Fesiva Reviews: Rick and Morty Season 2 premiere

This post originally appeared in the July 31st edition of Festiva Magazine in The Monitor. You should check them out.

Image via Slightly Warped 

“Hey, why don’t we do an episode of ‘Rick and Morty’ where due to a disruption in time, multiple opposing timelines of the episode are created and are simultaneously shown on TV via up to 64 split screens?”

Oh, how I’d love to see the writers of Adult Swim’s ambitious comedy “Rick and Morty” make that pitch to producers in this animated comedy where everyone’s favorite mad scientist forces takes his young grandson through adventures across the galaxy.

The season two premiere “A Rickle in Time,” picks up immediately where season one ended, in which Rick froze time in order to clean up the mess from an epic intergalactic party he hosted last season while babysitting his grandkids, Morty and Summer. Hilariously enough, the effects of our characters unfreezing time leads to the previously mentioned timeline disruptions, because science is a fickle beast.

Eventually, the multiple timelines will result in time cops from the fourth dimension (who look like giant scrotums) going back in time to beat up Albert Einstein because “Rick and Morty” is ridiculous in the best way possible.

The time-splitting conflict is one of the most cleverly executed gags I’ve seen on TV. It surprised viewers with its unexpected arrival and grew to be progressively hilarious as the episodes went on without overstaying their welcome.

I haven’t even mentioned the “B” storyline, which has Rick’s daughter Beth desperately trying to use her horse surgery skills to save a wounded deer her husband struck with his car. It sounds dull compared to the main plot, but this subplot moves at a surprisingly manic pace that doesn’t weigh the episode down. We also learn the important lesson that Cold Stone Creamery employees will do anything, ANYTHING, for you if you tip them well enough.

Image via Screenrant

Besides the absurd humor the show is known for, “Rick and Morty” also has some heart to go with its crudeness. This is relevant in the episode’s climax, which sees one of the 64 Ricks willing to sacrifice himself to save one of the versions of his grandson from being stuck in his timeline forever.

Rick is a character who, let’s face it, should be among the most unlikable characters on TV. After all, the series’ pilot episode had him forcing his grandson to smuggle in space seeds through intergalactic customs by hiding them up his butt. And yet, the show often allows many opportunities for Rick to show a more humane side to him that makes him occasionally loveable, even when he’s telling his grandkids in this episode that he finds both of them to be equally annoying when they argue over which one of them Rick likes more.

Speaking of Summer and Morty, the episode introduces a conflict between them as we see the siblings get noticeably jealous over how each one of them is spending more time with Rick in his missions. For Summer, this represents a drastic change, considering how the series introduced her as a vain teenager who now has more of a personality. For Morty, this stresses out our already high-strung 14-year-old and I can already picture several scenarios where the rivalry between the two will lead to more inter-dimensional mayhem.

All in all, this is an exciting return to one of the most unique shows on air and I look forward to more.

"Rick and Morty" airs Sundays at 10:30 p.m. on Adult Swim.

FESTIVA REVIEWS: 'Jane the Virgin'

This post originally appeared in the March 20 issue of Festiva. You should check them out.

Image via zalukaj.tv

I’m going to try to keep this review as vague as possible, since "Jane the Virgin" is a series I believe you’ll be better off knowing as little as possible about to preserve your sense of discovery when tuning in.

Based on the Venezuelan telenovela of the same name, this delightful comedyis the most ridiculous show on the air and that’s a huge reason as to why it’s so wonderful.

This "Jane the Virgin" stars Golden-Globe winner Gina Rodriguez as our titular hero who accidentally gets artificially inseminated during a routine checkup.

The subversive series sees Jane’s unexpected pregnancy turn her life upside down with several storylines involving long-lost fathers, love triangles, scheming wives and a Czech crime lord. In other words, her life now resembles a state of mayhem as seen in the telenovelas she religiously watches with her family.

From the beginning of the pilot, "Jane" captivates viewers with its busy plot.

True to its telenovela roots, every episode moves at a fast pace that juggles a huge ensemble cast while burning through several storylines and featuring so many cliffhangers per commercial break you’re convinced every episode is a mid-season finale.

Admittedly, this is a hard show to pull off tone wise. It’s a mixture of comedy, drama, mystery and romance that revels in just how soapy it is. Every week, I worry that this show will derail into a mess. Somehow though, "Jane" has managed to avoid that and remains one of the most wonderfully endearing shows on air.

