{TV Series Review} Parks and Recreation

 

So, like many of you, I was looking for a show to binge-watch on Netflix. I decided to give Parks and Recreation (aka Parks and Rec) a chance. Before I get into my thoughts, let me give you some deets about the show ... just in case you're interested.

According to Wikipedia

Genre: Sitcom, Mockumentary, and Political Satire

Created by: Greg Daniels and Michael Schur

Run Time: April 2009 until February 2015

Starred: Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, Chris Pratt, Nick Offerman, Rob Lowe, Aubrey Plaza, and more

Okay, let's talk. 

The show centered around the Parks and Recreation department of fictional town Pawnee, Indiana. The vibe of the show reminded me of The Office with the characters talking to someone off camera during the course of the day. I half expected the series finale to reveal that a documentary was being recorded to preserve some history of Pawnee ... sounds like something Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) would've been excited to make happen. Speaking of Leslie, I sometimes found her to be a little too much. She couldn't accept when people didn't see things her way and practically bullied them until they conceded. I wanted to slap her. On the other hand, she remembered everyone's birthdays, cheered their accomplishments, and celebrated with everyone's successes. THAT Leslie Knope I could've been friends with.

My two favorite characters on the show, hands down, were April Ludgate (played by Aubrey Plaza) and Ron Swanson (played by Nick Offerman). April had RBF to the max, she didn't like showing or receiving affection, and she leaned towards the dark side. I related to her in so many ways. Ron Swanson was SERIOUS about maintaining his privacy. He was a meat-eater and loved breakfast food. I related to him, too. I love, and am drawn to, people with a dry sense of humor. April and Ron had that. It was amazing and I loved it.

It was weird to see Chris Pratt in Parks and Rec and try to reconcile that with his role as Peter Quill, the Star-Lord and a Guardian of the Galaxy. It's like I was watching a totally different person ... and I was there for it. The differences in Chris for each of those roles just goes to show how great of an actor he is and how committed he is in portraying whatever character he's currently acting.

There's a lot that can be said about Parks and Rec. I don't want to make this post too long so I'll just say this ... Despite a few annoyances, I enjoyed the show. The short episodes made it easily binge-worthy. Parks and Rec was funny, smart, sweet, corny, weird, quirky, annoying, loud, quiet, smooth ... everything you'd ever want in a show. I now understand the hype. Great job, Greg and Michael.

{TV Series Review} American Horror Story: Coven, Season 3 Episode 2: "Boy Parts"

Okay, peeps, here's a quick recap before I get into this week's episodic review (taken from Wikipedia):

In the 1830s, Delphine LaLaurie (Kathy Bates) struggles to maintain her place in society, while secretly holding her slaves as prisoners in the attic. In present day, Cordelia Foxx (Sarah Paulson) operates a private school to teach young witches how to survive in the modern world. Cordelia's mother, Fiona Goode (Jessica Lange), arrives to ensure their protection.

Now, for this week's review:

This show is getting better and better by the week. Granted, it's only two weeks in but I can tell this may top the first season in awesomeness.

Zoe and Madison go to the local morgue where Kyle (Zoe's love interest and Madison's avenger of justice) is laying on a table in pieces from the bus crash caused by Madison that killed him and most of his frat brothers. Madison stole a Resurrection spell from Cordelia and is going to use it to bring Kyle back to life as repayment for Zoe killing the main frat boy who started the gang rape on Madison. First, though, they find the best boy parts from all the dismembered frat boys and sew them together with Kyle's head at the top. The Resurrection spell works, but not in a way Zoe thought it would. Fortunately, one of the witches who died in the last century has awakened and "fixes" Kyle with her power of resurgence.

Cordelia's past, at least I think it was her past, comes to the viewers in glimpses in this episode. We saw how she tried to have a baby with her husband using black magic. It didn't show the results of that unholy union, but I think we'll see how it turned out in the next episode or two.

We also saw how Queenie came to be at the witches school. She was the manager of a chicken restaurant (think of it as something similar to Church's Chicken or KFC). There was a patron who was pissed because he only had seven pieces of chicken in what was supposed to be an eight-piece bucket. Queenie packed the bucket herself and was adamant that she put eight pieces in the bucket. She then proceeded to tell him that she knew he ate the eighth piece and was just trying to get an extra piece of chicken for free. The patron then proceeds to insult Queenie and asking for the manager. Queenie tells him she is the manager and then proceeds to stick her arm into a fryer of hot grease. As the human voodoo doll, Queenie sticking her arm in the grease caused the same arm on the patron to feel as if it had hot grease poured on it causing it to bubble up with burns. The story made the papers which allowed Cordelia to find Queenie and bring her to New Orleans.

