South Park "Cartman Gets An A**l Probe" Review

Animation in all my years producing reviews i've seen animated shows come and go alot leaving no impact. However there has always been one show that has not only stuck around but managed to change what it meant to be an adult animated series from it's raunchy humour to it's often controversial takes on recent topics South Park has been there to guide us and to make us laugh and so here is my review of the very first episode of the show which I have edited "Cartman Gets An A**l Probe" enjoy everyone.

The plot of the episode is Kyle's brother Ike finds himself kidnapped by Aliens which Cartman doesn't believe exist and so it's up to Kyle to get him back before there parents find out. Plot wise this is the strongest of South Park episodes which is something that even Comedy Central agree with since they weren't even sure if they were going to commission more episodes but with that being said it is still a fun story to see play out.

Starring in the episode is co-creator / co-writer / producer and director Trey Parker as Stan Marsh , Eric Cartman and Mr. Garrison. Also starring in the episode is co-creator , co-writer and producer Matt Stone as Kyle Broflovski , Kenny McCormick , Cows , Pip and Carl , Mary Kay Bergman as Liane Cartman and Wendy Testaburger , the late great Isaac Hayes as Chef  and Franchesca Clifford as Ike Broflovski.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly pretty average at best and alot of that comes down to the fact that both Trey and Matt aren't experienced writers or directors and so they have no clue what will work but as we find out they do improve over time. However what I found to be pretty over putting and at the same time interesting is the fact that alot of the characters voices are alot rougher then what we are used which while it did make the episode hard to watch just because im more used to the voices that they have now it was also interesting seeing where the characters voices started out.

Doing the animation for the episode is Celluloid Studios and if you haven't heard of them don't worry because I haven't either. As we all know South Park is known for having a cut out animation style but what many don't know is that this is the only episode to feature cut out animation and even with that in mind the animation does look pretty good yes you can tell that they are just moving the characters by hand and I think you can see a few of the animators hands in some frames but to me that adds to the charm of the show.

This episode is actually pretty freaking tame at least in terms of swearing and other adult things seen in the show. Don't get me wrong it's still there but it was more present in other episodes which to me seems like an odd way to go for this debut episode since you'd normally go all out in the first episode just to get people's attention but no Trey and Matt seem to have taken the opposite approach with this episode instead going a less equals more approach which oddly works in the episodes favour but at the same time it's not the South Park we know and love but it's close.

Now this is something that I actually didn't know and that's the fact that this episode is basically a re-edited version of an un-aired pilot both going by the same name. What makes this interesting is that the un-aired pilot gives Cartman a family we see his father and sister in the un-aired version I can't say if they speak or not but I find it interesting that these two characters would be wiped from the show's canon.

The un-aired pilot also adds in alot of scenes which I don't know if they add to the overall story or not but it does make me wonder why alot of the scenes were cut out of the final version. You can actually watch the un-aired pilot as it's on the complete second season DVD box set so it would be interesting to watch just to see why the removed scenes where cut from the aired version of the episode and to see what Cartman's father and sister were like as characters.

Now if you know the show and considering it's been on for well over twenty years then you'll know that Cartman's mother has a bit of a shall we say past with the whole male gender of the town. Well shockingly they did kind of hint at her more I guess naughty side in this episode i'm not going to repeat what's said but let's say it has something to do with the fact that Cartman called his cat a d**do and his mother said that the cat is sleeping with her tonight.

I can honestly see why Comedy Central didn't want to order more episodes after this one since this isn't the best representation of the show whatsoever. Don't get me wrong it's damn close to how the final show would end up being but at the same time this pilot episode feels like a pilot to another show and not to South Park since it barely resembles what South Park is and what it's capable of doing when it's at it's best.

Now then since this is a comedy that means that I have to talk about the jokes that are in the episode itself. Which I honestly have very mixed feelings about because while there are indeed some very funny jokes in this episode like the fact that the Aliens have Cartman "transform" and sing "I Love To Singa" is a very funny joke but at the same time there are jokes that aren't like the fart jokes which are never funny.

Overall this is very mixed bag of an episode with alot of good things in it but there's also alot of bad things present as well. There are hints of how good South Park can be when it's at it's best with alot of funny jokes but at the same time there are hints of how bad the show can be as well with alot of jokes not landing and the writing being very hit and miss as such this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10 from this long time South Park fan.

