A Writer’s Update–In A Flash

Image from Orphan Black’s Tumblr

Happy Sunday, Clone Club and happy mother’s day to all the moms out there. I’ll make this brief; it has been a long, long last few days and I do apologize for this week’s regularly scheduled post being delayed. On top of Mother’s Day, today was my uncle’s birthday, yesterday was mine & my brothers’ (we’re twins) as well as my sister’s college graduation from IUP. Most people don’t know about IUP and that’s okay, but know this–it is a long drive. Needless to say, typing up all my notes and getting my thoughts organized have been a bit exigent. On top of this weekend’s events, I also work and have just entered the last month of my MFA Creative Writing  program.

Gif thanks to Alwaysthecoolkids from tumblr.

Anyway, this is just a quick writer update, I’ll have much, much more news for you later this week ;-). I also wanted to  take a second to say how excited I was when I found out our Orphan Black has been picked up for a fourth season by BBC America! Yes! #Cloneclub members, we can rejoice! ^__^

Gif from BBC America’s Orphan Black’s website.

We’re only on episode four of season three and to learn that we’re definitely getting more from these characters was just so amazing. You can read the official word, released on May 7th, from BBC America here. I have a few hours of sleep to catch up on, but I will have a new, clean, mean, nail biting review post up tomorrow.

As always, stay creative,

Gia.

Meet The New Daredevil

Daredevil S1 Ep 3 – “Rabbit In A Snow Storm” | Review

Lady Justice from Netflix’s Daredevil’s Opening Credits (Posted by Kotalm on Reddit).

In this week’s Daredevil episode, “Rabbit In A Snow Storm,” written by Marco Ramirez, we saw our hero struggle with his morality as he contemplated the true balance of the law vs his version of justice. We also meet the New York Bulletin reporter, Bennie Urich and the infamously powerful, Wilson Fisk.

Alex Morf as John Healy surrendering to the cops.

It all starts when an eerily, calm and overtly confident killer, Alex Morf ‘s John Healy is arrested for murder, and Foggy and Matt are approached by James, Fisk’s right hand man, to take the case. Matt is immediately against the idea after James comments on Karen’s association with the firm (that and James’s eagerness to hire two un-established and fresh-out-of-law-school newbie attorneys with a large, up front payment). Curious to figure out whom James really works for and what he’s truly after, Matt agrees to take the case.

Vondie Curtis-Hall as Ben Urich (Photo from Netflixlife.com)

Meanwhile, Bennie (Ben) Urich, a New York Bulletin reporter,  tries digging up some information on a rumor spreading around Hell’s Kitchen of a new player who’s replacing all of the established and well-known ‘competition’ on the streets. Bennie is warmed by a close contact to drop it, and even pushed by his boss as well to give up and let go of the organized crime articles due to the decline of the newspaper market. With the added incentive, from his boss, that is could cost him his job, which could jeopardize the health benefits he needs for his wife.

Karen speaks with Union Allied’s attorney (Photo thanks to Theothermurdockpapers.com)

While Karen is propositioned with a legal ‘gag’ against discussing any further details about the Union Allied ‘incident’. And for her silence, she is offered six months pay and a legal ‘promise’ that states no future lawsuit against her will be pursed since she broke a non-disclosure agreement with Union Allied during her time of employment. Unsettled by this, Karen goes to visit her former co-worker’s (Daniel Fisher) wife in an attempt to unite against the formidable Union Allied, but Miss Fisher informs Karen that she too was offered money to stay quiet which she accepted. Morally plagued to tell the truth, Karen visits Bennie in the hopes that he’ll want to get to the truth as well.

Continue reading →

Orphan Black S3 Ep3 “Formalized, Complex And Costly,” | Review

Orphan Black’s weekly episode poster. (Image courtesy of BBC America’s Orphan Black Page.)

Well, who knew a dead castor clone could bring so many people together?

This week’s Orphan Black episode, “Formalized, Complex and Costly,” written by: Chris Roberts, set in motion a much needed Sarah and Art reunion as well as an interesting three-person-dissection teamed between Cosima, Scott and Felix over the dead Castor clone’s, Seth, brain and the secrets it possibly holds.

