Marvel Signs A Multi-Show Deal with Netflix

In the "pinch me, this can't be real" category, Disney, on behalf of Marvel, has inked a deal to develop individual shows centered around Jessica Jones, Daredevil, and Heroes for Hire. The plan is to lead up to a super-team program featuring The Defenders.

Marvel Studios' Netflix arrangement comes on the heels of Agents of SHIELD, a program that has seen a decline in viewership each passing week. Plenty of online speculation has saddled the blame with the Disney-owned ABC. The shift from regular broadcast television to Netflix (responsible for edgier shows like Orange is theNew Black and House of Cards) might free up the "House of Ideas" a bit. Allowing them to push the envelope creatively.

For the full story...clickity-click: http://comicsbeat.com/marvelnetflix-to-launch-daredevil-jessica-jones-power-man-and-iron-fist-shows/

Read More

Sorry for the inconvenience but ACTION A GO GO is going through some pain right now....

Hi All. I'm not going to lie. Action A Go Go is going through some pain right now. We are transitioning to a new platform. In the meantime links aren't working. Pages might not load. And  we know what you are saying.

And you're right. And I (laughably) thought this was going to be a lot easier and faster. But then I saw all the work that needs to go into this, and this was the face I made.

So now, we are doing a lot of this.

So that we can get back to this

Having said all this...I'm sorry. But trust me, we are going to be up to snuff soon. And we will be bigger, badder, and better than ever!

Thank you for your continued visits and support. You are awesome, and we do it all for you.

Rock On.





Read More

Tunesday: Janelle Monae Gets My Vote for James Bond 24

Birthed from the literature of Octavia Butler and the cosmic slop of Funkadelic (to name just a few), "Afrofuturism" has matured into a full-fledged cultural movement in the 21st century. It's purpose: To invite African-American expressionism into the world of science-fiction through music, novels, comics, and various other media.

Basically...it's a thing.

A self-described "Afrofuturist," songstress Janelle Monae has been leading the current charge of this movement by taking soul, rap, and R&B into experimental territory. Her albums -- Metropolis: Suite I, The ArchAndroid, and The Electric Lady -- dare to be different by combining musical influences with overt filmic nods. Monae's discography would fit comfortably inside cinematic classics such as of Metropolis, Wizard of Oz, and Dr. No.

In the following embeds, you'll notice a bold orchestral flare. For me, the sweeping epic-ness that has come to define Monae's musical style is an obvious contender for Daniel Craig's next opening title sequence. 

What say you?

Janelle Monae BaBopByeYa from Eden Diodati on Vimeo.

Read More

Boardwalk Empire 4x09: Marriage and Hunting (Review)

The title of an episode of a television series is supposed to be indicative of what a viewer can expect in terms of characterizations and action. It also expresses the idea of the writer(s) in a brief fashion. And while a connubial theme was prevalent in nearly every corner in Sunday's episode of Boardwalk Empire, I believe the title was misleading. Entitling the episode "Marriage and Hunting" was inaccurate: It should've been called "Van Alden".


RECAP: The episode starts with Chicago 'florist' George Mueller (b/k/a Nelson Van Alden, portrayed by Michael Shannon) trying to remedy the plumbing problems in his home. His wife Sigrid (played by Christianne Seidel) cradles their crying son which only adds to her husband's stress. They don't have the money to fix the plumbing, but Sigrid lets him know that she knows about his side-jobs for Irish mobster Dean O'Bannion (Arron Shiver). She basically tells George that "if he paid you, we'd 
have no problems". We'll get back to that storyline soon. Meanwhile...


Nucky Thompson wants to mediate Chalky White's escalating conflict with Dr. Narcisse. He seems to know about Chalky's affair with Daughter Maitland. When Nucky tells him, in so few words, to not @#$% where you eat, Chalky seems to flare up and interprets Nucky's words as down-talking, as if he's not being talked to as an equal despite his clout with business and the community (waning as it is, though). Nucky later meets with his brother Eli to discuss the best possible course of action in regards to the White/Narcisse conflict. Nucky informs Eli that Chalky killed Mr. Purnsley in last week's episode. Shortly, the conversation enters the realm of family. When asked about Willie Thompson, Eli claims that everyone in his household is thrilled that he's home. It's clear from his facial expression that Agent Knox's ultimatum weighs heavily on his mind.

