherlock’s arrogance in check.

Overall an engaging series, definitely a must-watch. Watch it and you will understand why the fans are absolutely devastated when Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss refuse to confirm if there would be a third series just before the end of the second season.

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Just Another Reichenbach Theory

Tina — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:01:08 +0000

So season 2 of the BBC series Sherlock aired its season finale last Monday. And what a way to end the series! The writers have been trolling posting tweets about how this final episode will make you shed tears before bedtime, making the Sherlockians fear for the fate of the titular character and the series itself.

But of course, everyone knows by now that season 3 has been commissioned. With this announcement, the viewers are now asking: How on earth did Sherlock survive the fall?

My theory? He never jumped in the first place. Someone else took the fall, probably the guy who kidnapped the two kids and made them eat chocolates. The girl’s reaction upon seeing Sherlock implied that the kidnapper looks a lot like Sherlock. There are several points that would support this theory.

Having a stunt double is easy to arrange. Someone who vaguely looks like Sherlock from afar is seen standing on top of the ledge, while the real Sherlock stays hidden. He makes the phone call to John, and the stunt double holds a phone to his ear, making it appear that he is the one talking to John. He probably made the stunt double lip-sync too, for added effect. Or maybe he tried the trick that Jim Moriarty used to his victims from The Great Game (season 1 episode 3). From below, all that John could see was the figure of ‘Sherlock’ holding a phone to his ear, and he would think that he is talking to the man who is standing on the ledge.
The scene should be enough to convince both John and the sniper. They cannot simply switch bodies or arrange a soft landing, because the sniper might discover the trick from his point of view.
After the fall, people on the scene were a bit too keen on keeping John away from the dead body. It was probably to prevent John from noticing that he is not looking at Sherlock but rather a stunt double.
The movie The Prestige comes to mind. The “transported man” trick involves a stunt double, but the rival magician insists that there is a more complex explanation for the trick. Turns out that he was wrong, his rival indeed had a stunt double. So, stunt double it is.
It is more consistent with the canonical story. Not really a valid reason, but the solution that Doyle explained in The Adventure of the Empty House sounds logical. Not to mention an elegant solution to the problem.

So if Sherlock didn’t fall, how did the scene play out?

After Moriarty killed himself, Sherlock made the stunt double stand over the ledge. He made the phone call to John, preventing him from entering the building so that he would not see the deception. And since John is being targeted by a sniper, Sherlock probably used this opportunity to locate the sniper, so he could deal with him after the scene played out.
We see John and Sherlock talking over the phone, but we are actually seeing the face of Sherlock’s stunt double. This is probably why Sherlock is a bit too weepy in this scene.
Sherlock’s stunt double threw away the phone and jumped. He fell and died upon hitting the pavement. People immediately rushed towards the dead body and tried to prevent John from getting a closer look.
The body is taken away, leaving John believing that Sherlock is truly dead. This also convinces the sniper aimed at John’s head to abandon his mission.
Molly is the only one who knows the truth. Sherlock needed her to fix all the paperwork and declare that Sherlock Holmes died from the fall.

While I am pretty convinced with my theory, there are a few things that bug me if this is indeed what happened.

Sherlock made someone else jump to his death. I know that he said that although he belongs to the side of the angels, he is not really one of them. Still, the thought that he forced someone else to die for him is a bit unnerving. It’s like he’s turning into the next Moriarty. But then again, this is probably the reason why Moriarty was so convinced that they are the same.
I really like the suicide scene. We get to see Sherlock pour his heart out while saying goodbye to John. If it turns out that this is all an act (like what Sherlock did to John in the lab from the previous episode), then I would entirely sympathize with John if he decides to punch the life out of him in the next series.
EDIT: The success of that plan relied heavily on the fact that no one else is on the rooftop. Sherlock has to be crazy prepared to make sure that Jim Moriarty would kill himself. He couldn’t make the switch if Jim Moriarty was still alive.

There you go, my own theory on the Reichenbach Fall. It will take some time before we find out the real answer, so this will have to do.

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Revival!

Tina — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 14:53:12 +0000

Sorry I’ve been busy with a lot of things. I’ve been off the blogging world for quite some time because of Twitter. Hopefully 2012 will be better.

Let’s start the year with one of the most talked-about TV series, Sherlock. It’s going to take a while before I published my review for each episode, so for now I’m starting it with my theories on The Reichenbach Fall.

As Sherlock said, “Laterz.”

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Eclipse

Tina — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 10:01:25 +0000

So I finally had the chance to watch the third installment of Twilight. Yes, I watched it. Just because I’ve read the books and I watched the first two movies anyway. Besides, I wanted to know why this movie had higher ratings in Rotten Tomatoes compared with Shyamalan’s The Last Airbender.