Art reaches out to Sarah after he gets a lead on the Proletheans, (Mark and Gracie.) This sets Art and Sarah off to track the two down. While following up on the lead, Sarah discovers from Alexis, the Proletheans’ former mid-wife, that Johanssen harvested Helena’s eggs and implanted Helena as well as his daughter, Gracie with an embryo. (To breakdown, or attempt to understand Henrik Johanssen’s clearly ego driven actions behind this would take too much time, so for now I will just say that it turns my stomach that he did this not only to Helena, but to his daughter as well. Not to mention the Proletheans belief in this act as being ridiculous endeavor.)

Moving on–When Art and Sarah’s chat with Alexis leads them to follow up a lead on Johanssen’s car, it seemed as though Art was sad and something was troubling him. Art reveals to Sarah that his last encounter/contact with Beth was on the day that she died and I got the impression that he was not only missing Beth in that moment, but also Sarah/Beth as his partner. He comments on how similar they are to one another.

Art talks to Sarah about Beth.

Art talks to Sarah about Beth. (Screencap property of BBC America).

Else where with newlyweds Gracie and Mark, Mark reveals his secret (or half of his secret), to Gracie and tells her that he was a plant for the military in the Prolethean community and that for him to “get out,” he needs to find something for them. Mark believes that Gracie’s father, Henrik, may have given the original samples (donor samples) to a former business associate, William Finch. Gracie offers to visit Finch on her own in order to protect Mark from Finch, but unsuccessfully returns with a box full of note books and old papers.

I say unsuccessfully, but in actuality I have a feeling that the dismissal of the note books and papers was a mistake on Mark’s part as, like with Cosima’s The Island of Dr. Moreau book, they  could hold the key or at least some information on how to solve some of the genetic deteriorating/glitches that the Castor and Leda clones are facing.

As Scott and Cosima cut into Seth’s skull for his brain, with the calm and collected help of Felix, Cosima goes on a cosmos/’what if’ rant about death that worried me. She is usually the most positive and put together one among the clone club. Even though she is up on her feet and back in the lab, her personality seems darker and sad this season. After coming so close to death and still being at risk, it makes me worry about her mental state through out the rest of the season. I also hope, Scott and/or Felix pick up on it, like soon.

Continue reading →

“Life Partners”| Review

Life Partners Promotional Photo (Cutesy of Magnolia Pictures)

Life Partners (2014)

 Staring: Leighton Meester, as Sasha, and Gillian Jacobs as Page, with supporting roles by Adam Brody, as Tim (the boyfriend), Gabourey Sidibe as Jen (aka one ‘N’ Jen) and Beth Dover as Jenn (aka two ‘Ns” Jenn). Released in April of 2014, the film was directed by Susanna Fogel & co-written with producer Joni Lefkowitz.

Life Partners, a truly honest-to-goodness down to earth film, tells the story of two close and infinitely linked best friends, Sasha & Page; late twenty-somethings in need of a bit of cognitive and spiritual growth. As the two pursue relationships and proper adulthood behavior, their un-linkable bond tethers at the seams when Page enters into a serious relationship. Through out the film, the two equally are sort of forced to face eye-opening life style changes, which prove to be developmentally difficult.

Meester & Jacobs as Sasha & Page (Photo Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

Page—needed to stop being taken care of all the time and getting her own way, and Sasha needed to move her life forward not only with her love life, but her career as well while adjusting to Page having a boyfriend.

The main reason I enjoyed this film was because it does such a great job of incorporating a strong, friendship bond between Meester’s character, Sasha, and Jacobs’ character, Page even when the pair were at odds with one another. The best instance in this case is after Sasha begins to date Vanessa—the former ex of one of the girls’ friends Jenn (aka two ‘Ns’). Following an awkward, double date at a bowling ally, Page and Sasha go for a hike and ‘discuss’ Sasha and Vanessa. What I really enjoyed about this scene was Sasha and Page’s reactions to one another when they realized the other was lying about how they truly felt in regards to Vanessa. Instead of coming clean, both continue to layer the conversation with subtext as neither wants to let the other out lie the other, regardless if both of them know that the other isn’t being honest.

Photo Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

(Photo Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures).