As the star of the show, Rodriguez is the glue that holds the entire thing together. Her heartfelt portrayal of Jane is reminiscent of Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope in the dearly departed comedy "Parks and Recreation." Like Leslie, Jane is a kind, dedicated and optimistic woman who is bursting with so much energy that you’ll want to be her BFF.

Because of Rodriguez’s lovely character and the show’s overall confident story line, "Jane the Virgin" manages to stay grounded in a state of fantastical realism that makes the absurd action onscreen come across as believable.

At the heart of the show is the love story presented onscreen. I’m not talking about the relationship between Jane and her detective boyfriend that opens the series, but the one between Jane, her mother and her grandmother. The bond that the three women have is a highlight of the series as the three of them support each other despite the generational gaps between them.

Image via youtube.com

Abuela, for example, is a Spanish-speaking, religious woman who hammered down the importance of virginity to Jane at a young age. Jane’s mother, Xiomara, serves as the poster mom for getting knocked up as a teenager and hopes Jane avoids her fate.

The back and forth the trio have is rich and filled with compassion toward one another. Their relationship is one of the rare, positive television depictions of family that reflects the strength of friendship between women that feels equally part tradition and — thanks to the delightfully absurd onscreen drama — weird.

I worry the show’s quick pace will result in "Jane the Virgin" overstaying its welcome within a few seasons. For now though, let’s celebrate that TV currently has a show as wonderful as "Jane the Virgin" that is such a joy to watch.

"Jane the Virgin" airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on the CW. All previous episodes are available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon.

FESTIVA REVIEWS: 'Better Call Saul!'

This post originally appeared in the Feb. 20 issue of Festiva Magazine. You should check them out

image via AMC

Spin-offs are a tricky beast.

If watching television has taught us anything, it’s that for every Frasieror The Colbert Report, there’s usually a bad egg like Joey, That ’80s Show orNCIS: We’re Still on the air whatever.

For a spin-off to truly work, it needs to step out of the shadow of the TV show it preceded to be able to stand on its own while sharing a universe with it. In that regard, AMC’s new series Better Call Saul shows a lot of potential in succeeding.

Set as a prequel to the award-winning drama Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul follows our favorite sleazy criminal lawyer we once knew as Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), legal adviser to meth kingpin Walter White. However, in this dark comedy, Saul isn’t around — not yet at least.

The series opens in the long-ago era known as 2002 (as evidenced by a character repeatedly using the phrase “biznatch” in the second episode) and Odenkirk’s character still identifies himself by his birth name, Jimmy McGill.

Jimmy so far has virtually none of the flashiness he has when he will encounter Walter in about five years. His office is located in the boiler room of a strip mall nail salon and he can only afford to advertise on matchbooks instead of cheesy billboards and TV spots like when Walter first met him. We’re watching a frustrated and broke Saul Goodman and that’s far more interesting than it sounds.

Of course, the main reason why Better Call Saul works is because Odenkirk is so entertaining to watch. Odenkirk is literally in every single scene of the series and has a strong onscreen presence that pulls viewers in, making the scenes where he’s in court especially fun to watch.

Saul was always Breaking Bad’s comic relief and this spin-off takes advantage of Odenkirk’s sketch-comedy past through Jimmy’s display of flamboyant theatrics during the courtroom scenes. These scenes have none of the glamour that you usually see in popular crime shows, but they have a certain charm in them that’s bursting with energy.

The second hour of Better Call Saul ends with Jimmy receiving an intriguing proposition by a criminal to help him steal over a million dollars previously taken by local politicians. This serialized plotline hints that the show will double as a caper which sounds like fun.

Speaking of fun, the series so far has been loaded with several wonderfully grim moments of comedy. A dinner scene set after a tense standoff in the desert — the most suspenseful moment of the series so far — has Jimmy failing to go through his date as he’s distracted by someone loudly breaking bread. Thanks to the confident direction by Breaking Bad veteran director Michelle MacLaren, the tight editing and sound design in this scene makes the breaking of the bread sound like the gunshots Jimmy managed to escape from in the previous scene. It’s a wonderfully squirm-inducing moment as we watch Jimmy fidget during his meal.

It’s tiny scenes like this that ultimately show how Saul is a different beast than Breaking Bad — it’s filled with the back comedy the latter delved in but wasn’t particularly recognized for.

