Film geek, podcaster and newly minted IATSE member from Regina, Saskatchewan. I met Don McKellar once, and he told me that Quentin Tarantino is exactly like me.
Hey All. Welcome to our 2nd Annual Next Projection Christmas Episode Advent Calendar. This was a huge success last year and I’m hoping we can make this an annual tradition on the site.
In terms of what the title of this episode refers to, I got nothing. The best that I can come up with is that it sounds like something a scolding parent would say to two children after coming across an accident they caused.
When Hank asked the 6 year old Molly if she drew a rhinoceros, that wasn’t just a grandpa playing around with his granddaughter. That was actually a nod to the title of this week’s episode title. Written by Hawley and directed by Jeffery Reiner, the title refers to a French absurdist play of the same name, written by Eugene Ionesco.
After nods to absurdist plays, Kafka, Greek mythology, Kierkegaard, existentialism and the Old Testament, this week’s episode title is refreshingly familiar to anyone whose celebrated Christmas or saw the “Xmas Story” episode of Futurama. “The Gift of the Magi” is a nod to the famous O. Henry short story of a struggling married couple living in New York City buying gifts for each other at Christmas.
The title of this week’s episode (“Fear and Trembling”) is a reference to both the…
Holy shit. That’s the best way to describe this latest episode of Heroes Reborn. For Heroes fans like me who were going into this series with cautious optimism of whether or not Kring and Co. can achieve the heights they attained in Season 1, this was hitting the jackpot after feeding 6 coins into the slot machine.
After the previous episode’s lack of tension and excitement in spite of plot revelations and character development, “Game Over” brings the series back on track. It re-introduces one of the most beloved characters and elements of the series, has a revelation of one of our new characters and a convergence of two others.
Whereas last week’s episode title referred to an obscure parable buried within the writing of Kafka, “The Myth of Sisyphus” needs very little explanation. Sisyphus rolls a boulder up the steep side of a valley or hill and just as he gets to the top with it, the boulder rolls back down and he has to start all over again.
While last week’s premiere episode title was a reference to the famous absurdist play “Waiting for Godot” by Samuel Beckett in which two clowns wait for a guy who never shows up, this week’s stellar follow-up “Before the Law” (both written and directed by series creator Noah Hawley) is a nod to a parable made famous by Franz Kafka and is very much in his wheelhouse.
Well, it had to happen. Even with a 13 episode order, we eventually had to run out of momentum and hit our first “meh” episode of the run.