Yes, Page gets into a serious relationship with a guy she originally thought wouldn’t be her type and yes, we see Sasha go from one lesbian relationship to the other, but that relationship isn’t what grounds the story or film. The core of Life Partners, is Page and Sasha working on away to find a new balance with one another with Page’s new boyfriend. In my opinion, one of the best things this story and film succeeds at is avoiding some the stereotypical clichés of this kind of, three is a crowd/third wheel/love triangle relationship, like: the jerky boyfriend, an overtly, whinny/emotional girlfriend, the dominating boyfriend, and the three second love at first sight trope with Page and Tim’s relationship.

Continue reading →

Meet The New Daredevil

Daredevil S1 Ep 2 – “Cut Man” | Review

3 Comments

Netflix Promotional Poster for Daredevil

And we are back with Daredevil this Wednesday. If the first episode wasn’t enough to make you fall in love with Matty (that’s what I call him because I feel we’re super close) than the second episode is sure too. The second episode, titled, “Cut Man,”  also written by Drew Goddard, piggybacks off of Into The Ring’s end sequence to bring us directly into the aftermath events of Matt’s attempt to rescue a young boy who was kidnapped by the Russian Ranskahov brothers. However, Matt’s valiant attempts we less than  successful as the episode opens with a badly beaten and bloody Matt lying inside of a dumpster.

Episode Review:

Cut Man’s theme centered on the mentality of being able to getting back up after you’ve fallen or been knocked down. Pulled from a dumpster and helped by a nurse, Claire Temple played by Rosario Dawson, with broken ribs, possible internal bleeding, stab wounds and a concussion, Matt unsuspecting gains his first Daredevil related ally.

The episode split it’s segments almost evenly in half between scenes of Matt with his Father, Jack and Matt attempting to recover from his critical injuries in Claire’s apartment, whom tries to adjust to the fact that a masked, blind man is acting as Hell’s Kitchen knight in shining armor as she patches him up.

Following the flashback timeline in this episode, we were able to learn that sometimes Matt’s father, Jack would agree to throw fights in the ring for a large payout in order to support him and his son, even though he hated it and it made him ashamed. Unaware that his father threw fights, in a scene prior to Matt’s accident his father tells him, “It ain’t how you hit the mat, it’s how you get back up.”

When Matt’s pulled from a flashback/dream of the past with a collapsing lung or a pneumothorax, (thank you, Google) Claire has to puncture his chest to release the pressure/air. She becomes even more concerned that his reluctance to call an ambulance will lead to Matt’s death. Matt explains that the people who work for the Ranskahov Brothers’ would kill a ton of people if he goes to a hospital. Matt reveals to Claire that he was trying to save a kidnapped boy, but he ended up walking into a trap.

Matt senses someone in the building has come looking for him and after Claire’s attempt to get rid of the guy fails, Matt (very casually) tracks his movements down a flight of stairs before releasing a fire extinguisher onto his head, knocking him unconscious.

Elsewhere, Foggy and Karen Page, (Nelson & Murdock’s first client, now new secretary), head out for a night on the town with a few bar crawls and we learn that after her ordeal Karen now fears what lurks in the shadows around Hell’s Kitchen and to a certain extent she has been having trouble trusting in people again. I thought the plotline between these two in this episode was fantastic. Looking at just their scenes, it was like watching a mini date between a really cute pair/couple growing closer.

Continue reading →

A Writer’s Update & My Experience With “Spring Cleaning” My Blog

Hello All And Happy Tuesday,^__^,

So, last week I officially re-launched the opening of the blog and the site with my Orphan Black S3 Ep1 Review and Netflix’s Daredevil Review. Today’s post, however, it the first official Writer Update since the re-opening. The Writer Updates are meant to be bi-weekly fun facts, writing projects updates and any other creative seg-ways that I happen to come across that I’d like to share with you. While in the restructure phase, I decided to create an episodic flash fiction series called “The Protector Series.“  The idea is loosely based off of a book I am working on and I thought creating a flash fiction series based off of it would be an interesting thing to do.

The series will focus on an individual, aka a protector, at set moments in their life leading up to a pivotal moment when they step into protect another individual.  These characters come from all walks of life, but each will share distinct personality traits which motivate them to defend, look after and protect other people. Some of them, as you will see, have lived through or have survived certain situations that have placed them on the path of protectors and others have not.

My goal for this series is to inspire the protectors in all of us to always stand up and step in to help those around us who need help.  The first installment titled, “Bella,” can be found here, or you can just click on the Other Work By Me page and click on my Medium profile link.  I am really excited to start blogging and reviewing again. The whole experience has truly been an eye opener for me.