All of the images used in this review were gathered from either Wikipedia , Google Images or the official South Park fandom wiki page. I will admit that I was one of those kids who when he was seven years old would watch this show when it was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK (yes my parents knew) so i've literally grown up with the show and so it was nice to go back to the episode that started it all and the fact that I was able to find alot of high definition images pretty much all of them from the official South Park fandom wiki page made my inner child very happy indeed.

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors Review

Doctor Who fans it's been well over a month since we last spoke and well I thought that i'd spend the next few days talking about the programme that we all love. Since we are just a few short years away from the shows sixtieth anniversary it seemed oddly right that I take a look back at one of the previous anniversary specials which is also the only anniversary special that I own on DVD and so here is my review of "The Five Doctors" enjoy.

The plot of this feature length special is that someone is recruiting all of The Doctor's past lives and forcing them to play a deadly game and it's up to The Doctor's to find out who recruited them and what there goal is. In all honesty the plot is honestly really good and it does a good job of bringing the doctors and the companions together in a way that feels natural and it helps that the story is generally interesting.

Playing The Doctor are Peter Davison as The Fifth Doctor , Tom Baker as The Fourth Doctor , Jon Pertwee as The Third Doctor , Patrick Troughton as The Second Doctor and both Richard Hurndall and William Hartnell as The First Doctor. Now even tho Richard does play the first doctor for the special there is a clip shown at the start of the episode with William Hartnell in the role and so that was why i chose to credit him as the character and I credited Tom Baker because he does appear in archive footage.

Also starring in this episode is Janet Fielding as Tegan Jovanka , Mark Strickson as Vislor Turlough , Carole Ann Ford as Susan Foreman , the late Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the late Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith. Also starring in the episode are Anthony Ainley as The Master , Philip Latham as Lord President Borusa , Dinah Sheridan as Chancellor Flavia , Paul Jerricho as The Castellan , David Banks as The Cyber Leader , Mark Hardy as The Cyber Lieutenant , Richard Mathews as Rassilon , Frazer Hines as Jamie , Wendy Padbury as Zoe , David Savile as Colonel Crichton , Caroline John as Liz Shaw , Richard Franklin as Captain Mike Yates , John Leeson as The Voice of K9 and Roy Skelton as The Voice Of The Daleks.

As for what I thought about the acting in the episode I honestly thought that it was really good with all of the actors playing The Doctor doing a good job of putting across what there doctor is like. Even Richard Hurndall who has to do an impression of William Hartnell still manages to turn in a solid performance , the same thing can also be said for this episodes guest cast who are given alot to work with in the script and are able to give a truly solid performance.

As you all no doubt noticed when I was doing the cast list for this episode there are alot of companions that are brought back and while alot of them do get on screen explanations as to where they are in life at least for the past companions there is one that doesn't. That being Susan which is a shame because her character really needed one since when we last saw her she was in the future with her future husband and it would have been nice to see what her life is like now but nope we don't get any of that whatsoever.

Now alot of the praise that gave both the script and the story is due to the fact that it was written by the late and great Terrance Dicks. This man is a genius he knows how to craft a good story which while it is the first lesson in writing it's something that not alot of writers seem to do and it helps here that his concepts and ideas not only live up to what he sets up in the story but are also really interesting and leave you wanting more I honestly want to see and hear more about this death zone it is a good idea but sadly I don't think there are any plans to bring this concept back in someway shape or form.

As well as having several doctors and companions feature in the special this special also features a few classic foes which apart from The Master all of them are there for fanservice and nothing more. You could remove the scene with the Dalek and nothing would be lost and you remove the scene with the Cybermen trying to blow up the TARDIS and again nothing would be lost while you can't remove the Cybermen entirely since they do play a part in the third act you can cut down on alot of there useless scenes.

As an anniversary episode this special does hold up really well since it doesn't really require you to do any homework. Which is a good thing because it can then just go about celebrating all of the aspects of the show and show us what made us fall in love with the show in the first place and that's sadly something that alot of Doctor Who anniversary specials don't do at least in my opinion they don't anyways.