Arnold Rothstein appears to be going broke, either from gambling or bad investments (the Stock Market crash of 1929 is close). In desperation, he attempts to sell a life insurance policy on bootlegger Mickey Doyle to Nucky. Basically, Arnie wants Mickey killed, with Nucky being the beneficiary of the policy. Arnie wants 20%, to which Nucky agrees.

In Chalky's household, marital discord is in the air. His wife seems to sense his infidelities, given her cold and taciturn attitude to her husband. They're preparing a dinner party, but Mr. White has his head elsewhere. That somewhere is with Daughter, who is being questioned by Narcisse for her actions in the end of last week's episode. She lies, he knows it and seems to be tearfully hurt. He beats her so badly that she's bedridden with a near-unrecognizable face (Told ya last week that there'd be consequences). Chalky gets word of this and leaves his home in the middle of the party. He visits Daughter to find out what happened and goes to confront Narcisse (who earlier is attempting to make a heroin deal with NYC mobster Joe Masseria). He finds him at the club in the Whites-Only section with Nucky. He speaks of his revulsion for the for the minstrel show stage comedy and how Chalky's "days are numbered". On cue, Chalky shows up demands that Narcisse try to beat him as well. Nucky manages to talk him out of his aggression, but he still leaves in a huff-n-puff. Chalky then goes back to comfort Daughter when his own daughter finds him. She rightly suspects that her father is having an affair, she semi-inquires but then walks away in exasperation.

Gillian Darmody's storyline has reached Act II at this point. On the Boardwalk, she tells Roy Phillips about her early start as a prostitute, how she ended up with the Commodore (basically, the biggest pimp in AC at the time) and the birth of her and the Commodore's son, Jimmy Darmody. She tells Roy about Jimmy's death, but lies about what actually happened. She tells him a doctored version of what we saw in the last season, in which she administered a heroin overdose to a young man who strongly resembled her son. Later, she's in court trying to regain custody of her grandson, Tommy, from Julia and Paul Sagorsky. When Richard Harrow enters the courtroom to support Julia and Paul, his presence clearly unnerves Gillian. Julia gives her own testimony, her father supports her, but the judge implies that she may not gain custody since she is neither a blood-relative to Tommy, nor is she married. At their household, Julia asks Richard about his conversations with her father. Then she harks back to earlier in court. Out of the blue, she asks Richard to marry her. He accepts her proposal and they later go to make it legit ("It's just a hunting license, right?", he says). After officially getting eloped, Richard makes his way to Nucky and Eli Thompson, asking if he could have a job. Elsewhere, Gillian may be relapsing into heroin when she walks in on Roy having a mysterious telephone conversation. They way his voice changes when Gillian walks in the room, it's clear he's talking to someone he doesn't want her to know about. 

At the end of the episode, Nucky calls Sally Wheet in Florida to talk about the weather (seems like a metaphor for phone sex). He wants someone to connect with obviously. When it's over, she goes back to bed. However, she keeps the light on and arms herself with a shotgun and a lit cigarette.

But, it's not over. Van Alden's part is crucial to the episode this week. When he arrives at work, O'Bannion questions his loyalty. He asks him about "the day you were with the Capones". He then gives him a delivery to make. In the window of O'Bannion's floral shop, we see a badly-scarred man looking on. At the home of the Capones, Al and his brother try to bully and intimidate Van Alden, but he stands up to them. He offers to kill O'Bannion himself for $1,000. On his way to do the deed, he gets ambushed by the scarred man and two other goons in an alley. Phil, the man with the scar, wants revenge on Van Alden for scalding him with a hot iron last season: 

 

He asks and then warns them to stop beating on him. When they don't relent, he flips the script on his attackers, pulls out a gun and kills all three assailants. O'Bannion, later that night in the shop, puts a gun on him. But again, Van Alden gains the upper hand when he menacingly tells Dean about his past as a Prohibition agent and his true identity. O'Bannion backs off, goes to the register where three mobsters shoot him to death. Afterwards, Van Alden comes out of the back, takes money from the register and leaves. He returns home to his wife with money and atypical sexual aggression.



MY THOUGHTS: This is the episode I've enjoyed the most in this season so far. Not to take away from anyone else, but Michael Shannon's Van Alden owned this episode. His character has always been repressed, but now he's showed us a sliver of what he's capable of when he breaks out of the box. This week, he went from grumpy husband to the kind of killer that Shannon portrayed in 2012's The Iceman. His personality shifts were well-played in this episode. He provides for his family, yes. But he's most alive when he's taking what's his and not taking crap from anyone. His actions and more assertive-personality change are comparable to archetypes like Breaking Bad's Walter White/Heisenberg or Heroes' Gabriel Gray/Sylar.

