New In Review: The Mighty Nein

The success of Critical Role cannot be understated. What started as a simple, inexpensive show to put on Geek & Sundry exploded in popularity and did more to help Dungeons in Dragons in a couple years than all the advertisements from Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro could do in a decade. The cast of veteran nerdy-ass voice actors playing through a simple adventure turned epic fantasy gave them merch, live tours across the globe, their own company, their own foundation even. But no adventure lasts forever and after two years and 115 episodes, the campaign featuring the merry misfits of Vox Machina came to a close. But as is so often the case, one campaign’s conclusion can easily lead to another. And so on January 11th, 2018, a new adventure began.

The Mighty Nein is the latest animated project from Critical Role and adapts their second campaign. It stars Laura Bailey as Jester Lavorre, Taliesin Jaffe as Mollymauk “Molly” Tealeaf, Liam O’ Brien as Caleb Widogast, Marisha Ray as Beauregard “Beau” Lionett, Sam Riegel as Nott the Brave, Travis Willingham as Fjord, with Ashley Johnson as Yasha Nyoordin, and Matthew Mercer as Essek Thelyss and Uk’otoa.

The series also stars Mark Strong as Trent Ikithon, Lucy Liu as the The Bright Queen, Ming-Na Wen as Dairon, Graham McTavish as King Dwendal, Ivanna Sakhno as Astrid, RedChild as Eadwulf, Bennett Abara as Owelia, Rahul Kohli as Verrat and Nathan Fillion as The Gentleman. Guest stars include Alan Cumming, Tim McGraw, Auli’i Cravalho, Anika Noni Rose, JB Blanc, JP Karliak, T’Nia Miller, Jonathan Frakes, Liam McIntyre and Anjelica Huston.

Set in the continent of Wildemount, conflict between the Dwendalian Empire and the Kryn Dynasty has boiled up to the point of war as the theft an ancient relic has struck at the very heart of Kryn culture. As shadowy forces within the Empire seek to use this relic for their own ends and trouble brews among the highest order in the Dynasty, a new group of heroes arise. Or rather a group of barely-functional misfits with more problems than solutions arise. Whether by fate or happenstance, these misfits are thrown together to tackle impossible odds like clearing their names, pulling off heists and getting enough money for booze and along the way are put in the crosshairs of some very dangerous people.

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Season Review: The Witcher Season 4

The Witcher returns for its fourth season and now features Liam Hemsworth in the lead role of Geralt of Rivia. New additions to the cast include Meng’er Zhang, Danny Woodburn, Christelle Elwin, Ben Radcliffe, Fabian McCallum, Aggy K. Adams, Connor Crawford, and Juliette Alexandra. It also features Clive Russell, James Purefoy with Sharlto Copley and Laurence Fishburne.

Set after the end of season three, the story follows Geralt and Jaskier journeying through a warzone to Nilfgaard under the belief of rescuing Ciri. Yennefer leading the remnants of the Sorcerers against Vilgfortz and his conspirators before he destroys them all. And Ciri joining with a band of highwaymen to try and get away from the various factions wanting to use her. Meanwhile, Nilfgaard continues to consolidate their power, the forces of the northern kingdoms struggle to keep them in check and a new threat stalks the Ciri and her band of friends.

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Season Review: Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina

The crew of nerdy-ass voice actors are back for a third season of Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina as the familiar crew of Laura Bailey (Vex), Liam O’Brien (Vax), Travis Willingham (Grog), Marisha Ray (Keyleth), Ashley Johnson (Pike), Sam Riegel (Scanlon), Taliesin Jaffe (Percy), and Matt Mercer return for more adventures in the D&D world of Exandria. Newcomers include Mara Junot as J’mon Sa Ord, Rachel House as Dohla, with Debra Wilson as Pa’tice and Luis Carazo as Zerxus. Returning cast includes Indira Varma, Stephanie Beatriz, Sunil Malhotra, Esme Creed-Miles, Gina Torres, Aisling Franciosi, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Will Friedle, Fred Tatasciore, Troy Baker, Kelly Hu, Cree Summer, and the late Lance Reddick as Thordak.

Continuing from the end of season 2, Vox Machina have secured a great victory in securing three Vestiges of Divergence, great artifacts with the powers of the gods, and have slain Umbrasyl of the Chroma Conclave. But to defeat the rest of the draconic cabal, more Vestiges must be claimed and the quest for them will lead them all over the world, into the depths of hell itself, and in the sights of old enemies and new. And if they’re to stop the Cinder King’s mad plan that would bring the world to ash, an alliance of convenience with a treacherous deceiver may have to be made. And that could cost them more than they can imagine…

Warning: Spoilers may follow.