And even though I have re-launched the site and blog, I am still running through a few things, and since this is a writer’s update post, I wanted to share a bit on the process.  Now, I’m a neat freak and a bit obsessive about it, but this spring cleaning occasion was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I prepared myself (like everyone should before diving into a project) and made a list of what I thought I should keep and get rid of. I made an outline for the new site layout, and I set  an allotted amount of time aside for each task. And as with any writing engagement, I rolled up my sleeves, did some shoulder rolls and wiggled out my fingers.

But, when it comes to blog cleaning, I’ve discovered that sometime there are just things you can’t be ready for. It’s like finding cob webs you never knew existed. It hasn’t all been interesting and constructive. Some of it has been difficult and heart breaking.

“But, how can cleaning your blog be heart breaking?”

“Well, I’m glad you asked, random blog reader.”

You see, I like to use a lot of gifs for my posts. And I mean a lot, but they take up quite a bit of space. So, I’ve had to part with many gifs. :-/ As a heads up, some older posts (about half) will be lacking some gifs, and others will be completely void of them.

But then once the gifs are gone, you start to wonder “Should I just delete the post all together?” And before you know it, you have holes left and right.  So what did I decide to do? Well, I did not get up and walk away after deleting over six-hundred old posts, I’ll have you know. A-ha-ha-haa…On a serious note, I’ll keep you posted. 😉

For now, I just attempted to clean up the blog as much as I could, re-vamped the layout and the site menus. I encourage feedback for the changes/look and content from all, so please do reach out. Just a quick reminder after my spring cleaning babble, the first installment for my Protector Series is currently live and posted here.

So until next time, as always, stay creative,

Gia

Orphan Black S3 Ep2: “Transitory Sacrifices Of Crisis”| Review (With Spoilers)

Castor Clones Tattoo(Image from: BBC America‘s Orphan Black website.)

Episode Review

Last night’s Orphan Black episode “Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis” Written by: Audrey Nelson, felt really dark, mainly because the uncertainty that looms over the Castor boys and how close they are getting to Sarah and her sister clones.

The episode opened with the Castor clone, Rudy bringing a girl into his hotel room. As if the Castor clones weren’t already pushing the extremely creepy button, when Rudy and the girl become intimate, Rudy’s brother, Seth, creeps into bed with them and I’m not trying to be funny. He literally creeps in and suddenly it was like watching Dead Ringers with Jeremy Irons as the identical Mentle twins.

The next morning Rudy and Seth get a visit from Paul who gives them each an examination, which resembled the voight-kampt test in Blade Runner given to ‘individuals’ to distinguish if they are human or a replicate. During Seth’s test, Paul notices when Seth has difficulty answering one of the last questions. Rudy chalks it up to a hang over and pushes Paul to drop it. After the test, Paul surprises the Castor boys with new of their planned extractions later that night and Rudy questions,“ Is that Mother’s orders or yours?” I feel that this was Rudy’s way of stating that he believes Paul hasn’t been 100% as loyal or as truthful as he is pretending and Rudy could suspect that Paul still has a thing for Sarah.

Sarah and Cal

Sarah and Cal have a moment in his new place.

Sarah, on the other hand, is surprised when Cal reveals he has bought a place and seemingly wants to put down some roots. And for a brief sixty seconds, Kira, Sarah, and Cal enjoy a splash of ‘normalcy’ playing hockey in their socks until Sarah gets a call from Art and tells her that a woman showed up and told him about a disturbing encounter she had with these twin brothers—Rudy and Seth.

#Teamhendricks “Down, but not out.” -Donnie Hendricks played by Kristian Bruun.

Over at #teamHendricks, Donnie and Alison talk over Alison’s decision to run for school trustee as they are still in a financial bind when Roman, aka the locate drug (mostly) dealer shows up and informs Alison that he will be ‘closing’ his business soon as he prepares to go off to college. And as classic Alison, tells her husband that and ‘opportunity’ has just opened up for them. The concept of Alison becoming a drug dealer is absolutely perfect. Out of all of the sister clones, I find her to be the funniest because her personality is so far detached from all things science related. She is so normal and stepfordy that when I watch her scenes, I know that she is going to surprise me. It is almost like watching an improve show.

Continue reading →