Now this episode is I believe to be to the first episode in the classic era to be over an hour long with the final running time being just over an hour and a half long. Which for an anniversary special it's something that is really needed because you have to reintroduce all of these characters have them meet up and still tell a good story which is something that you really cannot do in the standard twenty five minuet running time but with that said this episode does drag on a bit near the end as such I do feel that the ending could have been trimmed down a bit.

Overall this isn't that bad of a special I don't know if it's a fan favourite or not but I honestly hope that it is since it's that good. Yes there are some bad things about the special alot of which i've mentioned in this review but for me alot of those issues while they are issues that can be fixed easily with a rewrite of the script they don't take away from my overall enjoyment of the episode as such this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page or Google Images. Yeah honestly I can't recommend either website for high definition when it comes to this episode just because there really aren't any but at the same time there are some high definition images there and son I have to say feel free to use either website and yes the above picture is a huge clue as to my next review.

 

Mr. Bean "Mr. Bean" And "The Trouble With Mr. Bean" Review

Now then boys and girls you've seen me review all sorts of things and well I thought this time I would try and review a little bit harder to review that being a couple of Mr. Bean episodes. Now I know what your thinking how can reviewing a couple of Mr. Bean episodes be hard well it's because none of them have any story and there's very little dialog and so it's hard to judge the acting and so here is my review of the first episode of Mr. Bean "Mr. Bean" and the fifth episode of the series "The Trouble With Mr. Bean" enjoy.

Like I just said it's hard to judge the stories of these episodes for two reason the first one being as I just said they have no story and the second one being each episode is split up into three , four or five different sketches. With each sketch having very little to no connection to the one before it I will say tho that I enjoyed the I guess you could say sketches in the first episode just because those setups feel very fresh and new.

Starring in these episodes of course franchise start , co-creator and co-writer Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean and the vicar. Also starring in these episodes are Paul Bown as the student , Rudolph Walker as the examination invigilator , Roger Sloman as the blind man on the beach , Howard Goodall as the church organist , Richard Briers as Mr. Sprout , Richard Wilson as Mr. A. M. Peggit , Sam Mead as the schoolboy , Christine Ellerbeck as The Schoolboy's Mother , Hugo Mendez as the Boy in the Park , Michael Godley as the Man in a Wheelchair , Nathan Lewis as the Car Thief and Caroline Quentin as The Traffic Warden.

Now I have to admit I had no idea how many big comedy names appeared in The Trouble With Mr. Bean and I have to admit I didn't recognize either of them. That being said the acting in these episodes is kind of hard to judge since there's very little dialog and all the scenes are are people reacting to what Mr. Bean is doing but I can say that Rowan really does do a solid job as this character he knows what face to make during what scene and where to get the best laugh.

Now what I found while doing some research for this review is that they only made a very small amount of episodes per year with the production team only making two or three episodes a year. This to me makes alot of sense because why bother putting thirteen OK episodes when you can put out two or three great ones doing this means that the production team can fully develop sketches and make them as funny as they can be which for a comedy is what you really freaking want.

Now of course being the first episode there is one thing that didn't make it to rest of the series and that's Mr. Beans orange mini. When I was growing up because I was so used to his famous green mini I was always taken a back by the fact that the character started out with an orange one which to me really doesn't suit the character and that colour doesn't look that good on the car the green doesn't look good on the car either but you could at least by the fact that a character this strange and odd would buy a car who's main colour looks off putting at least to me it looks off putting anyways.

Now funnily enough The Trouble With Mr. Bean actually features the debut of a key character to the Mr. Bean franchise that being Mr.s Beans teddy bear Teddy. It only appears once at the start of the episode but that one short segment that the I guess character appears in actually does show us how Mr. Bean treats him since he outs his bed covers over him because he thinks that he's still asleep which says that Bean treats his teddy as if it were a real person something which we do see more of in future episodes and even in the feature films.

These episodes where around thirty minuets each and honestly I wish that they were longer just because I was having such a good time watching the episodes. Both of the episodes are perfectly paced and so when it gets to the ending it really does catch you of guard because there's nothing that sets up that this is the end of the episode it just happens and honestly I wished more comedies had this kind of pacing since alot of them feel longer then what they actually are where as this one feels shorter then what it actually is.