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Season Review: The Witcher Season 3

The Witcher returns for its third season and sees the return of Henry Cavill as Geralt, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer, Freya Allan Cirilla and Joey Batey as Jaskier. It also features MyAnna Buring, Mimi Ndiweni, Eamon Farren, Anna Shaffer, Royce Pierreson, Ed Birch, Hugh Skinner, Simson, Tom Canton, Sam Woolf, Aisha Fabienne Ross, Mahesh Jadu, Wilson Mbomio, Jeremy Crawford with Graham McTavish, Bart Edwards and Lars Mikkelsen.

Picking up after the second season, the combined forces of Geralt and Yennefer having managed to keep their ward Ciri from the Deathless Mother and the Wild Hunt. Now acting as a slightly dysfunctional but still close family unit, the three of them train, learn and try to stay ahead of those hunting Ciri. Easier said than done as kingdoms of the North, the Brotherhood of Sorcerers and the Nilfgaard-Elvish alliance all want her for their own ends.

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Season Review: The Witcher Blood Origin

The Witcher: Blood Origin is limited-series from Netflix and a prequel to The Witcher. Created by Declan de Barra and Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, stars Sophia Brown, Laurence O’Fuarain, Huw Novelli, Lizzie Annis, Zach Wyatt, Francesca Mills, Jacob Collins-Levy, Mirren Mack, Lenny Henry, with Joey Batey, Minnie Driver and Michelle Yeoh.

Framed as a story being told to the main series’ Jaskier, the story is set over a thousand years before the events of The Witcher, in the age before the arrival of humans during the waning days of the elf empire. A bloody coup forces a band of unlikely heroes to band together and both avenge their fallen friends and family and stop the villains’ machinations before it threatens their entire world.

Warning: Spoilers are to follow.

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Season Review: House of the Dragon

Game of Thrones holds an interesting place in television history. It wasn’t the first fantasy epic to premiere on the small screen, it wasn’t the first adaptation that had to wing it as it ran out of material from the series it was based on. And it certainly wasn’t the first television series to lose all good faith from the audience as a combination of poor creative choices squandered all of its potential and retroactively ruined all that was good in its earlier seasons. It’s just the most infamous example in recent history. The final season became so taboo that even the numerous planned spin-offs seemed dead in the water as faith in the world of Westeros evaporated.

So the fact that House of the Dragon was greenlit at all is quite the surprise.

House of the Dragon is the latest political fantasy drama from HBO and adapted from George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. Set almost two hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones it details the events leading up a time of political strife and eventual civil war within the Targaryen Dynasty known as “the Dance of the Dragons.”

It stars Paddy Considine King Viserys, Matt Smith as Prince Daemon, Emma D’Arcy and Milly Alcock as Rhaenyra, Olivia Cooke and Emily Carey as Alicent Hightower, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Eve Best as Rhaenys, Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole, Theo Nate and John Macmillan as Laenor, Nova Foueillis-Mosé, Savannah Steyn and Nanna Blondell as Laena, Ty Tennant and Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon II, Evie Allen and Phia Saban as Helaena, Leo Ashton and Ewan Mitchell as Aemond, Leo Hart and Harry Collett as Jacaerys, Harvey Sadler and Elliot Grihault as Lucerys.

It also features Sian Brooke, Bethany Antonia, Shani Smethurst, Phoebe Campbell, Eva Ossei-Gerning, Gavin Spokes, Bill Paterson, David Horovitch, Kurt Egyiawan, Matthew Needham and Graham McTavish.

Warning: Spoilers are to follow.

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Season Review: The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power

Like so many others before me, J. R. R. Tolkien’s works were my introduction to high fantasy. I was enthralled when I first read The Hobbit back in the fourth grade and it wouldn’t be long before Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy would capture my imagination and not let go.

And so I’d like to bring up one of my favorite moments from the second movie, The Two Towers. During the Battle of Helm’s Deep, not long after the walls are breached and our heroes are ordered to fall back for safety. The elf Haldir is clipped by an uruk blade and for a brief moment is knocked out of his combat mindset and looks to see all of the other elves that had joined him in battle, all dead. The look of horror and disbelief at seeing his kin and comrades-in-arms slain on the battlefield is haunting and ultimately fatal for him as he’s soon struck down.

