New TV Shows to Watch

My favorite TV shows, Teen Wolf and Pretty Little Liars, are on hiatus right now, so I need to find some new shows so that I won't die because of boredom. I've searched for and read a lot of previews and reviews about new television shows for the fall season. There are three TV shows that I've chosen: Gotham, The Flash and How to Get Away with Murder. I've seen the pilot episodes of all those new shows, and here are my thoughts about them.

1. GOTHAM

New episodes on : Monday (in US), Tuesday (in Indonesia)

Creator : Bruno Heller

Cast : Ben McKenzie, Donal Logue, David Mazouz, Camren Bicondova, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Erin Richards, Robin Lord Taylor.

Genre : Crime Fiction

When you hear the name Gotham, the first thing that pops in your head must be Batman. Yup, the Gotham that is referred to in this new TV show is that Gotham, the hometown of the Dark Knight. However, this show isn't going to tell the story of Batman. Instead, it will follow young James Gordon, Batman's future ally, as he cleans the dark streets of Gotham from bad guys in his early days as a detective. James Gordon isn't the only familiar face that you'll see in this show. We'll get to see other popular characters from the Batman universe when all of them are still young, such as the Batman himself, Bruce Wayne; Selina Kyle aka Catwoman; Oswald Cobblepot aka Penguin; Edward Nygma aka The Riddler; and Ivy Pepper aka Poison Ivy.

The pilot episode follows Det. James Gordon (Ben McKenzie) as he investigates the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne. He meets their son, Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), and promises to catch "the man who did this". With his grumpy partner, Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue), James is able to solve the case and kill the murderer. Case closed? No. It turns out that the person that they've killed is framed by other people who don't want the truth to come out. When the idealistic James Gordon finds out about this, he tries to find the real murderer, only to find an ugly truth about how things work in Gotham.

I was sooo excited to watch this show before it premiered on September 22nd. When I finally saw it, I was... a bit disappointed. Well, it's not a bad episode. It's just not as good as I expected. Probably because my expectation is too high. The first half of the episode is kind of boring. The case seems too easy and some actors, especially Ben McKenzie and Erin Richards (who plays James' girl, Barbara Kean), show bad acting. The dialogues are kind of... cheesy, especially when Barbara tells Jim to "swim" when he says that he's "out of his depth" (Errr swim?). 

But everything changes as it starts its second half. Well, maybe they try to deceive the audience with the first half, like Gone Girl. The story gets darker after James finds out about the frame-up. Ben's and Erin's performances suddenly escalate. Dude, they're awesome during the second half. The other actors show their best performances too. My favorite is David Mazouz, the kid who plays Bruce aka Batman. There's something about his expression. He looks really wounded and angry. Grrr I love his performance. The guy who plays Edward Nygma is also great, even though he only has one scene. I hope we'll get to see more of him in the future. Robin Lord Taylor is really scary as the young Penguin. His last scene in this episode, where he rips an old man's throat with a knife just to get his bread, made me shiver. That scene lets me know that he's dangerous.

So the pilot episode is good enough to make me decide to watch the next episode. The show has big potential, which I hope will be developed well in the following episodes. I hope the show can be more consistent and get the cheesy dialogues fixed too.

Rating : 3/5

2. THE FLASH

New episodes on : Tuesday (in US), Wednesday (in Indonesia)

Creator : Greg Berlanti

Cast : Grant Gustin, Candice Patton, Danielle Panabaker, Tom Cavanagh, Jesse L. Martin.

Genre : Superhero

After the huge success of Arrow, the people behind the hit series try their luck for the second time with The Flash. In order to "test" their new project, they even introduced the show's lead character, Barry Allen, in Arrow last year. Grant Gustin was cast and debuted as Barry in two episodes of the second season of Arrow. Fans loved him. So they decided to give a green light to the project.

In Three Ghosts, an episode of Arrow in which Barry appears, we've seen him get struck by lightning. So the pilot episode of The Flash takes place around nine months after that incident. Barry (Grant Gustin) wakes up after being in a coma for months. Soon after that, he realizes that the incident has given him some super strengths. He's suddenly able to run really (REALLY) fast and heals his physical wounds faster than normal people do. In the episode, we also get to learn more about Barry's dark past. When he was a kid, he saw how his mother got killed by a mysterious blurry figure yet couldn't prove it to the police to stop them from blaming his father for the murder. From this, we know why Barry feels like it's his responsibility to use his new powers for good. It's because he knows how it feels like to be helpless and to see people that he loves suffer because of his helplessness.

Actually, the pilot episode will not be aired until October 7. However, the episode was leaked a while ago and I watched it online. Anyway, the pilot is fun to watch. Grant Gustin truly stands out in this show. His version of Barry Allen is smart, pure-hearted and charming (I just can't resist a guy who is smart AND cute like him). His dark past and the wound that it leaves makes him very human too. Besides Grant's flashy performance (I love using the word "flashy" to describe this show), there are pretty cool action sequences too in the pilot. 

