Heartstopper 1x07 "Bully" Review

I'm here with my review of episode seven after finishing my fifth watch of the series last night.

Charlie goes with Nick and his friends to the movies in this episode, which put me on edge the first time I watched the episode because I knew that something was going to happen. I do enjoy the scenes of Charlie's dad dropping him off though. This time in particular he makes sure to let Charlie know to call him if something goes wrong, and I really appreciate seeing that, even if (as a teenager) Charlie's unlikely to actually do it. I also love that he says, "Nick's going to be there. I'll be fine." It's a small moment but shows that he feels safe with Nick, which I just really love.

Nick does stand up for Charlie in this episode too. After earlier episodes where he stayed quiet while Harry was saying stuff, it as nice to see him push back. (I know he did in the party episode too though.) While fighting is never the answer of course, I can't deny that the fight scene felt satisfying.

The scene where Charlie arrives at school and discovers that Nick fought Harry is also one of my favorites.

Ben continues to be unnerving every time he shows up too. I got chills when he confronted Charlie in the parking lot, and I'm so thankful for Charlie's dad showing up when he did because I'd hate to think about what would have happened if he hadn't.

I'm still a bit iffy on the actual timeline. While Tao and Elle are talking in this episode, they reference the milkshake date having been "ages ago."  I know it goes from being the first day of the term to sometime in the spring/early summer, but I honestly have no idea when each individual episode is meant to have taken place. I think because of the shorter amount of episodes, I have to remind myself that Charlie and Nick have known each other for longer than it sometimes feels like when watching the episodes.

Charlie wanting to break up with Nick because he thinks me makes everyone's life worse absolutely broke my heart, and the look on Nick's face while they're talking in the cafeteria made it even worse.

Like I mentioned when talking about episode six, I really feel for Tao. I completely understand where his feelings come from, and his fight with Harry and then yelling at Charlie were both sad to watch as well.

This episode definitely left me on the edge of my seat for the next one the first time I watched it.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds 1x01 "Strange New Worlds" Review

I've mentioned in my Star Trek: Discovery reviews that it's the first Star Trek series I've watched every episode of, though I've seen bits and pieces of many of the other series. Ironically, The Original Series is the one that I've probably seen the least of. However, Discovery made me curious enough about Strange New Worlds to watch it. Plus, as I mentioned in my Heartstopper reviews, I've wanted a new show to watch every week, so now I have Strange New Worlds for that.

The episode opens with Pike in Montana. Discovery never shows much more than quick glimpses of Earth, so it feels kind of strange to see a relatively normal Earth in Star Trek.

We see Spock next. He's on a date with T'Pring, who he's been "courting" for a year. They end up becoming engaged. I'm aware that T'Pring is in The Original Series, though I know very little about her. I'm curious about the role she'll play in Strange New Worlds. At this point, I can't say that I like her necessarily, but we'll see. We didn't really get to learn much about her.

Early in the episode, we hear from Spock that Pike has requested a Lieutenant Kirk, which was an interesting detail that definitely left me curious.

Pike is seeing images of his future after seeing it in Discovery. He ends up sharing this with Spock, which I thought was an interesting development since I feel like characters rarely open up about stuff like this with others (which always leads to more problems down the line). I can't imagine knowing the circumstances of my own death, and I'm very curious how that's going to affect Pike's decision making going forward.

Enterprise goes to a planet to find Number One and two other Star Fleet officers who've gone missing. They discover that the planet has actually made a warp bomb instead of a warp drive, all because of what happened to Discovery. I really appreciate getting to see the consequences of Discovery on the former "present" of the show in a way that we can't on the show Discovery itself.

The planet has an ongoing conflict that's constantly compared to Earth during the episode. I don't know when this episode was written or filmed, but it certainly is interesting timing to have it coming out now during the war in Ukraine.

Pike gets the two sides of the conflict to negotiate with each other in a move that plays out a little too ideal, but I pretty much expected that. While I haven't seen much of The Original Series, I've seen more of The Next Generation than any other series besides Discovery, and the general vibe of this reminded me of TNG.

At the end of the episode, we meet Samuel Kirk, who I know from researching on the wiki is future Captain Kirk's brother. I'm curious about him as a character, but the actor is also being played by the same actor who played Mary's brother James in Reign. There are many actors who I can watch in various shows with no problem, but this is one case where I couldn't stop thinking about Reign. He was only there briefly though, so here's hoping that that'll fade as time goes on.

Overall, I'm nowhere near as invested in Strange New Worlds as I am Discovery, but I wouldn't expect that after only one episode. I'm definitely intrigued enough to keep watching and see where the story goes.