The debut episode also introduced us to the gag of Mr. Bean causing some form of harm or damage to the Reliant Regal. I have to say for a gag this simple just having one car bump into another it really does work really well it's no wonder that they've carried this joke on in the Mr. Bean animated series and if i'm right this debut episode actually features the most times this gag is done with it being done at least three times.

I was originally going to do this review just based of the very first episode that being "Mr. Bean" but I honestly thought that I wouldn't have enough material just from the first episode and so I watched another. Which i'm honestly glad that I did because I had such a fun time watching these episodes watching them again took me back to when I was kid watching these episodes for the first time either on VHS or on TV because yes i'm old enough to remember alot of the original Mr. Bean episodes being shown on TV.

 

Now then it's the one thing that you wanted me to talk about from the second you clicked on the review. Yes these episodes are funny as all hell heck I cannot count the amount of times that I laughed out loud while watching these episodes that's how funny they are but if push comes to shove I'd say that the first episode is the funnier of the two.

Overall I'd say that both episodes are really freaking good and are both really freaking funny. I honestly cannot choose a favourite out of these two episodes just because they are both so freaking good as such they get a collective score of an 8.5 out 10 from me. Just to give you an idea of how much my computer hated me during this review parts of the review wouldn't save and so I had to write them out again so even my laptop agrees it was hard to review any Mr. Bean episode let alone two 

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Mr. Bean fandom wiki page or Google Images. I have to fully admit that I wasn't expecting these images to be as high definition as they are and as such I have to say feel free to use either website if you want high definition Mr. Bean images but I personally prefer the Mr. Bean fandom wiki page as they are shocking high definition you actually wouldn't believe it.

                                                                                

                                                                                     

 

Love Live! Sunshine!! Season 1 Episodes 1-4 SPOILERS Review

Anime fans not alot of you will know this but i'm actually a fan of the Love Live franchise and well since i've been reviewing episodes of various anime before and yes I do have at least one more planned I thought that i'd take on a few episodes of this series. If i'm being honest it's always hard to for me to choose how many episodes I should do a review for an anime since I like it when a bunch of episodes tell a complete story but here I went one episode beyond that simply because I was enjoying myself and so here is my review of the first four episodes of the first season of "Love Live! Sunshine!!" enjoy guys and girls and yes there will be spoilers all throughout this review and so you can consider this your official spoiler warning.

The overall plot of these first four episodes is that Chika Takami is trying to get a school idol club up and running at her school and has trouble recruiting members. That's really it in terms of story and really for a slice of life show that all the plot you need since the main attraction to these shows isn't the deep and complicated plot it's seeing the characters grow together and form friendships and with that said the overall story for these episodes was really good and it was not only fun but also entertaining to see it play out.

Starring in these episodes are Jad Saxton as Chika Takami , Jeanie Tirado as Riko Sakurauchi and Michelle Rojas as Kanan Matsuura. Also starring in these episodes are Morgan Garrett as Dia Kurosawa , Apphia Yu as You Watanabe , Morgan Berry as Yoshiko Tsushima , Megan Shipman as Hanamaru Kunikida , Jamie Marchi as Mari Ohara , Sarah Wiedenheft as Ruby Kurosawa , Colleen Clinkenbeard as Shima Takami and Monica Rial as Mito Takami.

Honestly this was one of the easiest cast lists i've ever had to do just because all of the main girls appear in all four episodes hell every person i've credited appears in all four episodes. In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly really good all of the main actors give the characters voices that actually suit there characters which for a dub is always a plus since they very rarely give the characters voice the fit the characters and it helps that all of the main actresses give really good performances.

Doing the animation for these episodes as well as the rest of the series is Sunrise who of course did the animation for Love Live! School Idol Project and both the Love Live movies and will be doing the animation for the next entry in the Love Live! series. I honestly feel that the animation in these four episodes was nothing special which is oddly what I was expecting since no one goes into an idol anime expecting the dialog scenes to have great animation they do expect the musical scenes to have good animation and that's true for these episodes.

Since the animation in those song sequences is actually better then the animation in the dialog scenes which is both a good thing and a bad thing. It's a good thing because anyone who watches an idol anime knows that the animation in the musical scenes is going to be good but it's a bad thing because the animation in the whole episode should be up to the same quality of those musical scenes as such one shouldn't be better then the other they should both be equally good.