The minus point of the pilot for me is the storyline, which, I think, is too fast. Well, of course it's fast; it's a show about the fastest man alive. But I think they have too much to tell in this episode. It's like they cram all of them in it. Because of this, it feels like things are rushed in the episode. I personally think that they shouldn't let Barry put on his red suit in the first episode. I think it would be better if they let him take his time to adjust with his new powers until he is finally ready to put on his suit and take down the bad guys like his fellow hero, the Arrow.

Overall, the pilot episode of The Flash is fun and worth to watch. I'm definitely going to see its second episode.

Rating : 3,5/5

3. HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER

New episodes on : Thursday (in US), Friday (in Indonesia)

Creator : Peter Nowalk

Cast : Viola Davis, Alfred Enoch, Aja Naomi King, Jack Falahee, Katie Findlay, Karla Souza.

Genre : Legal Drama

There is a lot of buzz around this new show because Shonda Rhimes, the creator of hit shows Grey's Anatomy and Scandal, is involved in this project. Well I don't watch those two shows so I'm not really affected by the Shonda Rhimes factor. I decided to watch the pilot episode of this series simply because the reviews are good and the trailer is intriguing.

So the show is about a law professor named Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) who teaches her students "not to study law, but to practice law". She has high demands for her students, which make some of them overly excited and even willing to do extreme, risky and dangerous things to impress the professor. Four of the students are involved in a dangerous murder plot that is related to Annalise. Details about the murder itself are still mysterious; it seems like this murder plot is going to be the main case throughout the season.

The pilot episode is basically an introduction to the characters and the background of the story. We get to see how Annalise runs her classes; how she does her job; her students and their complex characteristics; her personal life; and the mysterious, not-yet-solved cases that are related to the professor. I think an introduction like this is necessary for an original show like this; you know, to "set the scene". This show is totally new, right? It doesn't have millions of fans who've been familiar with its characters and their backstories like Gotham and The Flash.

The best thing about the pilot episode for me is the acting. Academy Award nominee Viola Davis delivers a very powerful performance as Annalise Keating. She's totally unreadable. You just can't tell when Annalise lies and when she tells the truth. There's this scene with Annalise and her student Wes (Alfred Enoch) where the professor breaks down and apologizes to the young man for a nasty action she does that he accidentally witnesses. In the scene, Wes looks puzzled. Maybe it's because he just doesn't know whether she truly feels sorry for what she does or just tries to silence him.

I also enjoyed watching Annalise's four students in this episode. There's Wes, the heart of the story who is likable, pure-hearted and sweet, played by Alfred Enoch (aka Dean Thomas from the Harry Potter series). And then there's Michaela Pratt, a beautiful girl who is very opportunistic and cunning, played by Aja Naomi King. Karla Souza plays Laurel Castillo, an idealistic girl who always looks very serious. And the last one is Connor Walsh, played by (the very hot and handsome) Jack Falahee, a gay student who is like the male version of Michaela. Despite all the characteristics that I've mentioned, they all possess one other trait: ambitious. I love watching ambitious students. They kind of remind of myself (haha).

The negative thing about this show for me is probably the fact that it is about law. They use a lot of law terms which I don't understand AT ALL. Well, I'm a literature girl; how am I supposed to know what those law terms mean? I read somewhere that people who are familiar with law think that the actions that the characters do in the show are too unethical and don't actually make sense. Well I don't know about that. As a literature girl, I'll just focus on the story and the character development.

I enjoyed the pilot episode of How to Get Away with Murder so much. Can't wait for the second episode!

Rating : 4/5

I actually didn't want to make this post too long but I just can't help it. I enjoy doing this too much. Hope you enjoy reading this post :)

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

I don't know why but, these days, I enjoy films and books that involve crime, murder and investigation. This doesn't mean that I enjoy watching people doing crime, though. What I like about these kinds of story is how they show me the story behind a crime; the reasons why people do it and how it affects people who are involved. I just find it interesting.

So I bought this book called Gone Girl last week, which involves crime, murder and investigation. It's a best-selling book that earns a lot of positive reviews. The author is a former journalist named Gillian Flynn. The story is about a married couple, Nick and Amy Dunne. Nick and Amy are about to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. However, Amy, the wife, disappears from their house in Missouri on the anniversary day. At first, everyone thinks that it is an abduction done by someone from outside the house. But as the investigation goes on, people begin to think that it might not be done by someone from outside the house, but someone from the inside.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The story is told from first person point of view, but the POV is always different in every chapter. The first chapter is told from Nick's POV, the second one is from Amy's, the third one is from Nick's, and so on. The novel is divided into three parts. The first part is called Boy Loses Girl. The second one is Boy Meets Girl. The last one is Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa).

