Skins Season 2 (2008)

"What if... I'm not ready for this?"
"You kind of need to be."

Season 2 continues with the same cast of characters, now somewhat fragmented in the aftermath of the events of season 1. Their friends and relationships shift and change as they deal with a new host of problems such as long distance relationships, remarriage of parents and others all while their last year together comes to a close and the beginning of their adult lives looms ever closer. This very much improved the series as the problems had more emotional weight than the first season while still retaining some of the wacky hijinks and humor. Gripes of the first season are also fixed as Tony is no longer spending the entire show being a douche-bag since having a big serving of humble pie and Jal is given far more to do than her non-entity status of the first season.

Now that most characters have more interesting plots to resolve, Maxxie and Anwar are largely pushed aside with only one comical subplot to occupy them. Maxxie shares his character-centric episode with Tony and Anwar doesn't even get one this time around. That feels like a wasted opportunity since Maxxie's homosexuality and Anwar's conflict with his religious beliefs were interesting subplots of the first season, but there is enough going on in this season to occupy time that you most likely won't notice unless you really like them.

Tony's transformation is a very interesting center of the plot, but the stand-outs are still Cassie and Chris. Cassie finding an equilibrium between her odd personality and making a relationship work is as entertaining and endearing as it was in the first season and Chris' problems play out in funny and emotional ways as his screw-ups catch up to him. The theme of shifting to adulthood runs throughout this season and makes it more relatable. Much improved over the first season.

Episodes to See:
Sid - Full of drama and I just particularly like Sid.
Cassie - We get Hannah Murray playing her crazy alter ego and a lot of things come to a head in this episode.

Episodes to Avoid:
There are no particularly bad episodes, but you could skip the episode Sketch if you really had to since it deals with the unimportant Maxxie/Anwar subplot.

Buyer's Guide:
Available as a 3-disc set and as part of larger 3-season and 4-season box sets.

4 sisters masturbating with a disability toilet out of 5

Multiple Personality Detective Psycho : Series 1 (2000)

MPD Psycho follows Yosuke Kobayashi, a detective who developed Multiple Personality Disorder after a personal tragedy. Yosuke assumed a new identity and put to rest the reason for his personality split, but years later it comes back to haunt him, manifesting in a number of different ways in the real world.

Yosuke gets called out of retirement to help with an investigation. Meanwhile the appearance of a strange cult with barcodes tattooed on their eyeballs coincides with a number of gruesome murders.

You'll need to fit into specific criteria to get the most from the series. Firstly, you'll need to like mysteries that don't pander to a casual audience; pay attention or you'll get lost (I paid close attention and still felt lost part of the time). You'll need to like stuff that makes your brain melt like candle wax in a furnace. And, lastly but perhaps most importantly, you'll need to be willing to experience Takashi Miike's work. Miike is a Japanese film director with a love of all things bloody and violent. He's no concept of pacing, or perhaps he does and simply doesn't care.

Each episode has its own unique murder technique but also adds to the overall story arc. With there being rarely a satisfactory conclusion to the individual stories, I was left hoping it would all begin to make some kind of sense when the arc was tied up at the end. But this is Miike, to wish for such things is folly.

The series has a cast of sickos and idiots. There's a one-eyed snuff film lover, an idiot police chief, a killer that cuts babies from their mother's wombs, some school girl suicides, etc. It flits from coma-inducing boring to heightened (suggested) gore to slapstick comedy. (The pixelated nudity and gore are a stylistic choice by Miike; it enabled him to suggest things that were forbidden on TV and have the viewer's sick twisted mind fill in the rest.) In the end I was left scratching my head about something. I'll need to give it a second viewing.

6 episodes, approx 56 mins each.

3 severed body parts out of 5

Bleach : Season 1 : The Substitute Arc (2005)

Ichigo Kurosaki is an average fifteen-year-old guy, except he has orange hair and he’s able to see and talk with the dead. One fateful night he meets Rukia Kuchiki, a female Soul Reaper (aka Shinigami) as she battles something evil outside his home, something normal humans shouldn't be able to see but which Ichigo can. She tells him a Soul Reaper’s job is twofold: to help the benign dead soul (known as a Whole) pass peacefully over into the Soul Society and to banish the evil and corrupt lost soul (known as a Hollow) who has a taste for eating human spirits.

Ichigo and Rukia team up out of necessity to combat the Hollows and keep the world safe from their malevolent intent, but not before Ichigo undergoes an unexpected transformation; as a result his life changes from simple teenage embarrassment to full scale supernatural turmoil. Oh, and his father likes to ambush him and kick the crap out of him for fun.

The Bleach anime is one of those series that seem like it'll go on forever. It’s currently up to episode 353 at time of writing. I avoided it for a long time because I guessed it would be another dumb harem show, but it isn’t, it’s actually really good, full of character driven plot and action. It suffers from the usual 'bad guy stands and waits while the good guy talks exposition' fight scenes but less so than other similar shows. It has some wonderful use of music, and the animation is excellent considering it's knocked out so quickly. At this stage, it's highly recommended if ongoing weekly anime is your thing.

20 episodes (01-20), approx 22 mins each.

4 giant vaginas in the sky out of 5

Crusade (1999)

Crusade is the first failed spin-off from Babylon 5. In the year 2267 a race called the Drakh, bumming around like glue-bags now the Shadow War has ended, release a plague upon the Earth in a final act of douche vengeance. Consequently, all life on Earth will terminate in approximately five years if a cure isn't found.

Earth Gov orders the destroyer ship Excalibur to scour the galaxy, dig beneath alien rocks and generally make themselves a pain in the butt of everyone else in order to find a cure.