The personal stakes in the show may not be as great as being diagnosed with cancer, but that doesn’t mean viewers that are either not familiar with Breaking Bad or are fans of that show won’t get invested in this new series.

Better Call Saul is a humble series with no delusions of grandeur to imitate its predecessor, and that’s reason enough to celebrate.

Better Call Saul airs Mondays at 8 p.m. central on AMC.

FESTIVA REVIEWS: 'Broad City'

This post originally appeared in the Jan. 23 issue of Festiva. You should check them out.

I’ve yet to experience the magic that is New York City. The closest thing I have to visiting it is through the magic of TV and film.

Movies like the works of Woody Allen or sitcoms such as Friends and Seinfeld have me convinced that New York is some kind of hellhole filled with pathological narcissists that I’d rather stay away from. Comedy Central’s sitcom Broad City, however, has convinced me that all you need to survive this city is a really awesome friend.

After seeing the first season of this series pop up on several top 10 lists last year I decided to check out the pilot and ended up binge-watching the rest of the available episodes in one sitting.

Based on the Web series under the same name, Broad City follows best friends Abbi and Ilana — played by real life comediennes Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer portraying fictionalized versions of themselves — as they navigate life in the Big Apple, often through absurd and jaw-droppingly hilarious episodic adventures.

Ilana is the free-spirited woman in the duo, sometimes pushing Abbi into the wild misadventures they get into but always acting as her shoulder to lean on. As Abbi, Jacobson is supposed to play the “straight man,” the one person in the group who’s so responsible that she’s usually appalled by the other character’s behavior. Abbi however often proves herself to be just as wild and crazy as Ilana, which makes their relationship all the more special.

After a brilliant debut season bursting with confidence and enough gross-out humor that would even make some guys squirm, Broad City returns with a dementedly hilarious second season premiere that shows the girls are fully capable of keeping up with the manic energy of the first season.

Titled “In Heat,” the premiere has Abbi and Illana on a quest to find an air conditioner for Abbi’s apartment. This comes after a heat wave ruined her hot date with her boyfriend (Seth Rogen) who suffers an apparent heat stroke as the two have sex in her AC-less apartment.

Abbi’s and Ilana’s journey for an AC takes them from the oasis of Bed Bath & Beyond all the way to Ilana’s old college dorm, where she’s convinced she can claim the AC there as her own. What’s striking about the entire episode — and the series as a whole — is how despite the fact that the girls are always going through bizarre situations, the chemistry between the two feels so natural that the episodes end up being grounded in a sort of chaotic reality.  

Abbi and Ilana are the type of friends who rarely fight, always mutually hate the same people and casually talk out loud about sex tapes in adjoining dressing rooms at public places. Their relationship provides the show with a surprisingly strong amount of heart in a comedy that’s smarter than it looks.

Also, have I mentioned how insanely funny this show is? In the premiere’s stellar cold open that’s reminiscent of last summer’s sci-fi flick Snowpiercer, the girls are riding the subway and must move to the car at the back of the train. Their mini-adventures takes them to cars filled with couples overdoing it with their PDA, doppelgangers and a car occupied by a single turd.

It’s a tiny scene that shows that Broad City isn’t afraid to go there as it pushes our characters to insane comedic heights, but I’ll gladly join the girls in their adventures.

Season two of Broad City airs on Comedy Central Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. Season one is streaming on Amazon Prime and is available for purchase on DVD.

Engineering a new path

UTPA alumna discusses juggling career with family

Note: This article originally appeared in the Nov. 20, 2014 issue of The Pan American. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

Ever since high school, Christina Hickey has liked a challenge. Now the career of this UTPA alumna has her dealing with them every day.

As a civil engineer Hickey takes part in managing and designing the construction of McAllen’s roadways, drainage systems and buildings. Hickey, who graduated from UTPA with a master's in computer science in May, began working for the city in 2009. This was one year after she had married her husband, Dustin Hickey, whom she met while receiving a bachelor's in civil engineering from Texas A&M University in 2008.

The native of Carrollton in the D-FW Metroplex was initially interested in biomedicine to make prosthetics until a guest speaker in her sophomore geometry class at Newman Smith High School changed her mind. The presenter, a civil engineer from the Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport, presented students with a problem the airport was having and challenged them to solve it. The presentation gave the then 15-year-old a glimpse of what a career in engineering would feel like.