The novel starts off as a drama. It's kind of emotional and tragic. In this first part, we follow Nick as he tries to find his missing wife. Meanwhile, we can also learn about Nick and Amy's relationship since the first time they meet (which is seven years before Amy's disappearance) until the day of her disappearance from Amy's diary entries. When I finished reading this part, I felt this burning hatred towards Nick, the husband, and felt very related to Amy, the wife. He's so busy being angry because life is not as good as he expects and forgets that his wife is also a human being who can get hurt by his anger and hatred. As a reader, I knew for sure that Nick doesn't kill or hurt Amy, but, at this point, I thought he might actually kill his own wife.

But then second part starts with a plot twist that comes in like Miley Cyrus and her wrecking ball.

BOOM!

Everything that I had come to believe at this point turns out to be a lie. A BIG LIE! I felt like I was slapped in the face. I just didn't know what to believe or feel anymore. I almost threw my book to the wall when I reached the plot twist. I'm not exaggerating. I know some people who have read this books say that they have predicted the twist since the very first time. And I actually knew the twist before I read the book because I accidentally read a comment on Youtube about it (I hate going through comment sections!). But I still felt shocked when I found out because I didn't think the delivery of the twist would be like that. After the twist, readers will get the truth about Amy's disappearance. And the truth is ugly, very ugly.

So, the ending comes in the final part, Boy Gets Girl Back (Or Vice Versa). The ending is really tragic, especially for one of the main characters. I read somewhere that many people hate the ending, but I don't. It's not that I like it. Dude, the ending is sickening. But I think it's realistic, believable. There is no justice for any of the characters at the end, which hurts, but reflects the reality. In real life, justice doesn't always come to everyone, right? Not everyone can have a happy ending.

Gone Girl movie teaser poster

Gone Girl is the craziest book I've ever read. However, I have to admit that it is brilliant. I think the way the author plays with the readers' feelings by telling the story from Nick's and Amy's perspectives plays a huge part in the novel's success. The story also gives me a lot of life lessons, which are:

1. There's a difference between loving the idea of someone and loving someone for who they really are. I didn't know what it meant before, but this book has taught me what it means. When you love the idea of someone that you have in your head, you could even do terrible things in order to force that person to be the idea, even though it is not who that person truly is.
2. You don't know what you've got until it's gone, just like the tagline on the poster above. If you have read the book, that sentence would make you want to laugh, bitterly. Yeah, Nick doesn't know what kind of wife that he's got until she's gone. Haha.
3. Justice doesn't come to everyone, like I said before.

So the book has been adapted into a movie and it's going to be released on October 3 this year. It's directed by David Fincher (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network) and stars Ben Affleck (Argo, Batman vs Superman) as Nick, Rosamund Pike (An Education) as Amy and Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) as  Desi (Amy's creepy ex-boyfriend). The movie's early reviews are mostly positive (Well, it is directed by David Fincher, man! His movies are always great!). I also like the cast of the movie. Ben Affleck is perfect for Nick (Nick is described as a guy who is handsome but makes people wanna slap him, and Mr Affleck fits this description. It's a compliment, really!). I also like Rosamund Pike as Amy. She's beautiful but has this little danger in her eyes and deep voice that is sexy and scary at the same time (Grrr). I'm definitely going to watch the movie. You can watch the trailer below.

That's all from me about Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. I'm probably gonna write again soon about a new TV show that I just found called How to Get Away with Murder. Yup, it's about murder again! 

Hope you like my first book review! :)

Rating : 4,5/5

Hello!

My first blog post!

My name is Rifa. I am 22 years old and from Indonesia. I was an English Literature student, graduated a few months ago, and I am an English teacher now. I teach in an English course so my working hour starts in the afternoon, after my little students (mostly around 2,5 to 10 years old) go home from their schools. So, I am basically free in the morning.

It sounds great, doesn't it? I don't have to be at my office from 9 to 5 like other workers but still get paid well. I can wake up at 10 a.m. and watch TV or browse the Internet or just be lazy before going to work at 1 p.m. Yup, it's great. But after a while, it gets a little boring.

After graduation, I have this eagerness to do something. Something big. Something that matters. Something new. Something that I've never tried before. Something that people can see. Something that could change the world and make it a better place (Okay, this last one is a bit silly. Sorry.) And writing is one of the things that fit my criteria of "something".

That is why I decided to create this blog. I want to use this blog as a medium to post my writings, which contain my thoughts and my ideas about the things that matter to me. Well, those "things" that matter to me are usually movies, books, tv series and literature. I love those things SO much, so I'll probably write much about them. I am also concerned about feminism and education, so maybe I'll write about them too.

I still have no idea how to manage the layout of the blog because I am certainly not a design or computer person. Hopefully I'll be able to make it look more interesting.

Cheers!