To me these first four episodes seem to be not only about creating a group but also about friendships and the lengths people will go to for them. We see all throughout these first four episodes people trying to please there friends as well as people making new friends of course I could be wrong but to have the first four episodes have something to do with friendship or making new friends seems like to big of a coincidence if you ask me.

That being said if it is true then i'm glad that is featured in these episodes since it shows that not all members of the group are friends and that those bonds either need to be built or repaired. Which I find to be really interesting because whenever we do get an anime based around friendship it'a always about making new friends and never about repairing old bonds which is a shame because that does open the door to a lot of story and character development.

Honestly just going back to what I was talking about before about friendships being a theme in these episodes there is one group of friends that are good example of doing whatever it takes to make the other happy and they are Ruby and Hanamaru. For you see in episode four titled "Two Girls' Feelings" we see Hanamaru agree to do something that she knows that she wouldn't like but she knows would make Ruby happy but in the process she ends up falling in love with wanting to be an idol but convinces herself she can't do it that is until Ruby reminds her of how much fun she was having with the group.

This to me is an important part of Ruby's character because all throughout the show we see her do things to makes others happy and yet very rarely does she do things to make herself happy. Whenever you here of a person who is nice well to me Ruby is the very definition of that due to the fact that she's so selfless as well as being an genuinely enjoyable person to be around and to talk to and it's due to these reasons that I think she's the best character in the show.

Now I want it known that i'm not going to talk about the songs in these episodes just because I can't think of anything to say about them. As such i'll get straight to talking about the comedy in these episodes which for me at least was very hit and miss when there was a good joke then it would be really funny like anything to do with Ruby I found to be freaking hilarious but whenever there was a bad joke or they dragged a joke on for so long that it became unfunny then you really felt it and sadly alot of the unfunny jokes came from Yoshiko who is just a one joke character with that joke being she's pretending to be someone else and that's it that's the joke but it's one where they have scenes that drag that joke on so it becomes even more unfunny.

Overall these were some really fun , funny and at times heartwarming episodes and to me they are a great introduction to this series. That being said however there are problems with these episodes all of which i've covered in this review but those issues didn't really stop the episodes from being enjoyable but that doesn't mean that they weren't noticeable because they were as such these episodes get a collective rating of 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Love Live fandom wiki page or from Google Images. I have to admit I wasn't expecting any of the images to be as high quality as they were simply because Love Live isn't a well known mainstream franchise but every image in this review is shockingly high quality as such if you want high quality images from Love Live! Sunshine!! then use either one of these websites and for once I have no joke here so freaking yeah.

 

 

Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths Review

DC fans it's been around two weeks since I last talked about any of the animated films or live action films that the company has released and yes I know that I covered Return To The Batcave but that wasn't released by DC so yeah. So I thought that i'd tackle a film that i've not seen in years and even then the copy that I own only has one working disc since it's region 1 and I don't live in a region area luckily the disc that works is the one with the film and so here is my review of "Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths" enjoy.

The plot of the film is the Justice League goes to a parallel earth at the insistence of that earth's Lex Luthor to help him defeat the evil Crime Syndicate who are evil versions of the Justice League. In all honesty the plot to this film so simple which is perhaps it's biggest flaw as well as it's greatest strength because there's no depth to the story whatsoever but at the same time due it being simple the story can be very entertaining to see play out.

Starring in the film is William Baldwin as Bruce Wayne / Batman and Mark Harmon as Clark Kent / Superman. Also starring in the film is Chris Noth as Lex Luthor , Gina Torres as Superwoman , James Woods as Owlman , Brian Bloom as Ultraman , Jonathan Adams as J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter , Josh Keaton as Wally West / The Flash and Aquaman , Vanessa Marshall as Princess Diana / Wonder Woman.

As for what i thought about the acting in the film it honestly wasn't that bad but the issue for me comes with the casting. Since alot of these actors just don't really match the characters there playing take for example William Baldwin who i'm sure is a good actor but he's not Batman he's to soft spoken to really give Batman the darkness that that character demands as for Gina Torres she's miscast because all you hear while watching the movie Zoe from Firefly and the same goes for James Woods all you here is the actor and not the character.