I think my favorite character, though, is Fiona played by Jessica Lange. Ms. Lange has now played in all three American Horror Story seasons and this role is by far her best. She is such a bad ass in this season that I love her. She makes Fiona's powers seem effortless, which I guess she needs to since Fiona is the Supreme witch. Fiona is able to convince the detectives that Zoe and Madison has no connection to the frat boys' deaths and to turn over all evidence they have against Zoe and Madison to her. She also asserts her dominance over Madame LaLaurie and initiates contact with Marie Laveau. I sense a clash of two great actresses coming together this season between Jessica Lange and Angela Bassett and I am excited! I cannot wait for next week's episode!!!

{TV Series Review} Witches of East End, Season 1 Episode 2: "Marilyn Fenwick, R.I.P."

Before I (Mandy) get into the review of this week's episode, let's do a quick recap:

Joanna Beauchamp (lady in the middle of the picture above): A witch, the mother of Freya and Ingrid, and sister to Wendy. She made the decision to hide Freya's and Ingrid's witchy talents from them hoping to give them a longer lifespan this time around. What she doesn't know is that there is a shifter who looks just like her going around killing people and letting trapped people loose to reign terror on the family. At the end of the first episode, Joanna has to tell Ingrid that they're all witches and then the police come to haul her off to jail for the murders she supposedly committed.

Ingrid Beauchamp (lady to the right of Joanna): The oldest daughter of Joanna Beauchamp's. Ingrid is an introvert and shy, a perfect personality for the town's librarian. Adam, the local law enforcement officer, is interested in Ingrid romantically, but she mistakenly thought he just wanted to be friends. She's beginning to understand that he was serious. Before Joanna tells her that she's a witch, Ingrid begins to suspect as much when a fertility spell she performs over a close friend works.

Freya Beauchamp (lady to the left of Joanna): The youngest daughter of Joanna Beauchamp's. Freya is engaged to Dash (gentleman to the left of her). The night before her engagement party, Freya has a dream about a guy she cannot stay away from. At the engagement party, the dream-man walks in and Freya finds out later that her dream-man is Dash's younger brother Killian (gentleman to the right of Ingrid). A few nights later as Freya's working, Killian comes in and talks her into agreeing to be friends. As she's in the bathroom calming down her emotions, a guy walks in and makes Freya chant a spell that draws both of them into a picture where, if he's able to kill her, she'll die forever and not come back in another life. What Freya doesn't remember is that this guy is seeking retaliation for Freya locking him into a desert painting years ago.

And now for this week's episodic review ...

Freya was able to leave the painting before she caught fire inside of the picture. While we're talking about this part of the episode, let me just say that the whole hot girl breathy hyperventilating sounds while trying to get out of a tough situation has been done ... and Jenna Dewan-Tatum doing this while trying to escape her apparently loose wrist binds was over-the-top. I am not a fan of any overacting. Anyhow, her captor and ex-boyfriend from a former life also escaped the painting. Eventually he's found and dealt with.

Freya learns in this episode that she's a witch, too. Ingrid, surprisingly, seems more acceptable of this fact than Freya, which I'm a little confused about because Freya's the one who always thought she was psychic. Based on that, I would have thought that Freya would be more accepting, and excited, about being a witch.

The action was a little more spread out in this episode and didn't move quite as fast as the first one, which I'm grateful for. We, the viewers, are getting a chance to actually learn and know the characters. Aside from Jenna's overacting at the beginning of this episode, I did enjoy this episode and am eagerly anticipating next week's episode, "Today I am a Witch."

{TV Series Review} American Horror Story: Coven, S3E1: "Bitchcraft"

Mandy's Summary/Review:

The very first episode of this much-anticipated season begins in 1834 New Orleans. Madame Delphine LaLaurie, played by Kathy Bates, is hosting a party to introduce her daughters to the eligible men of the city. Later that night, as Madame LaLaurie is rubbing blood on her face to tighten her skin trying to help make her look younger, one of her daughters is "caught" with a slave. Madame LaLaurie tells her daughter she will tell everyone the slave forced her to have sex, which allows Madame LaLaurie to exact her punishment towards the slave as she sees fit. (Side note: This woman is crazy with a capital CRAY-CRAY!) She winds up having the slave chained up in the attic at the end of a long line of caged slaves. She wants him chained up because, get this, she has a severed bull's head that she has put over the slave's head. Madame LaLaurie now has a real-life version of her favorited Greek mythological character: the Minotaur. (I told you this woman is crazy.)