“It seemed like something stimulating for me,” the 28-year-old said. “I loved how the field incorporated (a subject I loved), math and would mean that I’d get to work in the field and see my work being done in person and not stay in front of a computer all day.”

A February 2014 report from U.S. News & World Report stated that in 2010, women made up 28 percent of science and engineering workers. This is despite the fact that females make up half of all the college-educated workers in the country.  Hickey graduated this past May with a master’s in computer science at UTPA, one of the three women who were awarded that degree in the 2013-2014 academic school year, according to the UTPA Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness.

Despite the low number of women working in the fields of science, engineering, technology and math, an interest in this area feels simply right for Hickey.

“Engineering is all around us and not a lot of people will immediately notice it,” she said. “Anything from sanitary sewer systems, pavements and roadways to even parking signs went through an engineer first. I really enjoy my profession so doing my job or additional activities to promote engineering just seems natural to me.”

BALANCE

Despite her regular workload, Hickey started taking night classes at UTPA in fall 2011 to earn a master's degree in computer science. With the skills she learned there she was able to lead a special project to update McAllen’s street maintenance program in summer 2013. By bringing in UTPA civil engineering students doing internships with the city at the time, Hickey was able to collect surveys of all the streets in the city to evaluate potholes or other damage.

At that point the city’s engineering department was using a spreadsheet to store all information on the city’s streets. Hickey, however, collected all the data and made it into a map via a “Geographic Information System” - a computer system that stores and analyzes geographical data to make it easier for the department to see which streets were in desperate need of repairs.

“As a spreadsheet, all the data was collected like a snapshot so it wasn’t exactly as accurate as we wanted it,” Hickey explained. “With this database, it’s an improved record for internal use in our department that can help us with long-range planning on fixing the roads.”

According to Yvette Barrera, the director of engineering for the City of McAllen, a lack of resources in the city’s department prevents the annual evaluations of streets. Most of the information the city collects on damaged roads comes when phone calls from the general public point out a problem. Hickey’s skills helped rectify that while bringing a different perspective to the department.

“With this database she made, we were able to analyze the data to take a look at areas in need of drastic repairs and better allocate fundings toward it,” explained Barrera, who is from Brownsville. “Hickey’s knowledge is a tool we’ve been able to use to improve our work. When your employer goes above and beyond to introduce something new to get the job done, then that’s a fantastic resource.”

HOME LIFE

While handling the street maintenance program, Hickey was getting ready for her final year at UTPA. She attended her last semester while pregnant.

Her husband was attending classes at UTPA to finish a bachelor’s in computer science, the same field Christina was receiving her master’s in. This resulted in the two of them helping each other out with schoolwork.

“Sometimes she’d come to me to bounce off ideas or ask me to double check code she was writing for errors and I’d go for her if I had any math questions,” her husband of five years said. “It’s her way of making sure we’re all doing good.”

In the summer the couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Caroline.

“Being pregnant was a lot easier than having a baby so I was just lucky that our plan (was) to wait until after graduation to have (her) and (not) worry about schoolwork while raising her,” the new mother said.

She also explained that the hardest part of pregnancy was the nausea and fatigue that came during the first trimester.

“The rest of the pregnancy was really smooth from there and I couldn’t have done it without my husband,” she said. “It makes a world of difference to have a partner who was there to calm me down whenever I started panicking about anything baby-related. And now I visit Caroline every day at her daycare during my lunch break at work. I adore her.”

For Dustin Hickey, the way his wife handled her pregnancy while juggling work was proof of her resourcefulness.

“She does a lot for the city and is a fantastic mother. I don’t know how she does it,” the 29-year-old McAllen native said. “You would think she doesn’t have time for anything, but somehow she makes time for everything and can somehow juggle all these things in her life.”

Paranorman: A horror movie where we’re the monsters

Note: This article originally appeared online on Oct, 29, 2014 at The Pan American's website. The Pan American was the student newspaper at my former university, The University of Texas - Pan American, where I got into writing. Ultimately, TPA was shut down as a result of a merger with neighboring university to make way for The University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley and the new student publication did not transfer anything from TPA. Here's one of my articles for them that was saved thanks to the miracle of Google Docs.

What is scarier? A horde of zombies seemingly destroying your town and wanting to eat you or being the victim of bullying in which your classmates and townsfolks are the abusers? Laika's Paranorman, the 2012 stop motion horror comedy film, argues that there really isn't much of a difference.

