Viz: The Pieman's Wig Annual 2019 Review

Comics fans i'm British and more importantly i'm from the north of England I mention all of this because not only am I reviewing my first British comic strip and it's one that i'm sure alot of older fans will love so here is my review of Viz: The Pieman's Wig.

I really would like to comment on the plot of the stories except each strip has no real plot since it's a collection of stories from previous issues of the magazine so you can really read any of the stories and have a fair understanding of the characters as well as the world that they live in. I will say that like alot of things in this book the stories are very adult so please do NOT read anything from Viz unless you are over the age of 18.

Due to the adult nature of Viz comics the images I use won't be from the actual book itself and the names of certain strips will have to be edited but I will say that if you love character names with great puns or names that just make you laugh then this is the series for you because there are names like Billy the Fish someone who is half man half fish and is a footballer (soccer player) , Buster Gonad and his Unfeasibly Large T*******s does it really need saying why this is a great name , The Fat S***s these are two women who love s** and food. 

There are honestly more great funny names in the book but these are just the best ones in my opinion and yes I did have to censor some of the names but tho that's just because I want to make sure that alot of people remain happy with the post and it's honestly because alot of the names are quite rude and yes there is a chance that you'll be hearing me say that it's a rude book many times in this review.

One of the things that the magazine became famous for is it's spoof news articles like for example the one seen in the above picture and I will say that like alot of things in this book I was laughing quite a bit of the time while reading some of the headlines unfortunately tho I cannot supply you with any of them mostly because i've forgotten alot of them so you'll just have to trust me on this but tho I will say that you will get the jokes not only in this book but also in the news articles if your British.

Speaking of being British all of the shows characters live in the north of England which is where yours truly is from and if you are from the north then you might pick up on where some of the characters are from because like any good comic strip does it doesn't tell you out right where they are from instead it lets you work out from certain words that the characters use.

As you might have seen by the two actual images from Viz magazine the art style for each strip is exactly the same i'm not even kidding outside of the characters there's nothing to tell each strip apart to me that is both a good and bad thing good because it means that these characters can live in the same universe but bad because there are times were you can't tell where one strip ends and the other begins so having something visually to tell us that were reading another strip would have been nice.

I don't really think I can stress enough how adult this book and the magazine is heck if you want prove of how adult this series is just try and work out some of the words that i've censored that alone should give you some idea of what to expect in this book because yes each of the characters that i've listed does appear in this book at least several times but the jokes in those strips are usually all different which is good.

Now this isn't the first time that Viz have put out an annual infact they do it at least once a year and they pretty much have done since either the late seventies or the early eighties I can't really tell since there's no way of finding out for sure but all of them collect the best bits from previous issues I like to think of them as a more funny version of the collected editions from either Marvel or DC.

Overall it is a really funny and adult book but at the same time I think that only us British would like it since alot of the jokes would fly over everyone else's head and since this is a collection of stories i'm not going to give a rating mostly because I am a fan of Viz but also because I can't think of one.

Doctor Who "Arachnids in the UK" SPOILERISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

Doctor Who fans the show has a habit of making scary episodes and indeed some of the shows best episodes are the ones that have scared us but will this weeks episode be one that puts us behind the sofa or will it be one that has us rolling our eyes well find out in my review of Arachnids in the UK.

The plot of this weeks episode is the team find themselves back in Sheffield only this time there's a problem with the spiders and it's up to our gang of heroes to find out what's going on and put a stop to it. The plot for me was perhaps the weakest aspect of the story just because it's almost very predictable so you know where certain story beats are going before they even happen but tho the bits that you couldn't see coming I thought worked really well.

Guest starring in this episode is Chris Noth as Jack Robertson , Shobna Gulati as Najia Khan and Tanya Fear as Dr Jade McIntyre. Honestly for me some of the guest actors in this episode did a really good job I can't imagine that acting in this episode was easy since the spiders are all CGI so they did a good job in that regard but Tanya was just lacking any emotion for me personally.

Of course also in this episode is Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor , Bradley Walsh as Graham , Tosin Cole as Ryan and Mandip Gill as Yaz. Thank the heavens they gave Yaz something to do in this episode for three straight weeks she's just been in the background doing next to nothing but here she actually plays a part in the main plot of the episode I don't really think that this needs to be said but Bradley is just killing it this series every scene he's in he's great and I cannot wait to see more of him and from here on out there will be mild spoilers so you have been warned.