As Madame LaLaurie begins to run out of the blood she rubs on her face, she has her daughter cut open the Minotaur and extract his pancreas. After all, that is the body organ needed to make the best poultice for rejuvenation. Well, honey, the mighty, high Voodoo priestess Marie Lavaeu, played by Angela Bassett, finds out that her lover is chained up wearing a bull's head in Madame LaLaurie's attic and she is not happy. She tricks Madame LaLaurie into drinking a potion saying that it would cure LaLaurie's husband's infidelity. Never trust a Voodoo priestess, especially if you've pissed them off! After drinking the potion, Madame LaLaurie appears to be dead.

Now, switch to present-day ...

Zoe Benson, played by Taissa Farmiga, is sneaking her boyfriend into the house while her parents are out. They wind up having sex. As Zoe's boyfriend takes her virginity, his nose begins to bleed and, almost instantly, begins seizing. His death is ruled to be caused by a brain aneurysm. After the funeral, Zoe's mother tells her she's a witch. Apparently, the women in this family have inherited the ability to kill men with sex. To protect her, Zoe's mother sends her to New Orleans to Miss Robichaux's Academy; a place where witches are sent to hone their skill.

Zoe meets three other witches there along with the Academy's headmistress Cordelia Foxx, played by Sarah Paulson. The first witch, Madison Montgomery (played by Emma Roberts), is a Hollywood actress with the power of telekinesis. The second, Queenie (played by Gabourey Sidibe, who I'm not really a fan of), is a human voodoo doll. She can stab herself while looking at her enemy and her enemy will feel the pain instead of her. Pretty nifty, if you ask me. Joan Ramsey, played by Patti LuPone, is the third witch Zoe meets. Joan is clairvoyant.

Her first night there, Zoe and Madison go to a frat party. As Madison goes off to find some fun, Kyle Spencer (played by Evan Peters) eyes Zoe and is drawn to her. I felt like I was seeing Tate and Violet coming together again (same two actors played boyfriend/girlfriend in American Horror Story: Murder House). As much as Zoe likes Kyle she tells him it would never work between them. He seems okay with that and helps her look for Madison so they can go. Kyle walks in on a drugged Madison being gang-banged and videoed by his frat brothers. Kyle chases them out of the room and onto the frat bus they arrived in. One of his frat brothers knocks him out and tells the driver to go away. Zoe promises Madison that she's not going to let them get away with this and chases after Kyle to help him punish the guys. She winds up being too late and runs after the bus as it's driving away. Madison staggers up and uses her telekinesis to flip the bus and set it on fire. The majority of the frat guys die, including Kyle. Zoe finds out the main guy who drugged Madison's drink is still alive, but in a coma, in the hospital. She goes into his room to use her "womanly wiles" to kill him for what he's done.

The next day Fiona Goode, known as the Supreme witch of her generation and played by Jessica Lange, shows up at the Academy, much to the disappointment of her daughter Cordelia. Fiona takes the girls out for a walk in New Orleans. Along the way, Joan's clairvoyance kicks in and she walks in a tour of Madame LaLaurie's house. The other witches turn back, find her, and join her on the tour. They find out from the tour guide that Madame LaLaurie's body was never found after her run-in with Marie Lavaue. Joan's clairvoyance once again kicks in and she knows LaLaurie's body is under a brick walkway on the property. Later that night Fiona enchants two men to dig up Madame LaLaurie's body ... WHO IS STILL ALIVE!!!! Fiona invites Delphine into the house for a drink and to find out how she's still alive after all these years.

Oh my gosh, I loved the first episode and cannot wait to watch next week's. This season has started off so much better than American Horror Story: Asylum. If you have never watched an episode of American Horror Story, my recommendation would be to watch the whole season of American Horror Story: Murder House, skip American Horror Story: Asylum, and catch next week's episode of American Horror Story: Coven on FX, which I'm sure will re-run this first episode before the second one airs. This season already has crazy-spooky-weird-scary-awesomeness written all over it!

If I had a rating system, I'd give this five stars twice over.

{Post} American Horror Story, FX Television Series

American Horror Story has become one of my favorite television series. The stories are twisted and well worth watching, especially if you are a fan of the paranormal and weird. This television series was created and produced by Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck and Glee) and Brad Falchuk (Nip/Tuck and Glee). Each season is conceived as a self-contained miniseries, following a disparate set of characters and settings, and a storyline with its own "beginning, middle, and end."

The first season, American Horror Story: Murder House (originally titled as simply American Horror Story), takes place in 2011 and centers on the Harmon family: Dr. Benjamin "Ben" Harmon (played by Dylan McDermott), Vivien Harmon (played by Connie Britton) and their daughter Violet (played by Taissa Farmiga), who move from Boston to Los Angeles after Vivien has a stillbirth and Ben has an affair with Hayden, one of his students. They move into a restored mansion, unaware that the home is haunted by its former inhabitants.