Richard Harrow's return to Nucky's service may be a way of keeping the character interesting and involved. Harrow is a trained expert killer, but domestic living is exacerbating the damage that his skill-set has already wreaked upon his conscience. In spite of all this, I want the character to have a happy ending with Julia and Tommy. But, inject a dose of art-imitating-reality, and anything can happen.

I would really like to see Narcisse and Chalky White have a good ol' fashioned American street fight. Jeffrey Wright and Michael K. Williams play African-American foils to a hilt with a subtle nuance (especially Wright). With three episodes left in the season, I don't want to be disappointed by the escalating pay-off.


Best quote of the episode:

[In regards to the plumbing]
Van Alden: Yes, I spoke with Mr. Roebuck himself. He apologized profusely and told me he would send a dozen of his top men over immediately to remedy the situation to our total satisfaction.
Sigrid: This is true?
Van Alden: No, this is sarcasm! *walks away*


 
Grade: A-
Written by Sy L. Shackleford (sylar10)

Sy L. Shackleford is a jack-of-all-trades columnist for Action A Go Go. A UConn graduate with a degree in both psychology and communication sciences, he is a walking encyclopedic repository for all things Marvel Comics, hip-hop, et. al. He also writes reviews for hip-hop albums which can be viewed on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sy.shackleford

Read More

THE WALKING DEAD 4x04 "Indifference" Review

The Walking Dead is a creature of habit. When biding time between significant events, it always sends some of the cast away from home-base (wherever that happens to be at the time) so that they can do some talking and, ostensibly, develop more as characters. These episodes have always been the show's weakest. They tend to drag, and from a character standpoint, they seemingly just tread water most of the time. Contrary to what the writers seemed to thing, lengthy chit chats do not a character make. So when it became apparent that the entirety of Indifference was going to be one such episode, I became rather hesitant about where it was going. However, it would seem that under new leadership, this episode succeeded where similar previous episodes had failed; not only did this episode throw a completely unforeseen curveball in the final act, but our understanding of all of the featured characters, particularly the new ones, was significantly deepened.   

The concept of transformation, more specifically, Carol's transformation is the focus of this week's episode. As the confused and rather creepy Lizzie puts it; "We all change, we don't get to stay the way we started", and although she's referring to physical change, the allusion to Carol's one-eighty from where she started on this show is clear. Transformed from a weak woman consumed by fear, to a stone cold killer who is so far removed from old self she doesn't even think of her past as her own. The death of her daughter, which devastated Carol back in season two, doesn't even provoke the slightest of emotions in her now. Sophia is less than a memory, she's somebody else's memory, and therefor, by Carol's own rhetoric, irrelevant now. There's a lot of ways I could have seen Carol's character going back in the first season, but this is not one of them. The fact that she survived this long and also changed this much is one of the few things The Walking Dead has completely nailed over it's run, and Carol may be the most interesting character on the show (if not one of the most interesting on television).

At this point in the show, I had assumed the only way to get written off is to die, but Indifference deals a huge blow clean out of left field by having Rick quietly banish Carol from the prison. It's the kind of smart decision-making that's uncharacteristic of Rick, and the kind of writing I simply thought to be beyond the staff behind Walking Dead. It's encouraging to see major character eliminations and shifts in dynamics that don't necessitate a graphic demise. It opens up the possibilities for how to handle future story arcs while simultaneously making Rick look more capable. If Rick is going to return to his leadership position, he has to make hard choices, and this episode is fundamental in establishing that Rick is competent and able to be a leader once again.