Just like its predecessors, this film attempts to be really faithful to the book but suffers from lack of continuity. And since the source material isn’t really that good, you are either drowning in all the cheesy lines (for the romantics) or wishing that it was all over (for the cynics).

If there is one character that saved the entire movie from total disappointment, it’s Jacob. His lines are getting wittier, it’s a surprise that Bella doesn’t fall for his charms. He acts naturally and he is the only believable character in the film. Even Bella’s acting is actually a bit better if she has a scene with Jacob. Edward, on the other hand, is still delivering those awkward lines. For someone watching the movies alone with no idea whatsoever on the source material, it’s probably a big mystery why someone would choose Edward over Jacob.

It would have been the most exciting part of the sequel to turn into the movie, because we get to see actual fight scenes between vampires and werewolves. I wish they invested more on the special effects, and maybe people will not bash the movie that much.

This is the last time I would bother watching this series. I’m not watching the last installment. Argh.

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AME Track 10: Aftermath

Tina — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 09:34:44 +0000

So I heard that they had crowd-control problems during the AME fair. Because of that, UP AME has issued their public statement. Click here to read their official statement.

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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole

Tina — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 10:56:47 +0000

I discovered a nice book series to follow, thanks to Hollywood. I watched Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole in 3D, and it did not disappoint.

Plot-wise, it reminds me a lot of Harry Potter. Here we have another retelling of the fight between those who want to protect the innocent (“To make strong the weak”) and those who want to conquer (“the strong shall rule the weak”). It ultimately leads to the showdown between brothers Soren (who joined the Guardians) and Kludd (who joined the Pure Bloods).

What I really loved about the movie is the way they rendered it in 3D. It has the feel of Lord of the Rings, especially during the battle between the Pure Bloods and the Guardians. Well, I wasn’t surprised when I learned that the director of this film was also the one who directed 300. The animation studio who worked on this film (Animal Logic) also worked on Happy Feet, another film with amazing animation effects.

I’m surprised that that I don’t hear that much buzz when this film was released. It makes me wonder if they will write a sequel to this film. This definitely deserves a sequel, unlike some other movies out there. *coughTwilightcough*

Oh I can’t wait to get my hands on the book series by Kathryn Lasky.

Visit the main website here: http://legendoftheguardians.warnerbros.com/

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Librairie Eyrolles

Tina — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:53:33 +0000

This entry is a part of the Paris English bookshops series.

A friend’s visit to Paris prompted me to seek out a bookshop that sells math reference books in English. There is this bookshop very near our university, so we decided to give it a try.

Librairie Eyrolles is the bookshop for professionals, and they sell books written both in French and English. Their collection of reference books is even larger than the entire collection found in WH Smith. They mainly specialize on computer books, and indeed you can find lots of shelves dedicated to different softwares and programming languages. They also sell books in the sciences, architecture, finance, graphic arts and several other topics.

Something that makes me a bit sad: Their collection of math books puts our own library in the Philippines to shame.

They are open from Mondays to Fridays, 9:30 am – 7:30 pm. They are also open on Saturdays, from 9:30 am – 8 pm.

Follow them in Twitter: @Eyrolles

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Tea and Tattered Pages

Tina — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:31:57 +0000

This entry is a part of the Paris English bookshops series.

I dragged my friend to visit one of the top 5 bookshops listed in my Lonely Planet guidebook. We settled with Tea and Tattered Pages since it is the only store that is open on Sundays at noon. It took us a while to find it, and when we got at the door we thought it was closed. But after a few seconds the owner of the shop opened the door and let us in. Hilda (the shop owner) gave us a brief overview on the different sections of the bookshop. She was very helpful when we asked for specific books.

It was the first time I’ve been to a second-hand bookshop and find the books arranged as if I’m in a regular bookstore. General fiction are shelved at the ground floor, arranged in alphabetical order. There are more books housed at the basement, where you can find the mystery/triller section, the children’s books, science fiction and fantasy section, and even some nonfiction books on the arts, music, Christianity, U.S. politics, economics, and so on.

It was listed in Lonely Planet as a top 4 English bookshop in Paris. They are selling second-hand books, so the books are cheaper compared with the other stores. Not many tourists know of the place, so you are guaranteed to have some peace and quiet as you browse at all the books. We were only interrupted by the shop owner’s cat, Ming Long. She kept on following us around while we were there. (He reminds me of Garfield, he’s so fat.)

Ming Long

They also serve coffee, tea and desserts in the store, so you can just hang out at the back of the store near the kitchen while waiting or while reading. This is something that you don’t find in other bookshops in Paris.

I find myself going back from time to time in this shop, hoping to find something new. New stocks of books usually arrive at random. Sometimes they buy books from a supplier and there are times when people just donate them to the shop (mostly from people who are on their way home and have no way of bringing all of their books with them).