The thing is, none of this was in the books. No Lórien elves come to honor their alliance with men, no moment of tragedy as they gave their lives for a slim chance of victory, no Aragorn getting only a moment to mourn before he furiously throws himself at the enemy to avenge his fallen friend. And yet, I still love this scene. Not just because Aragorn socking a six-foot-something monster in the face was undoubtedly cool but because the preceding moment stays true to Tolkien’s writing of how terrible and grim war is, and how heartbreaking it is lose someone close even in the battle for life and freedom. It’s fan-created, but it honors the spirit of the story.

But let’s table that for later…

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the latest series from Amazon Prime Video and created by Patrick McKay and John D. Payne. It stars Morfydd Clark, Charlie Vickers, Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur, Ismael Cruz Córdova, Nazanin Boniadi, Tyroe Muhafidin, Lloyd Owen, Maxim Baldry, Ema Horvath, Markella Kavenagh, Megan Richards, Daniel Weyman, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and Trystan Gravelle.

The series acts as prequel to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings being set during the Second Age, before the crafting of the Rings of Power and the fall of Sauron during the War of the Last Alliance. It follows the personal quests of elves, men, proto hobbits and mysterious entities all over Middle-earth.

But how is it?

Fair warning, Spoilers are to follow.

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Season Review: The Sandman

The Sandman is the latest graphic novel adaptation from Netflix and is based on the DC/Vertigo comic of the same name by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg. It stars Tom Sturridge as Morpheus, a.k.a. Dream of the Endless, Kirby Howell-Baptiste as his sister Death, Mason Alexander Park and Donna Preston as Desire and Despair. It also features Kyo Ra and Eddie Karanja as Rose and Jed Walker, Razane Jammal as Lyta Hall, Sandra James-Young as Unity Kincaid, Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer, Boyd Holbrook as the Corinthian, David Thewlis as John Dee, Jenna Coleman as Johanna Constantine, Vivienne Acheampong as Lucienne the Librarian, Sanjeev Bhaskar and Asim Chaudhry as Cain and Abel, Ferdinand Kingsley as Hob Gadling, Stephen Fry as Gilbert, Patton Oswalt as Matthew the Raven, Mark Hamill as Mervyn Pumpkinhead and Charles Dance as Sir Roderick Burgess.

Acting as an amalgamation of the first two volumes Preludes and Nocturnes and The Doll’s House; after being held captive by a cult for over a century, Morpheus of the Endless finds his domain The Dreaming in complete disarray with dreams and nightmares let loose on the human world. Now he must rebuild his world, reclaim his sacred treasures, bring back his lost subjects to his realm. But the journey is long and difficult as he must contend with the forces of Hell, the machinations of his siblings, the victims and abusers of his lost powers, a phenomenon that threatens the very barrier of the worlds and his own personal demons.

Ever since the graphic novel came out in the late 80’s there has been some attempt to adapt it for live-action. But the dark, moody, and introspective comic isn’t exactly something that transitions well to the big screen as seen in the failed attempt to make it into a traditional superhero movie back in 2013.

So how did Netflix do?

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Season Review: The Witcher Season 2

The Witcher season 2 is a continuation of the Netflix dark fantasy epic and stars Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Anya Chalotra as Yennefer the sorceress, Freya Allan as Princess Cirilla and Joey Batey as Jaskier the bard. It also stars MyAnna Buring, Mimi Ndiweni, Eamon Farren, Anna Shaffer, Royce Pierreson, Mecia Simson, Tom Canton, Wilson Mbomio with Kim Bodnia and Lars Mikkelsen.

Previously, I wrote that The Witcher was certainly ambitious and it was clear that the cast and crew were working to make something akin to HBO’s Game of Thrones. But the first season was hampered by the anachronistic storytelling for each episode and a disconnect between the various characters because of that. Has that been fixed for Season 2? Well….

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New In Review: Dragon’s Dogma

Dragon’s Dogma is the newest original anime from Netflix and is based on the Capcom game of the same name. It was directed by Shinya Sugai and its English dub features Greg Chun, Erica Mendez, Christina Vee with David Lodge returning to voice the dragon he played in the game.

The story follows a simple villager Ethan (Greg Chun) embarking on a quest to slay the dragon that destroyed his home, murdered his wife and unborn child and took his heart, now an Arisen he’s aided by a mysterious magical woman known as a Pawn (Erica Mendez) he travels the land slaying other monstrosities until he can reach his goal and enact his vengeance.

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