The second season, American Horror Story: Asylum, begins in Massachusetts in 1964 at the Briarcliff Mental Institution, following the stories of the patients, doctors and nuns who occupy it, and intercuts with events in the past and present. Sister Jude (played by Jessica Lange) and Sister Mary Eunice (played by Lily Rabe) maintain the institution that was founded by Monsignor Timothy Howard to treat and house the criminally insane. Psychiatrist Dr. Oliver Thredson (played by Zachary Quinto) and scientist Dr. Arthur Arden treat the patients within the facility. The patients, many of whom claim to unjustly institutionalized, include lesbian journalist Lana Winters (played by Sarah Paulson), accused serial killer Kit Walker (played by Evan Peters), and alleged murderer Grace Bertrand.

American Horror Story: Coven is the third season, which begins tonight at 10 p.m. on FX!!! I cannot tell you how excited I am for this to begin. I will be posting a review of my thoughts of the first episode tomorrow.

Plot:

It's been over 300 years since the Salem witch trials. Zoe (played by Taissa Farmiga) is shattered to discover she possesses a strange genetic affliction tracing back to the dark days of Salem. She is then whisked  away to Miss Robichaux's Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies, a mysterious school in New Orleans devoted to safeguarding the few remaining descendants who share this unique bloodline, there to teach protection to the young. Those who remain are almost extinct and in danger again. The long-absent Supreme, Fiona (played by Jessica Lange) arrives to also protect the coven and their secrets. Fiona's daughter, Cordelia (played by Sarah Paulson) is a teacher at the school. The themes include witches, witch hunts, incest, minorities, slavery, mothers and daughters, and witchcraft versus voodoo. This season will be set in modern day and the 1830s.

{TV Series Review} Witches of East End, Season 1 Episode 1: "Pilot"

Based on the novel by Melissa de la Cruz

Series Written By: Maggie Friedman

Starring: Julia Ormond, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, and Rachel Boston

Executive Producers: Maggie Friedman, Jonathan Kaplan, Erwin Stoff, Josh Reims

Production Companies: 3 Arts Entertainment & Fox 21

Channel: Lifetime

Mandy's Summary/Review:

The series/season premiere opens on Freya and Dash's engagement party. Freya is running late, as per usual, partly due to trying to find the right outfit and partly due to her having a conversation with her older sister, Ingrid. Freya's telling Ingrid about a dream she had of the perfect man, a soul mate. Ingrid chalks up Freya's dream to pre-wedding jitters instead of a premonition.

At the engagement party, Freya and Dash's mother are having a discussion. Dash's mother does the societal nice/nasty speech basically telling Freya she's not good enough for Dash, but that she would love to teach Freya all about how to dress, manners, and becoming the perfect lady. Freya, rightfully so, gets a little pissed about how Dash's mother is speaking to her and wishes for her to choke on an appetizer she recently stuck in her mouth ... and it happens. As Freya finds Ingrid to tell her about her wish coming true, she is stopped mid-sentence by her dream-man walking through the front door. Freya is introduced to her dream-man later by Dash. The dream-man turns out to be Dash's younger brother, Killian.

During the party Ingrid runs into Adam, a local law enforcement officer. While they do the small-talk thing, Adam admits he was serious about his dinner-date invitation he extended to Ingrid a few months back. Ingrid is stunned because she thought that he wasn't serious. (I wasn't expecting this part to happen so soon in the television series. It was near the end of the first book when Adam and Ingrid finally came around to this conversation.) Adam receives a phone call as he's talking to Ingrid and has to leave because of a murder that's taken place in a local park. The man and wife last spoke with (whom they thought to be) Joanna Beauchamp, Freya and Ingrid's mother, which the wife tells Adam upon awakening from her unconsciousness leading to Joanna's arrest at the end of the premiere.

Unlike the book, Freya and Ingrid are unaware of their powers when the premiere began. Joanna decided that during this life she would keep their magical abilities a secret from her daughters for as long as she could. Joanna has given birth to both girls twelve times over the centuries. Each time the girls knew about and grew their magical abilities resulting in their premature deaths before the age of 30. Joanna thought that maybe this time she could change fate if she could keep that part of their psyche from them. However, towards the end of the premiere, fate intervenes and Joanna has no choice but to tell Ingrid that she's a witch ... which Ingrid began to suspect when she chanted a fertility spell over one of her friends and the friend told her the next day she was pregnant.

The beginning of this series was good. It had to introduce a lot of different characters right off the bat which made it feel a bit rushed. I'm hoping that now the main characters are introduced the storyline will slow down just a tad so the viewers can enjoy the dynamics of the relationships being formed not just among the characters but among the actors and actresses as well. I'm definitely intrigued and am already anticipating the next episode (next Sunday, 10/13, at 10 p.m. EST on Lifetime).