Doing the animation got the film is Moi Animation Studio who are most known for there work on Avatar: The Last Airbender. As for what I thought about the animation in this film it's honestly really freaking good which shouldn't come as a surprise since alot of the animated direct to DVD DC Comics films feature good animation but honestly the animation featured in this film looks like it could be in a theatrically released movie and one that went straight to DVD.

This film was originally meant to be set in the DAU (DC Animated Universe) with the film serving as a bridge between Justice League and Justice League: Unlimited. For whatever reason they chose not to make for a few years and then the line of straight to DVD DC films was proving to be a hit they found the script for this film and rewrote and reworked it into the film that we see today so technically you could say that this is a Justice League / Justice League: Unlimited movie but that's if you freaking wanted to tho.

I have to say that I liked the idea behind the Crime Syndicate having an evil version of the Justice League to me is such a cool and creative idea simply because it allows you to do things with those characters that you couldn't do with there regular counterparts. Think about it you can't have Superman threaten to kill someone but you can have Ultraman he's evil counterpart do so and that to me makes them a cool idea heck I don't know why they haven't made there way into live action yet since they very well could have made good villains in the 2017 live action Justice League movie.

Also being a god idea is that the world that the Crime Syndicate live on is in fear of them and what they can do. That right there gives are heroes a good reason to go and save this world since it's on the brink of destruction due to the Crime Syndicate and what there planning as such it makes sense the Lex would go and search out the Justice League to help since who else better to defeat these villains then people who have the same powers and gifts that the Crime Syndicate have.

This film is an hour and fifteen minuets which honestly isn't long enough for this kind of story because there are so many characters and subplots in this film and due to the short running time the film doesn't have the time to cover them all. As such I feel that this film should have been around an hour and thirty maybe an hour and forty minuets just to really let the plot breathe and give the plot the time that it needs but because of that short running time the film has to hit all of these plot beats fast and not all of them work because of the short running time.

One of those plot lines is the romance between J'onn J'onzz and Rose Wilson which barely gets brought up. Which is a shame because if that plot line was given the proper time to fully develop then it could have been something really sweet and touching but because it's stuck in a film that has a short running time it doesn't have as much impact as it could have had and it doesn't leave much of an impact on either the viewer or either character at least from what we see anyways in the film anyways.

Now then boys and girls since this an action film that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in the film itself. Which I feel the most entertaining part of the film since to me it's always fun seeing the whole Justice League or in this case it's core six members (J'onn J'onzz , The Flash , Green Lantern , Superman , Batman and Wonder Woman) fighting as a team and showing what they bring to the team , it was also during this watch of the film that I realised that this film is alot like Mad Max: Fury Road in that like that movie this one is basically one long action sequence with only a few breaks inbetween and thats something that I never noticed before now.

Overall this was a rather enjoyable film and it did keep me entertained all throughout the film but at the same time it also left me wanting more but not in a good way. I wanted more from the story , I wanted more from the characters I just wanted more because the potential was there for a great movie but due to the short running time that was never going to happen and so even tho is a good movie it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from only one source that being the official DC Movies fandom wiki page. I have to say that alot of the images aren't as HD as I thought that they would be if anything I was expecting them to be more HD then what they are but at the same time this film did come out over ten years ago (it came out on February 23rd 2010) and so I can't really fault them for not having that many HD images and so I will say use them if you want to.

My First Impressions Of The Cursed TV Series

Ladies and gents while the rest of the entertainment industry has been shut down Netflix has been everyone's sole way of entertainment and well they are back with yet another new show. This time based around the legend of King Arthur and while the first teaser for the show didn't do anything for me it was the official trailer that made me mark the release date in my calendar and so here are my first impressions of "Cursed" enjoy.

The plot of the episode is a teenager with a mysterious gift is has something tragic happen to her and so sets out to find the wizard Merlin and give him a very familiar sword. Now I know that I made this episode seem boring and dull but that's because I want to you to check out the episode for yourselves , since I do believe that the episode is worth watching just for the story because it's that good and it does a good job of setting up the rest of the show.

