3 Years Later… BLOOD OF ZEUS Season 2

Greek mythology is one of the few things I am passionate. Since I was a child I liked mythology a lot. I don’t remember much from my childhood in terms of reading, except mythology. It fascinated me.

In 2021 Netflix released its animated-adult series Blood Of Zeus. The story follow Heron, an ordinary citizen of Ancient Greece who discovers that he is the bastard son of Zeus and has a part to play in battling demons that are attacking his town.

Heron, however, is a character that doesn’t exist in mythology. It was created just for this series which, without taking away its merit, is very good!

Season 1 was good, but Season 2 is even better although not for kids ’cause is pretty violent. I watched few days ago.

First of all, Greek mythology is a great drama full of horrible stories of revenge, tragic loves, cheats and intrafamilial sex… Zeus is the greatest philanderer and that led to a significant number of children from major gods, minor gods, demigods, and even other mythical creatures. Obviously for children books, those details are not mentioned.

Season 2 not only does it hit the same great notes it struck in the first season, but it came back with a brand new bag of subplots, character arcs, and the kind of attention to detail that separates this project from the pack.

This season feels more like a take on the gods themselves, but with a distinct spin on it.

The gods are much more active characters, and more attuned to their various domains. The first half of the season spends its time building this lore up, and establishing their backstory.

Hades is the primary antagonist. But unlike so many shows where the Antagonist seems to just be a villain without any real explanation of their villainy, Hades is a very believable character. Right to the end, every single one of his actions seems earned, and he really doesn’t come across as a generic bad guy. Dude’s conflicted by his actions, but motivated to right a wrong done to him. And that wrong is super well conveyed.

The other gods are surprisingly accurate to various imaginations of them in myth. Demeter is an obsessive, unusually villainous character. Ares is a powerhouse but absolutely an impulsive asshat. Athena is clever. Hermes is earnest and committed. And Gaia is just perfect!

Like the show seems to be an incredibly relatable take to narratives from Greek myth, while still being super fresh.

 
For all the complexity of the twisted stories of mythology, this series is impressively well done! I can’t wait for Season 3!

Netflix Has THE POWER!

2021 saw the light of a HE-MAN Netflix series and I was not disappointed.

Masters of the Universe: Revelation Part 1 and Part 2 (the official name) was a nostalgia fest in the best possible way, managing to showcase a cartoon that looks like you remember but has been updated nicely for the 21st Century.

He-Man was one of the most successful cartoons of all time and one of my favourite’s when I was a kid (I’m old AF), I even had many of the toys… See, The t0s animation was born, like many cartoons at the time, out of a need to sell toys!

Essentially, Mattel was annoyed that it passed up the rights to the Star Wars toy line due to the licensing fees, so created its own characters and we got He-Man.

While the character(s) have been remade for the screen a number of times and failed miserable, it really is the 1983 cartoon that is close to everyone’s hearts.

Here’s the official synopsis: “After a cataclysmic battle between He-Man and Skeletor, Eternia is fractured and the Guardians of Grayskull are scattered. And after decades of secrets tore them apart, it’s up to Teela to reunite the broken band of heroes, and solve the mystery of the missing Sword of Power in a race against time to restore Eternia and prevent the end of the universe.”

The first season Masters of The Universe: Revelation is 80s to the core.

The trailer is EVERYTHING!

 
The end of Part 1 included what was one of the best cliffhangers in recent memory.

As a fan of the original cartoon the ending was also great because it didn’t really end… It shows the face of Hordak, another villain that ties to She-Ra, the female equivalent to He-Man (his sister). Modernised and well done!

And Part 2 was full of action.

 
After the epic comeback, I didn’t expected another season, so I was surprised when few nights ago I found on Netflix Masters of the Universe: Revolution (season 2).

I swear I didn’t have a reason for joy since last October…  so this made my day!

I have to say I’m impressed by the twisted creativity of the writers, some of the toy characters I had as a kid existed without much explanation, but this series (over 40 years later) created a story and gave those characters meaning .

Technology meets magic, it is the synthesis of this spectacular season.

 
Lena Headey, Mark Hamill, Chris Wood, Meg Foster, William Shatner, Keith David, Melissa Benoist and all the actors did an spectacular job!

More please MOOOORE!

REACHER & Oppenheimer

This week during my days off, I watch the Amazon series Reacher and also the film Oppenheimer. Surprisingly, I didn’t have any sex. I was just too tired to please others I guess. This time I pleased myself.

REACHER

I’m not the kind of person who enjoys watching series, but this one has something appealing… the main actor, Alan Ritchson looks a lot like the last guy I had a serious relationship with. Max (my ex) was shorter but other than that they could be twins.

Anyway…. So I watched this series and I actually LOVED IT!