I saw this on twitter I think it was either the day of the episode or the day before but someone had posted a picture from the IMDB page for this weeks episode which had listed Sharon D. Clarke who of course died in the first episode of this series and I have to say the way she appears in this episode is very much like how Clara appeared in Heaven Sent except this time you actually get to see her face and hear her voice and it fed really well into the grief that Graham is going through.

I don't know if anyone else got these kind of vibes but while watching the episode I was reminded very much of the villains from the Planet Of The Spiders episode from the classic era I was honestly shocked that one of the spiders didn't start talking I really cannot be the only one that was reminded of that episode.

Speaking of story beats that you knew were coming the whole kind of sub plot with the companions choosing to stay with The Doctor we all knew right away that they were all going to stay because they've been featured on pretty much every piece of marketing for this series so there was no way in hell they were going to leave the show after just four episodes if this was say the third episode then I might have been more believable but they chose episode four and this was after all of the trailers have shown them in scenes that weren't in this episode.

This episode was for me at least very creepy and before you say anything I don't actually mind spiders but it's due to the fact that the spiders could come out of know where which to me is a really creepy idea and the fact that they were acting like the giant spider from Return Of The King who was freaking creepy only added to the creep factor to me.

I have to mention the new Time Vortex now i'll admit that I had this spoiled for me on Twitter so I knew it was coming I just didn't know when and when it showed up on screen I was blown away by how stunning it was and how once you go through one hole it then leads to several different holes you can go through and all of the colors just really popped for me that's one of the few things I can say is consistent throughout this series is that everything is visually stunning and it looks like it belongs in a movie.

Overall this episode was never going to be as good as last weeks episode but in terms of scary episodes this one does hold up pretty well it's not the scariest at least in my opinion but then again what might not scare me might scare some of you so this episode gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me.#TeamTardis

My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever Review

MLP fans the show is currently on a brake between seasons so what have Hasbro done to ease us throw the long months well they decided to release a Christmas special in October and so after weeks of waiting here is my review of My Little Pony: Best Gift Ever.

The plot of this special is it's almost Hearth's Warming and the mane six decide to get each other one gift and thus the search is on to find that one special gift. Yes the plot is that of your typical christmas special and it goes exactly how you think it would go but tho there's something about the way this special tells the story that makes it somehow feel fresh maybe it's the short run time or the fact this special has the right amount of humor either way the story is well told.

I don't think it needs saying since all of the actors are returning from the show but starring in this special is Tara Strong as Twilight Sparkle , Ashleigh Ball as Rainbow Dash and Applejack , Andrea Libman as Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy , Tabitha St. Germain as Rarity , Cathy Weseluck as Spike and John de Lancie as Discord. I honestly thought that the acting in this special was better then in most episodes of the recent season and I think that's because in the special the actors were allowed to have a bit more fun with there characters and that to me made this special more enjoyable.

This is a trend i'm noticing more and more every year but why in the heck is a christmas special being released in October it's not even been Halloween yet and there's a christmas special out look I know that the show is made to sell toys but couldn't the special have aired in say early to mid November they could have given us time to celebrate Halloween before we move onto christmas but they don't and I don't know why that is.

I'm not going to list who did the animation for this special since i've done enough MLP reviews for people to know who did the animation but I will say that the animation here was pretty decent nothing really look off to me I will say that due to the special featuring alot of snow some of the backgrounds looked the same there was really nothing to make the backgrounds truly stand out but that's only a minor issue and one you have to expect when watching an animated christmas special.

For those wondering if this show is canon or not i'd say yes just because in the opening musical number you do see some students from Twilight's school and even the school it self gets a passing mention but i'm not going to say that you need to watch this special because honestly I don't think you need to not unless you need to get your pony fix.

If you know the show then you can take a pretty good guess at what this special's lesson is because it's the same as it is in most season premiers and finale's but I will say that the way this special teaches that lesson is really nice and sweet but I can't help but wonder if they couldn't find a different lesson to teach little kids like anything else would have worked but they have to stick to the same old lesson that's been tought time and time again for eight seasons and a movie.