Starring in this episode and thus the rest of the series are Katherine Langford as Nimue and Devon Terrell as Arthur. Also starring in this episode and the series is Gustaf Skarsgård as Merlin , Lily Newmark as Pym , Sebastian Armesto as King Uther , Catherine Walker as Lenore and Billy Jenkins as Squirrel. Since there is no complete cast list for this episode I have to assume that some of the people i've credited appear in this episode but I cannot say for sure.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly alot better then what I expected it to be. In that I was straight up expecting the acting in this series to be really freaking and so to see the first episode have actual good acting for me at least is a good thing and it helps that some of the cast members in this episode have some great chemistry with each other which makes me want to see more scenes with them together.

Now then in a strange twist the source material for this show was the 2019 book also called Cursed with both the book and this show being developed at the exact same time. This actually makes the series the quickest adaptation of any book which for me adapting this book so soon is a bold thing because it's not a proven hit and so there was no guarentee that the show would be a hit either and it means that there would need to be a sequel book published within the next few years in order to make sure that the book stays ahead of the show but it does help that the creators behind the book comic book legend Frank Miller and writer Tom Wheeler are also working on this show as both executive producers and show runner (Tom Wheeler) respectively.

Like alot of you i've not only never heard of the book but have also never read the book in fact the only thing I know about the book is that it features drawings by Frank Miller and that's it. As such I cannot say for sure if this episode is true representation of the early chapters of the book and neither can I cay which is better as such I can only judge this episode as it's own thing which while it does have it's flaws which I will be getting into it can be really entertaining to watch which is a good thing.

One of the things that I didn't like about the episode is the fact that it's nearly an hour long with the running time being around fifty five minuets. Which in my opinion is bit long for this episode since it doesn't have alot of story to fit that running time as such we do get alot of scenes with the main character that go nowhere and don't play a part in the overall plot of the episode as such I feel that this episode could have been around forty to forty five minuets in length and you'd loose nothing of importance.

This episode was also alot more violent then what I thought it was going to be which i'm not going to lie I loved that. Simply because if the types of things that we see happen in this episode happened in real life they would be violent and I really do hope that alot of the violent as hell stuff that we see in this episode has a lasting effect on either the series or the main characters just because it would make the show alot more interesting to watch in my opinion.

Let's take a second to talk about the main character of not only this episode but also the show as a whole that being Nimue as played by the stunning Katherine Langford. I actually like the character in this episode to me she's someone who is angry at the world because she wants to be "normal" or what she perceives to be normal and since her whole village knows that she's not that makes her want to last out and anyone over anything which honestly makes her fun to watch and it gives her alot of character which is something alot of YA novels don't do and yes this is based of a YA novel.

I'm not going to say who Nimue becomes in terms of the legend of King Arthur but they do kind of give it away in the opening minuets of this episode. Which is something that I didn't like simply because it now means that you know that something tragic will happen to this character and what there fate is and so I feel if they didn't tell us who this character becomes then it would make the stakes alt more higher in my opinion.

In my opinion this episode is alot better then the premier episode of Warrior Nun simply due to the fact that this episode didn't put me to sleep. On top of the fact that it has good acting and good writing both of which the Warrior Nun premier episode didn't have and as such I would very easily recommend this show over Warrior Nun to anyone because here you'll at least be entertained and you'd get to see characters that you actually like and want to see more of.

Overall this was a very good episode that did alot of the things that all good debut episodes should do in my opinion. That being setting up the characters journey for the rest of the show as well as the story of the show , that being said there are some bad things in this episode some of which i've covered in this review but i'm sure that if you guys see the episode you'll see somethings that I missed and as such this episode gets a solid 7.5 out of 10 from me.

All of the images used in this review were gathered from either the official Netflix fandom wiki page , Google Images or the official Cursed fandom wiki page. I have to say that I honestly wasn't expecting to find as many high definition images for this show as a found and so if you like this show and want to see HD images from the show then id highly recommend using the Cursed fandom wiki page and yes I know that not all images used were from this episode but it was the best that I could do.

 

Sword Art Online Episodes 1-3 Review

Anime fans depending on where your reading this review you'll know that i've been on bit of an anime kick as of late and well I thought that i'd continue this trend. So I thought that i'd pick an anime whose storyline is a little bit easier to pick up on and where apart from the first twp episodes at least the stories are pretty much self contained and so here is my review of the first three episodes of "Sword Art Online" enjoy.