Image via fmvmagazine

For the month of October, best known for Halloween, I decided to talk about a film that fits with the themes of Halloween and that of National Bullying Prevention Month. According to the website stopbullying.org, 49 percent of students from 4th to 12th grade  reported being bullied by other students at school at least once a month. Almost 31 percent of those students admitted to bullying others. The website also explains that bullying can lead to or worsen feelings of isolation, rejection, exclusion and despair. What does all of this have to do with Paranorman? All those feelings are explored in the movie.

This stop motion adventure follows Norman, an elementary school kid in a fictional Massachusetts town who can talk to the dead. Practically no one in his town accepts Norman as he’s constantly the punching bag for the older kids in his school or ignored by classmates. At the beginning of the film, Norman already has a reputation as “that weird kid” and gets stares from adults whenever he does something as simple as walking to school and conversing with the ghosts he keeps bumping into. Norman can only take solace in the companionship of Neil, a classmate who is bullied for his weight, and his dead grandmother- a relationship his dad disapproves of because of how “bizarre” it is.

Despite Norman’s struggles at the beginning of the film, this isn’t a simplistic story involving him trying to prove to others that his powers are real or something like that. Instead, Norman is practically OK with his powers and seems to accept his bullying from others as a consequence of his weirdness. While most films would play this is a form of empowerment for the main character, Paranorman subverts that idea by having him suffer for it. Not only is Norman being alienated because of his gift, he’s not fighting back against his tormentors, which motivates them to continue bullying him.

There’s a scene near the beginning of the film when Norman arrives to his locker at the start of a school day and sees the word “freak” scrawled on it. How does Norman react? He opens his locker and whips out a bottle of detergent to wipe the graffiti from it as if he’s been doing it for so long that’s practically a routine. There’s no fight in Norman as he accepts this broken situation as one he can do nothing to improve.

Image via fxguide.comfxguide.com

That all changes with the arrival of the vengeful spirit of a witch executed by the town elders three centuries prior to the start of the film. She then proceeds to wreaks havoc on Norman’s small town by resurrecting the dead. Norman along with Neil, their older siblings and one of his bullies, must then work together to break this curse.

*SPOILER ALERT*

Ultimately, through a series of visions Norman has been receiving throughout the film, Norman makes the shocking discovery about the witch. She was actually an 11-year-old girl named Agatha who, like Norman, could speak to the dead. This caused the townspeople to fear her and ultimately execute her without any remorse. Did I mention that this is in an animated children’s movie?

As Neil tells Norman at the beginning of the film, “You can't stop bullying. It's human nature. If you were bigger and stupider, you'd probably be a bully too.” Agatha is presented as proof of that statement when, once she becomes an all-powerful specter, she decides to seek revenge for all the torment she’s faced to ensure that everyone knows the same pain she felt when she was alive.

Via Rebloggy 

This form of reverse bullying is one that’s rarely seen in pop culture, especially children’s movies. Paranorman dares to suggest that there’s a bully and a victim in all of us by showing us that those who are picked on when they're powerless go on to victimize the people beneath them once they become powerful. These victims hold genuine hatred and a desire for revenge in their hearts. Norman admits to Agatha at the end of the film that he wishes he could make his tormentors suffer but chooses pacifism because he knows that revenge wouldn't break the cycle of victimization.

The zombie townspeople explain to Norman that their main motivation for killing Agatha was because they were scared of her and thought what they were doing was right. Bullying, the movie argues, comes not from a place of strength but from sadness and fear.

Norman is able to break this cycle of violence by responding to Agatha’s hostility with kindness and empathy. He understands what she’s going through and saves the day by convincing her that not everyone out there will respond to her weirdness with fear. He then tells her what his grandmother told him at the beginning of the movie: it’s OK to be scared, just as long as we don’t let it change who we are.

Image via Paranorman.wikia.com

Paranorman isn’t without its flaws. The middle section of it is filled with awkward attempts at physical comedy as the townspeople discover the zombies and attempt to destroy them. It’s cluttered and ultimately makes the film briefly lose focus of its themes despite the gorgeous, handcrafted stop-motion animation that helps make the film feel more special than it already is. Despite this, Paranorman has a message that children in particular should hear over and over again, but rarely learn from popular culture: bullying comes in many different forms, from playground teasing to parental neglect and the best counter to persecution is tolerance. This will cause everyone to hopefully be more enlightened about what bullying can do to others. As that saying goes, it gets better.