Movie Review: Moonshot

I learned about Moonshot from an ad for it that popped up on Roku, and I was curious. It was mostly the cast that drew me in. I love the To All the Boys movies, so I'd be excited to watch anything new with Lana Condor, but the fact that Cole Sprouse was also in it piqued by curiosity even more. I haven't watched Cole Sprouse in anything in years (not even Riverdale), but I spent all of middle school obsessed with The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and the idea of the two of them acting opposite each other seemed like a strange enough choice that I wanted to see it for myself.

I wasn't expecting much, but I was curious. I also like both romance and sci-fi, and while those two genres are combined fairly often in books, there are less movies that do that.

While Cole and Lana didn't have the strongest chemistry, they honestly did better opposite each other than I expected. I'm also not sure how much the lack of chemistry was the choice of actors and how much of it was how Cole Sprouse's character was written. He's not particularly charming or anything. He's supposed to be an "average guy" to an extreme, but while average guys can still be interesting characters, this one  wasn't. Even an average guy needs some redeeming qualities, and he didn't really have any.

We're supposed to be rooting for him over the boyfriend (can you tell I don't remember any character names?), but to be honest, I thought she was better with the boyfriend. Don't get me wrong. I get that her and her boyfriend had different visions for their futures, and I completely understand that leading to a breakup. However, the story itself felt like it would have worked better if it worked up to her going back to Earth on her own without another romance in the picture.

One thing that helped me to keep watching was that the movie seemed self-aware about how ridiculous it was to at least a certain extent. There were a few times I laughed out loud, even if it was just because of the ridiculousness, so I'll give it that.

Overall, I don't regret watching the movie. I got some laughs out of it. Will I ever watch it again? Doubtful. But it did make me think about how much I could use more romance movies set in space. It's fairly common in books but less so in movies, which is a shame. I wouldn't mind this one starting a trend. Not that I expect that to happen.

Heartstopper 1x06 "Girls" Review

This episode was an emotional one. I mean, they're all emotional to me because I spend most of the episodes beaming, and happiness is also an emotion, but this one is one of the saddest ones I think. Even after watching it for the fourth time yesterday, this one really gets to me.

Nick starts researching bisexuality in this episode as he learns more about himself. That really touched me. I love the journey he goes on in these episodes. It's really great.

This episode also includes Nick getting lunch with Tara and Darcy and opening up to them about his relationship with Charlie, which was adorable! I love his friendship with both of them a lot.

The lunch with Nick, Tara, and Darcy turns into a triple date. I loved Elle's reaction to finding out that Charlie and Nick are dating. It was so cute! I feel bad for Isaac that he didn't get to come along though. If we get a season two (and oh how I hope we get a season two), then I hope we get to see a bit more of Isaac. I know he's the quiet one, but as someone who was also the quiet one of my friend group growing up, I'd love to see more of him!

Tao being the only one who doesn't know about Nick and Charlie also makes me sad. I can easily imagine how terrible it would be to know that a bunch of other people knew about your best fiend's relationship and you didn't. But it's probably best to talk more about that when I talk about episode seven.

Heartstopper 1x05 "Friend" Review

 As of writing this review, I've watched the whole season three times, and I'm doing my best to focus on other things I have to do instead of just starting the show for a fourth time. I've also convinced my sister to start watching it, so I'm feeling pretty accomplished.

I love that Charlie and his friends play Monopoly in this episode. As a kid, I played a lot of Monopoly with my sister and grandma, so the argument about cheating at Monopoly was particularly funny to me. We had a lot of similar arguments when I was growing up.

Imogen's dog dying on the day Nick wanted to talk to her about the date is cliché, but also funny, especially when Nick talks to his mom about it later. I'm not even bothered by it being a little bit of an overdone trope.

While Tao does overreact at certain points in the story, I appreciate that his reactions are always believable. I completely get why he feels the way he does about Charlie getting involved with Nick. His worries about Nick's date with Imogen in particular is something that I'm sympathetic too, and I get why he wanted to tell Charlie about it.

Props to Nick for coming clean about Imogen and making things right too. While he shouldn't have said yes, I'm sympathetic towards the pressure he felt in that scene, and I loved seeing him be honest about it with Charlie. The gift he gives Charlie is also adorable!

Speaking of adorableness, there were some great moments between Tao and Elle in the arcade in this episode. I loved it!

Nick keeps his word about telling Imogen that he isn't interested, and I'm surprised at how open he is with her in the park. She also impressed me by handling it the way she did and not telling all their friends the full story. I'm curious about where her character development could take her in the future, especially since she's a character unique to the TV show and who's not in the comics.

I'm not sure if I like her per se, but I do think I could potentially like Imogen if we ever learn more about her and she grows as a character. If we get a season two and don't get much of her, I also wouldn't be too disappointed though.