Now I recall seeing the trailer for this special up on Youtube either in the summer or early Autumn so I knew we were getting an early christmas special from quite early on but I had forgotten all about it that was until last night were I had a dream about this special and then I wake up this morning and log on and what do I find up on Kimcartoon this very special that is freaky as hell.

I wasn't expecting this special to be as funny as funny as it was I was legit laughing out loud at few jokes in this special I will admit that not all of the jokes in this special work infact a few of them don't but that's to be expected in an hour long episode but the ones that are funny are in my eyes really good and yes I did get the joke with the three raindeers which was honestly a cute little joke.

The special features two songs written by Micheal Vogel and Daniel Ingram with Vogel also serving as the writer for the episode those songs are "One More Day" and "The True Gift Of Gifting" both of which I thought were really good songs I really cannot think of a song in this show that's bad there are some that aren't that great but none that are flat out bad and out of the two featured in this special my personal favorite was "The True Gift Of Gifting" just due to how personal that song felt to me and it nearly had me chocking up.

Overall this was a decent special nothing really special it doesn't do anything new or different with it's christmas setting but if you have little ones or if you yourself like this franchise then there's no harm in watching this episode for me it gets a 6 out of 10.

  

Doctor Who "Rosa" SPOILERS!!!!!! Review

Doctor Who fans for once i'm really stuck with what to say for an intro if you've seen the episode i'm reviewing then you'll know why and in my opinion we might have just seen not only the best episode of this series but also the best episode of New Who as a whole so here is my review of "Rosa".

The plot of the episode is the Doctor and company find themselves in 1955 Alabama and they meet a very important historical figure. That's really all I can say without giving to much away because you really do need to see this episode there's not really much I can say that won't give away the plot of the episode but I can say that it is worth watching just for the story alone.

Now I was going to start talking about the performances from the leads in next weeks episode but since this episode is so good i'm going to start doing it now in short everyone really does deliver in this episode Jodie I really feel is going to be a highlight in every episode I admit when she was first announced I had my doubts just because I hadn't seen her in anything dramatic but she is really killing it in this series. 

In terms of the companions Bradley is so freaking good he's not just there to do the odd funny line and nothing else he does get alot of emotional scenes and that proves how good he is as an actor Tosin Cole is ok not really anything special for me and the same goes for Mandip Gill who does get alot more to do in this episode but she is yet to have a standout moment for me but who knows maybe she will next week.

In terms of guest cast we have Trevor White as James Blake , Joshua Bowman as Krasko and Vinette Robinson as Rosa Parks and I don't really think that it needs saying but the best performer out of all of the guest cast for me is easily Vinette who just simply a joy to watch in this episode I can only imagine what it was like for all of the cast and crew when it came to filming this episode and i'm glad that everyone put in there best efforts.

There we go you've had your warning from now on we will be going full on spoilers just because there's quite alot I have to talk about and one of them is the villain of the episode Krasko in my opinion not enough was done with him they only have him show up once or twice and have him act menacing and that's not enough for me but given how good the overall episode I can forgive them for giving him that much attention.

Doctor Who has always had a history of including historical figures so the fact that they included one in this series wasn't a big shock to me but it did have me worried that they shy away from certain aspects of what made this person so iconic and within the first three minuets I was so happy because we got a scene of someone acting racist and when that scene ended I clapped because I thought that it's the BBC so they won't show it but no they did and not only that they continued to show how racism was back in those days.

What I didn't really think they would shy away from given that two of the members of the core cast are people or color is other people being racist to them and honestly that made me feel for those characters even more and it's not just a one time thing it's something that happens alot during the episode and it gets to the point where The Doctor is almost fearing for there lives because she knows that if they stay there much longer then they'll most likely end up dead.

Given by what i've just said i'd say that this is perhaps the most scariest episode of this series because the villain isn't an alien life form it's real people yes I know that I said that Krasko was the villain but you could also say that the people are the villains of the episode as well and that to me makes this episode so much more scarier because we as people know how other people might react to certain things so if your in fifties America then chances are some people of color will end up dead for no real reason what so ever.

I really liked that for this episode the team took on almost an Ocean's Eleven type of vibe you see them planning everything that there going to do and you see them getting all of the things that there going to use to get the job done to me just seeing that was really fun and it was important to have that sense of fun given how heavy the subject matter of the episode is.