The plot of the first two episodes is Kirito finds himself stuck inside the new game Sword Art Online with thousands if not possibly millions of players and with the only way out being to beat the game and if you die in the game you die in real life. The plot of the third episode however has Kirito dealing with being in a guild and what means in this game. In all honesty I kind of prefer the plot for the first two episodes since it gives you a closer idea of the ideas and themes behind this first arc but with that being said the story in episode is also really nice and the fact that it's a more personal story to me seems about right since we just came of two episodes of setting up Kirito and not really seeing the true threat behind this world.

Starring in these episodes are Bryce Papenbrook as Kirigaya Kazuto (Kirito) and Cassandra Lee Morris as Kirigaya Suguha and Hosaka Tomo aka Argo . Also starring in the episodes are Kirk Thornton (Klein) , Cherami Leigh as Yuuki Asuna (Asuna) , Sean Chiplock as Diavel , Patrick Seitz as Andrew Gilbert Mills (Agil) , Derek Stephen Prince as Kibaou , Lucien Dodge as Keita , Xanthe Huynh as Sachi , Tyler Shamy as Tetsuo , Bobby Thong as Sasamaru and Erik Kimerer as Ducker.

In all honesty the acting in these episodes in my opinion was just OK at best which given how bad this show can get and does get with the second half of it's first season OK is the best that we could ever hope for. That's not to say that the acting is bad because it honestly isn't but the actors aren't really given much to work with in terms of the script and character and so they can only do so much with the stuff that there given.

As you can no doubt work out from the above picture the animation not only for these episodes but also the whole series was done by A-1 Pictures who most notably did work on Fairy Tail. I have to say that while the animation isn't that good in the dialog scenes or the scenes where the characters are just standing still when it comes to the action tho the animation is freaking stunning to look at with each strike and blow leaping of the screen.

Again for those that don't know this show originally started of a series of light novels (don't ask me what a light novel is I don't know) and has since been adapted into several manga as well as an anime series and anime film with a live action American TV series in development. I'm going to be honest I don't think i've read any of the light novels or the manga but I could be wrong tho and as far as I know the manga is still being published to this very day.

When this series first came out it was getting alot of hate from alot of anime fans and quite frankly i don't see why. Since these three episodes have alot of heart and the first arc due to concept has alot of stakes as such in every fight scene no matter how outnumbered our heroes are your always scared that they could die and that's something that you don't get from a lot of anime and I have no idea why that's the case since it's a great way to have dramatic moments but I was cheering this show on from episode 1 and even through the dreadful second arc I was still saying that it's a good show and so i'm not pleased to see that alot of peoples opinion's on the show have changed.

Episode three is in my opinion one of the best episode in this first arc simply because it really hits home how dangerous this world can be. All throughout the first two episodes we are told how dangerous this game is and are barely shown in but in episode three we see an entire guild who are all friends in real life get killed with the group's only female member telling Kirito that there death was not his fault and thanking him for helping them and for being a good friend.

That to me is such a heartbreaking thing to see because we're not seeing a game character talking to another game character we're seeing one human being telling another human being that it's OK and that there death wasn't there fault. That's why episode 3 is so heartbreaking to me and I have to wonder why more anime don't have more scenes like this since it's a really effective way to get people crying since hopefully they'll care for the characters.

Now then this is of course an action series and so that does mean that we have to talk about the action itself. Which I feel is so freaking good because like I said the animation in those sequences is so good every strike and slash leaps of the screen and that to me makes the action more exciting because that's when your going to see alot of the best animation in this series but that's just my opinion tho you guys might think that the animation in the action scenes is pretty freaking bad.

Overall these are a good set of episodes with there biggest issue at least in my opinion is that they don't give us a reason to care for or about Kirito. Which is a shame because the show gets to it's action sequences they can be quite entertaining to see and are in my opinion very well animated but either way i'm glad that I checked these episodes out since they gave me a chance to revisit Sword Art Online as such these episodes get a combined score of 7.5 out of 10.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Sword Art Online fandom wiki page or Google Images. I'll admit I had to idea that the official Sword Art Online fandom had high quality images or even existed for that matter and some of these images are nearly 3 MB each so that goes to tell you how high quality the images are and if you don't use either of these images i'll trap you not inside a game but inside The Last Airbender movie because i'm that cruel and I won't even think of letting you out of the film either.