Elsewhere the search for medical supplies continues, and on the way we get further insight into Bob, Tyreese and Michonne. Bob's alcoholism takes a turn for the potentially lethal when he almost sacrifices himself, and puts the rest of the group at risk, for the sake of a few bottles of whiskey he happened upon while foraging for medicine. Bob apparently suffers from survivor's guilt as the lone remaining member of two different groups he had joined previously (in a manner yet again reminiscent of last season's Clear), not to mention the demise of Zach inadvertently caused by his alcohol addiction. The problem with alcoholics and crippling guilt? They resort to even more alcohol. I have to hand it to the Walking Dead writing staff with this particular character in circumventing bad habits of season's past. Not only are we getting a significant amount of screen time with this newbie, but we're swiftly understanding him as a flawed, dynamic character. In a similar fashion, both Tyreese and Michonne get more exposure in Indifference as well. When death and suffering become a common occurrence in every day life, it's bound to wear down the human mind's ability to think clearly. Both Tyreese and Michonne have been acting impulsively, Tyreese with an apparent death wish and Michonne hunting for The Governor in vain, but neither really knows why they're doing what they do. Emotional strain has dulled their foresight in ways they are simply too weary to try to process anymore. When every day is a life or death struggle, mental well-being takes a backseat to survival, a reality which takes a high psychological toll on the survivors. Though Tyreese and Michonne both experience a turning point away from this particular issue in this episode, it's an interesting (and highly neglected) concept to explore in the zombie-verse, and one I hope we see a return to in the future.    

Thus far, this season of The Walking Dead has managed something that any show that aspires to greatness must nail down; balance and stability. Past seasons of TWD have greatly misused different stories and ideas, never digging deep enough to really hit the meat of a concept, instead just skimming over. The result was stories that simply didn't have enough gas in them to be sustainable, and made the writers grasp at strands for an interesting story to tell. Scott Gimple is pacing himself here, and really giving each character and story their dues, mining deep for ideas to explore. A smarter, more strategic approach for a smarter story. Four episodes in and it's already crystal clear that this new Walking Dead is vaslty improved, and may yet live up to the largely unfulfilled promise of it's pilot episode.

Grade: B+

Other thoughts

Three black people and a white guy go out on a mission and none of the black people die? This is a Walking Dead milestone! Nay, a television milestone. Perhaps even a milestone in film history!

Okay, so Lizzie is crazy. Interesting. Not sure it works but it definitely has potential.

It would seem this entirely season has been tonally and thematically using Clear as a template. A re-pilot of you will. And given how that episode was a perfect example of everything this show needed to be, this is a solid strategy on the part of the writers.

Andrew Allen is a television (and occasionally film) writer for Action A Go Go. He is an aspiring screenwriter and director who is currently studying at the University of Miami. You can check him out on Tumblr @andrewballen and follow him on Twitter @A_B_Allen

Read More

Shiny Sci-Fi Saturday Night

Ahhhh, another Saturday night. For the younglings, Halloween is over, but they've still got some candy to last them a week or two. However, for many adults, I assume the costumed festivities continue through the weekend.

I once lived in the paradigm of "Weekend = primal instinctual pursuits/denial of functional reality." Was just a phase though. Everyone has phases.

For now, I'll take the pale, blue glow of the laptop screen and images of things that are not so much "bump in the night" as they are "coursing through the vacuum of space."

Shiny Sci-Fi Saturday Night continues this week with its third installment. The best gifs culled from the Tumblr machine from the realms of science fiction, science and the minds of people who realize its the 21st century. Added a few pieces that might not fit into those designations, but am certain you'll still find them visually pleasing anyway.

And as usual, each gif is named from the source listed on Tumblr. It doesn't mean that person created it. But they did have the good sense to share it with the world.

Also, and I don't know if I'm supposed to say this or not, we've got some big changes happening here at Action A Go Go. Bigger. Bolder. You know...high tech, low life! (And maybe finally a platform that always does what its supposed to do). Keep us on your radar and certain awesomeness will unqestionably appear.

Thanks for being. See you in the 'verse.

Stephen Sumner is the science fiction columnist for Action A Go Go. His favorite sci-fi series include Firefly, Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. He can be followed on Twitter at Sumner@vierlights or on the Tumblr machine at NX01Sumner.

Action A Go Go can also be followed on Facebook here.

Read More

Disc Two: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SLASHER FILM (Documentary)

It's Friday, November 1st. Which means that the kid-friendly version of Halloween has come and gone. However, sexually-charged adults get to break out their flimsy Halloween outfits, risk pnuemonia, and drunkenly celebrate bad decisions over the weekend.

That's right, if you're over the age of 21 then Halloween ain't quite over yet. So let's keep the screams going, eh?

In honor of what is arguably the second leg of Halloween, I give you Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher FIlm. Featuring key players such as Rob Zombie, Debra Hill, Stan Winston, and Tom Savini, this full-length documentary goes out of it's way to re-trace the roots of the slasher film. If you think it goes back to the 1980s, you'd be wrong.

Clickity-Click...

Read More