Overall I cannot say how much of a great episode this really was i'm not going to say it's an important one because I think that sort of thing should be left up to time to decide but it's a must watch for me I don't think this needs saying but this episode is going to get a perfect 10 out of 10 from me it's that good and it's the first Doctor Who episode i've reviewed to get that score.

Titans "Hawk and Dove" Review

Well then DC fans this was something that I never saw coming and even until today never even planned on doing but yes I will now be bringing you weekly reviews of Titans and since this is now weekly my score for episode one is a 7.5 out of 10 and now with that out of the way here is my review of episode two Hawk and Dove.

The plot of episode two is Dick is taking Rachel to stay with some old friends of his in the meanwhile a new threat comes after the duo. This episode was really lacking in terms of plot for me the previous episode did a good job of setting up the story for the season and this episode really could have added to it but no instead they choose to add in a rather weak story and also apart from Dick and Rachel none of the other Titans appear in the episode.

Like I just said there was no Starfire or Beast Boy in this episode at all so instead starring in the episode is Brenton Thwaites as Dick Grayson , Teagan Croft as Rachel Roth , Alan Ritchson as Hank Hall / Hawk , Minka Kelly as Dawn Granger / Dove , Jeff Clarke as Nuclear Dad , Melody Johnson as Nuclear Mom , Jeni Ross as Nuclear Sis and Logan Thompson as Nuclear Biff. The acting from the two main series leads is better in this episode then it was in the first but it's still not as good as it will be come the series finale as for the other actors they do a fine job but tho I was just surprised that Smallville's Aquaman was in this show to really take note of his acting.

For a show based around the Teen Titans there was no other future Titans in the episode and that's something that I can really see hurting the show in the long run since from what we got in episode 1 at least three of the titans will have interesting stories and I was really surprised that they didn't feature Beast boy at all in this episode given how little screen time he had in the previous episode I like many of you thought they were saving him for this weeks episode but nope.

This was the first appearance in live action form for The Nuclear Family and I have to say they came of as really terrifying in this episode and that's something that I prey to god continues throughout the rest of this first season just seeing the family interact before there mission and comparing it to how they are during it makes them seem really creepy I'm not going to give away the end of the episode but the family does something you'll know about if you know the history of Hawk and Dove that's all i'll say.

If you guys follow me on Doctor Who amino you'll know that I do weekly reviews for each new episode and while I have reviewed other shows in the past i've never done a weekly review of a superhero show before so i'm still trying to work out what things I can find in the episode to talk about so don't expect this to be like my Doctor Who reviews were I go into alot of detail because that's a different show and how that shows works allows me to do so but even with this episode i'm struggling to find something to talk about.

What really confused me last week and as well this week is that for some reason the show opens with the intro that plays infront of any DCEU film this show as far as we know is not set in the DCEU so it makes no sense what so ever to have that intro playing in this show why couldn't they have made an intro for all DC Universe shows kind of like how Marvel have one for the MCU and one for Marvel Television come on DC and Warner Bros. get on it.

What was really cool tho is the fight scene that takes place near the start of the episode i'm not going to say who takes part in it because it's something you have to see but if that is the type of fight scenes we can expect to see in this show then i;m happy but I will admit that the choice to have a possibly metal version of "Kids In America" play over it was really freaking weird.

Overall this second episode had a really weak story as well as lacking the other two main characters but it was also alot of fun and it makes interested in where next weeks episode will go so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

   

Why A Tom And Jerry Live Action Movie Is A Bad Idea

Now I consider myself to be a fair man any movie has the chance to be good regardless of who is involved with it creatively but when I found out this morning that that guy behind two Fantastic Four movies was going to direct a live action / CGI hybrid Tom And Jerry movie I knew instantly that this movie was going to suck and here's why.

Their History With Big Screen movies Isn't Good

To most main stream movie goers Tom And Jerry have only had one movie and while that is true they have only had one theatrical movie they have had dozens of straight to DVD movies but tho sadly it's the big screen one we have to talk about and sadly that movie has proven that the characters cannot work on the big screen now the director of this upcoming movie has said that the characters won't talk which is a good sign however given the characters past history with the big screen one cannot help but have a degree of doubt.