They are open from 11 am to 7 pm, Mondays to Saturdays, and from noon to 6 pm on Sundays. During summers, they only open thrice a week: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 2 to 7 pm.

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Inception

Tina — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 16:57:52 +0000

My friends were raving about it on my Facebook wall. It has inspired memes all over the internet. People talked about what happened towards the end of the movie, and they did not mind watching the movie again just to prove their point. These are just some of the signs that say that this movie is really good.

The mere concept of the movie is enough to intrigue you. You are presented with a different crime scene: the dreamworld. The technology to enter someone elses dream exists, and the people who get inside your dream can steal information that you are hiding deep within your subconscious. Now is it possible to do the opposite, that is, to plant ideas inside your head and make it appear that it was your own idea (a.k.a. inception)?

Spoilers after the cut.

Since inception is more difficult than merely stealing information from one’s mind, the first half of the movie dealt with the assembly of the team for the mission. Cobb, the mastermind of the operation, was hired by Saito to plant an idea to split the company of his rival, Fisher. Saito later joins the team in the dream world to make sure that the idea was successfully planted in Fischer’s mind. Arthur, Cobb’s partner-in-crime, is the one in charge of researching everything about their target. They hired Ariadne as the “architect” (the one who creates the dream scenario). They also asked Eames to join the team, because he specializes in impersonating characters in someone else’s dream. Finally, they asked Yusuf to create a sedative so powerful that it would enable them to enter multilevel dreams.

The entire plan needs to be executed on three levels of dreams. In the first level, they kidnapped Fisher and introduced the idea of splitting up the company through Fischer’s uncle, Browning (who is actually being impersonated by Eames). Then they enter the second level of the dream and made it appear that Browning is the one behind the kidnapping in the previous level, supposedly to destroy the will that will break up the company. They managed to convince Fisher to enter the next level of the dream to ‘dig deeper’ and figure out what Browning is hiding from him (here is when ‘inception’ actually occurs).

As we all know, not everything works out the way they wanted it to be. The problem lies with Cobb’s past, which makes him create (unwittingly) a projection of his deceased wife, Mal. He is being blamed for her death, and this guilt manifests itself with Mal attempting to sabotage every operation that Cobb is involved with. At the third level of the dream Mal succeeded in killing Fischer, forcing Ariadne and Cobb to go to the 4th dream level (known as limbo) to save Fischer and Saito. Finally Cobb reveals the true reason why he was confident that inception can be done: he experimented with it using his wife as a test subject. In the end he sacrificed himself to save Ariadne and Fischer, and also to save Saito who is still trapped in limbo.

Now the main topic of debate for people who watched the film revolves on Nolan’s open-ended finale. It was not explicitly shown how Saito and Cobb escaped from limbo, all that we know is that they did not come back to reality together with the rest of the team. The film ended with Cobb checking his totem (the spinning top), but did not bother to see whether it would spin continuously or stop at some point. Did Cobb return to reality, or is he still in the dream world? Remember that in this film, only he is compelled to check his totem every now and then to determine if he is in the real world or not. Because he has spent a lot of time in limbo and created dreams based on his memories, both scenarios are equally plausible. But maybe what Nolan wanted us to think is that at this point in the story, it does not matter anymore if Cobb is in the real world or in the dream world. Cobb is willing to accept that what is in front of him is the real world, he no longer needs the totem to tell him which is which. He finally got what he wanted: a life with his children. Spending the rest of his life in the real world or in the dream world does not matter.

(For the record, I believe that he really came back to the real world. This is based on the argument presented here.)

Combining amazing visual effects with an intellectually stimulating plot, that is what made this movie so entertaining. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a mindfuck, I’ve read mangas with more complicated plots than this movie. But I enjoyed watching it nonetheless, and I wouldn’t mind watching it again. The first half of the film gave the viewers an opportunity to understand the process of shared dreams and the different levels of dreams. Nolan made use of the dream world to create stunning visual effects. It was quite a sight to see the city of Paris fold itself in half in Ariadne’s dream world. The geek in me squealed when Arthur was teaching Ariadne the paradox of the infinite staircase (obviously inspired by M.C. Escher’s work), to help her create labyrinths in the dream world.

In contrast the second half of the movie puts you at the edge of your seat, looking forward to seeing how it would turn out in the end. The way the team deals with unexpected surprises is quite astonishing, even jaw-dropping at some moments. My favorite part is the second level of the dream, where they used the influence of gravity in the first level of the dream to influence the zero-gravity environment in the second level. And even if time dilates as you go deeper in the dream, Nolan presented it in such a way that we can still keep track of the timeline at each level.

I guess what I loved about this movie is the fact that I felt like I just woke up from a dream when I went out of the cinema. It’s the first time that I’ve been totally engrossed in the movie for a long time.

Or am I still dreaming? Let me check my totem first.

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