Reacher is an action crime series based on the Jack Reacher book series by Lee Child. The title character, Reacher is a former U.S. Army Military Police Major with extensive investigative and combat experience who now lives as a drifter, travelling from town to town across the United States. Reacher always encounters and is forced to battle dangerous criminals throughout his travels.

The series is packed with action and the character is badass but also charismatic.

 
Max (my ex) really looked like him. He was intimidating looking and could kick anyone’s ass, but he was also a very sweet guy with me.

Alan Ritchson is perfect for the role.

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OPPENHEIMER

So, I rented this film because I really wanted to watch it long time ago. Oppenheimer’s life was definitely interesting. However, I found the film absolutely BORING!

I was not expecting to see the terror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki because it would have been inappropriate. But I was not expecting 3 hours of interrogations, dirty politics and boring performances from the same boring Hollywood faces, such as Robert Downey Jr., Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

Truly why they can’t cast new faces and give us a refreshing alternative of actors?

Every time I see Robert Downey Jr. or Matt Damon I no longer see a fictional character but them! Same as when you see Julia Roberts or Jennifer Lawrence… they play themselves all the time in most movies.

Anyhow, the creativity was great, but overall Oppenheimer was the kind of film you watch to help you sleep.

 
The trailer is way more exciting than the whole film.

Moon Knight Vs Moonlight Mask

When I was a kid I used to love robots and superheros, back in South America in those days they played a lot of Japanese cartoons on TV. A lot more than American shows.

So, I grew up watching the anime adaptation of The Moonlight Mask (Gekko Kamen) a Japanese TV series that was created in 1958 by Kohan Kawauchi. The TV series shows was a huge success in Japan and the later anime was even bigger since it reached Latin America under the title Capitan Centella.

The Moonlight Mask was inspired of Batman.

To be honest I almost forgot about Moonlight Mask until I recently watched a clip of Marvel’s Moon Kight and when I first watched the trailer I got flashbacks trying to remember the name of that anime of my childhood…

And although the suit/outfit is different (60 years apart with the trailer) the look is similar, specially, both wearing a crescent moon attached at the front.

Long story short, Moon Knight IS NOT a Moonlight Mask ripoff. But perhaps an improved version of it.

After all, American studios have a long history of Asian ripoffs.

El Reino (The Kingdom) Season 2

I finished to watch Season 2 of the excellent Argentine series El Reino (The Kingdom).

In season one of the Netflix political/fantasy thriller, a televangelist and his family were thrust into the limelight after his running mate on a right-wing presidential ticket was murdered. But with that elevating exposure came scrutiny, and revelations about all the dirty business behind the church facade, including money laundering and even paedophilia.

The Kingdom Season 2 is six episodes instead of eight, and opens as Emilio (Diego Peretti) has become Argentina’s president. But in no way does that mean he’s free of trouble.

The series has all the condiments… political/military corruption and impunity, faith charlatans and it’s convincing due to the strong influence of religion in South America.

A cast of excellent Argentinian actors include Diego Peretti (excellent) Chino Darin, Nicolas Garcia, Joaquin Furriel (excellent), Peter Lanzani (excellent), Mercedes Moran (beyond excellent), Vera Spinetta, Santiago Korovsky, Victoria Almeida, Alfonso Tort, Patricio Aramburu, Sofia Gala (excellent) are part of it.

The Kingdom is a stunning masterpiece, a war between “god and evil”  with exceptional cinematography and the perfect amount of intrigue and uncomfortable subjects to keep the fans watching.

What I personally loved about the show was the way it merged politics with religion and somehow ended up being a little of neither.

Definitely, one of the most underrated series on Netflix.

 

“Remove justice, and what are kingdoms but gangs of criminals?
What are criminal gangs but petty kingdoms?”
St. Augustine.

SWARM

After Felix came to do me last Monday, I took few days off from sex to rest, read some of the many books I have and watch stuff online.

So I just watched the Amazon Beyoncé-inspired stan culture satire-thriller, Swarm. Created by Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) and Janine Nabers.

Swarm is about a pop stan turned serial killer.

This stuff happened in real life in part. It’s about the obsession with celebrity and how young people can obsess about a celebrity in this case a character based off of Beyoncé and her lunatic fans called the Hive- in this series the “swarm”.

The main character (Dominique Fishback) portrays some of the young people who lose touch with reality, obsessing about a celebrity to the point of killing anyone who doesn’t like that celebrity.

Again these episodes have some element of truth of real life in events and
people. One episode talked about the lead character biting the Beyoncé (Nijah) character. This actually happened in real life years ago.

They blamed Sanaa Lathan for biting Beyoncé but it was actually a crazy fan.

The episodes are no long, so I watched the whole thing in few hours.

All the cast was pretty good. Dominique Fishback was remarkable, Chloe Bailey was good. And although Rory Culkin few seconds were hot, I was impressed by Billie Eilish… She was mesmerising in her acting debut .