Their Latest Movies Aren't So Good

I'm not sure who to blame for this one but the fact remains that the latest Tom And Jerry movies wasn't that good so shouldn't the studio instead be more focused on fixing the brand rather then pushing the duo into another movie that would seem to make sense since the duo did survive for a long time without being in movies.

The Characters Don't Really Lend Themselves To Live Action

I'm not saying that the movie or it's director can't make them work for live action but if you've seen even a few of the shorts then you'll notice that the characters don't really lend themselves well to live action heck even picturing there most well known designs in live action would be enough to give people nightmares and sadly it's those designs that the studio would have to go with because those are the designs that people reconise the most.

There's Not That Much Time Being Given To Get It Right

This point is being aimed more at the studio then it is the actual film but the fact is the studio isn't really giving the film makers enough time to get it right they've announced the film in October and there aiming to film it in 2019 that's not enough time to get things right these are cartoon icons at the earliest you shouldn't be ready to film it until 2020 and the fact that Warner Bros. is getting ready to film it in 2019 says that they care more about money then they do making a good film.

The Duo Don't Work That Well With A Plot

Sadly tho since this is a movie that means there's going to have to be a plot and that's one of the things that Tom And Jerry don't really work well with the first movie found that out the hard way but that movie also had them talking and singing and being friends heck even the original shorts didn't give each short a plot all you got was the set up and then six minuets of violence which is good a short cartoon but not for a movie.

Now i'm not saying that this movie cannot be good far from it infact I hope it's not because Tom And Jerry deserve there time to shine but the fact is live action films based on cartoons havn't been done that well most of them miss what made the original so good in the first place and that's not something I want for this movie but given what the director has said it does look like this could be a decent movie and it does help that the director was a fan of these beloved cartoon icons.

Doctor Who "The Ghost Monument" SPOILERISH!!!!! Review

Welcome back Doctor Who fans boy oh boy what an episode episode 2 i'm going to full on warn you right now there will be spoilers in this review hence why it's in the name of the review there won't be spoilers in every review but anyone who's seen this episode will know that there's a few things in this episode which we have to talk about so here is my review of episode 2 of series 11 The Ghost Monument.

The plot of the episode is The Doctor and friends find themselves stranded on another planet and they have to try and find there way of it. That is honestly the best summery I could come up with and I think for a Doctor Who plot it really does work and there is a few callbacks to last weeks episode which I really enjoyed there's really nothing wrong with the episode at least plot wise.

Of course starring in the episode are Jodie Whittaker , Bradley Walsh , Tosin Cole and Mandip Gill and since we are only a few episodes in i'm not going to comment on there performances just yet but I will say that out of those four the performances were pretty spot on. 

Joining them for this episode was Susan Lynch as Angstrom , Shaun Dooley as Epzo and Art Malik as Ilin and I have to say that for a while I thought that Shaun was the same guy who played Roses dad in the first few series of the reboot sadly he is not but that would have been awesome and it's with these guest actors that I personally felt that the acting was a little bit lacking they weren't bad at all but they could have been better.

There you go you have been warned because for the next few paragraphs there will be spoilers but tho don't worry because this spoiler doesn't spoil the main plot of the episode but i'm in two minds about the new opening title sequence on the one hand it does look really beautiful but on the other hand it just doesn't scream Doctor Who to me if anything it screams something like Game Of Thrones and if I wanted to see something like that I would watch an episode of Game Of Thrones  but I will admit that i liked the new theme it has kind of an 80's Doctor Who style to it.

Now this is something that I was hoping they would do just because I couldn't work out how they would do a full series of Doctor Who without it but they do bring the TARDIS back and it's really relevant to the plot since it's the titular Ghost Monument which I thought was a really clever way of bringing it back to the show and as you can no doubt tell by the picture above we get a new redesign and like the opening credits i'm in two minds about it because it does look really great and it looks like it could suit this doctor but it doesn't look alien to me.

Now if you didn't want anything spoiled then welcome back because from here on out it's going to be spoiler free or as spoiler free as I can make it and I have to say that whoever made the call to film in South Africa then I hope that person got a raise because the country looks really stunning heck it looks so stunning that for a while I thought they went and filmed it in Spain everything about the South African landscape to me perfectly suits an alien planet.

Overall this was a solid episode with one or two issues but it's not a perfect episode by any stretch of the imagination so it gets an 8 out of 10 from me.