Swarm takes worshipping celebrity to another level and not a good one.

Not bad!

BLOOD OF ZEUS

Whenever I behave like a decent human being I can be productive and do many stuff.

Well, browsing online for something else to watch, I found an animated series that piqued my curiosity, particularly because it was about mythology or mythological characters to be precise.

Blood of Zeus is one of the show in Netflix’s extensive anime catalogue.

In this story we follow Heron, an ordinary citizen of Ancient Greece who discovers that he is the bastard son of Zeus and has a part to play in battling demons that are attacking his town.

Although most of the characters are legit mythological Greek characters, Heron was created for the series. “Heron” doesn’t exist in mythology.

Regardless I was hooked by this animation because I love mythology and Zeus (often horny) often had bastard children with humans in the myths. Much to the anger of Hera (his wife and sister).

See, Blood Of Zeus is gore, but the Greek mythology was fucked up and bloodier.

In the mythology the Titan Cronos castrated his father, Uranus, and cast his testicles into the sea. From the blood that spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Giants were created.

Notably, Cronos is traditionally the father of many of the key Olympians, including key characters in the story suchs as Hera, Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus himself.

I gotta say I loved the representation of all the gods and demigods. They truly did a great job with the animations.

My favourites were (the noble) Hermes, (the crazy) Hera, (the temperamental) Ares and (the hot) Zeus as well.

 
Not sure if there’s a second season on its way, but this was fun!

LITVINENKO

I just watched this short drama series on Amazon about the assasination of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Litvinenko was poisoned in London in 2006 with polonium-210 (one of the most hazardous radioactive material) by the Russian government. In other words by Vladimir Putin.

Litvinenko died few weeks later of radiation sickness. A cruel painful dead.

The story of the determined Scotland Yard Officers (the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police) who worked to prove who was responsible for the death of Alexander Litvinenko, in one of the most complex and dangerous investigations in the history of the Metropolitan Police.

While this is a horror story and a tough subject to approach, the entire cast did a superb job. I cannot think of better actors to have done this project justice. Well done!

RAISED BY WOLVES & THE BOYS

I don’t have a TV, it’s been years since I took the decision to not have one. My laptop and iPhone is all I need. In general I’m not a person who watches series because I don’t have the patience, nor the time for it. On my free time I have sex, I read and I blog. I’m not a person who likes to sit, not to watch TV, not even to eat.

However during the pandemic, at the beginning, while everything was closed with nothing to do, or human interaction, I watched the 8 seasons of Game of Thrones in 7 days.

Ever since I watched few more shows, such as the Crown, Elite, Heartstopper and Genera+ion to mention few. Watching series was a side effect of the pandemic on me.

On 2022 I watched two more shows that were pretty remarkable:

RAISED BY WOLVES, an epic sci-fi show with grand and beautiful visual effects.

See, I hate to read novels and science fiction (my reading is usually politics, sociology and real stuff) but I am a fan of visual science fiction.

I found the plot of the show very appealing because it actually reflects how our world might have started when there was only the science as a proven fact, and no religion or anything else.

Although from times Season 1 was very slow, every episode makes you think. By the end it gets twisted AF and my worst nightmare came to life because LEGEND Ridley Scott is one of the Executive producers (and you can see his style on this project) and you go WTF.

The main character, Danish actress Amanda Collin as Mother, is impeccable! And hot underrated Australian actor Travis Fimmel is fantastic.

 
Season 2 was superior. There is a lot more action, more intriguing characters, more WTF scenarios and always leaves you wanting more.

This series let us navigate complex philosophical and ethical questions in a way, but also full of strange weird ideas and compelling performances.

Sadly HBO cancelled the series after Season 2 and also removed it from HBO Max after the successful seasons.

Another WTF moment without a doubt.

There was simply NOTHING like Raised by Wolves .

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THE BOYS

Superheroes are often as popular as celebrities, as influential as politicians, and sometimes even as revered as gods. But that’s when they’re using their powers for good…. But when they’re not it’s the powerless against the super powerful, which it’s the case of this series.

The Boys is not a “dystopian re-imagining of a world with superheroes” it’s quite literally an allegory for America and the world as it exists right now.

While Season 1 was great. Season 2 was good. And Season 3 was fantastic.

This show continues to amaze as it’s not afraid to try new things and is a show that is definitely for adults. It has no problems being offensive and making you feel squeamish.

You don’t even have to be a fan of superhero shows to enjoy this. It’s violent, gore, funny, thrilling, gross. 

New Zealand actors Antony Starr and Karl Urban are the stars of this show. Both are just amazingly fun, crazy and hot!

If you’re looking for straightforward dark comedy with a hint of satire or parody with actual story-lines that are interesting, you’ll find all that and more here.