The series managed only 13 episodes before being canned. In truth, it wasn't due to the poor quality of the series, it was the TNT network being interfering bints. If you listen to the episode commentaries you'll discover that JMS had big plans for years 2-5: leftover Shadow tech; government cover-ups; the return of everyone's favourite bad guy behind a badge, Alfred Bester; a magical sword; and something called an Apocalypse Box, which you'll understand if you watch the show. Things could have got good.

Much of the cast are unspectacular. Captain Gideon (Gary Cole) is two dimensional; he's supposed to be a stubborn gambler type but he comes off as wooden. His second in command, Lt Matheson (Daniel Dae Kim), is limp, restricted in both his abilities and his function. The only two interesting characters, a female thief named Dureena (Carrie Dobro) and a Technomage named Galen (Peter Woodward), are criminally underused. Woodward steals the show; his ability to portray intrigue and pathos are almost equal that of his famous father, Edward. Additionally, there are a few cameos from B5 cast members to keep fans happy.

If you do watch it take note, because of the studio interference you have the option of the original broadcast order, the revised Sci Fi Channel broadcast order, or the chronological order to choose from. Either way, due to unfilmed episodes, none of those options offer an acceptable linear experience.

The music isn't by Christophe Franke this time, and his absence is painfully obvious.

1½ phallic shaped spaceships out of 5

Babylon 5 : Season 5: The Wheel of Fire (1998)

Season 5 was the ensign red shirt of the Babylon 5 universe. Everything went wrong, and there were a number of reasons why: Studio dithering (see here for info of that); Lochley replacing [spoiler] and trying hard not to be perceived as the obvious replacement that she was; Garibaldi being a twat, and the inclusion of his stupid new girlfriend in story-lines; Zack being the head of security and wanting to be John Wayne in every damn scene; and worst of all, the most hateful thing of all, Byron and his group of irritating hippy commune teeps. Every scene he's in turns my blood to fire. Even the intro was directionless this time, with no obvious arc to reference it had to use sound-bites from the previous seasons.

On the flip side, the episode that was set at Psi-Corps was interesting. I'd have liked that to have been developed more. I know the idea was later used for a trilogy of tie-in novels, but I haven't read any of them.

I've no right to feel cheated, but as a fan I feel supremely and royally wedgied. I know JMS could've did a better job if the suits hadn't stifled him. It's a shame the last season is such a black spot on an otherwise perfect series.

The final episode, however, is a thing of beauty. I had to watch parts of it twice because I'd tears threatening my eyes the first time.

22 episodes, approx 44 mins each.

2 bowls of cold spoo out of 5

The Maxx (1995)

"Cartoons today are so pretentious."

An old nineties cartoon that aired as part of the MTV Oddities block about a big purple pseudo-superhero with huge yellow claws called The Maxx. He thinks himself a hero, but is really just a bum who lives in a box in an alley and is regularly bailed out of jail by Julie Winters, a freelance social worker. They rely on each other to survive the violent and corrupt city while serial rapist and murderer Mr. Gone prowls the streets. Maxx also has a habit of randomly switching between reality and an alternate reality where he roams open plains and protects his Jungle Queen (Julie). He chalks this up to probable insanity, but how much of it is fantasy and reality is unknown to him as is the effect it has on those around him. Gone frequently torments Julie with phone calls about his latest crimes and also seems to have a deeper knowledge of not just Julie, but Maxx as well including his forays into his fantasy land.

Part superhero tale, black comedy and psycho drama makes this an odd cartoon which if you haven't guessed by now is not for kids. The show revolves around themes of rape and murder to violence in media and various tenets of feminism(or as much as they can with just 11 minute episodes). The feminism stuff fell a little flat probably because it was written by two men, Sam Kieth with help from William Messner-Loebs. The animation is very comic-like as it should be since it is often taken panel by panel from the original comic , but is frequently changed and mixed with other artstyles and even live-action. That sounds disjointed, but it blends very well. Very odd, but very interesting.

Episodes to See:
Episode 7 - Dialogue written all in verse with a change in artstyle.

Episodes to Avoid:
Episode 8 - Some cool action with a very comic-like villian, but it is also largely unimportant.

Buyer's Guide:
Originally only available on VHS edited into a single movie with large edits, it has recently been released on DVD as part of Amazon's Manufacture on Demand service with episode commentary. Also available streaming on MTV.com.

3½ There are never therapists in media out of 5

Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2 (2006)

"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements and the other nations will help you become whole."

Having sufficiently learned waterbending, Aang and the others make their way to the Earth Kingdom in search of an earthbending teacher and to bring crucial intelligence for the war effort to the Earth King in the capitol of Ba Sing Se. Along the way they are harassed by new antagonist, Azula. She is a Fire Nation princess, bending prodigy and a far more dangerous adversary. As Zuko's sister she is sent specifically to succeed where Zuko has failed. A recurring subplot is Aang attempting to master the Avatar State; a superpowered state that affords him the power of all the past avatars. This proves more difficult than bending since there are benders abound, but there are seemingly none who can teach him how to be an avatar.

This season continues the precedent of excellent animation and surprising depth for a kid's show set by the first season while bringing in a fresh batch of the new. New characters, stories, and new twists on old characters particularly on the part of Zuko as circumstance forces him to deal with a new set of problems other than hunting Aang that may change him forever. Any problems of the first season have been remedied and the show hits its stride if it hadn't already. Best of the old and a slice of the new equals some fine entertainment.

Episodes to See:
The Blind Bandit - Best character in the series is introduced and some funny digs at pro wrestling.
Tales of Ba Sing Se - Collection of vignettes that gives some personal perspective for each character particularly Iroh.
Crossroads of Destiny - Chilling season finale with some twists. 

Buyer's Guide:
Available as multiple DVD volumes or as a box set titled Complete Book 2 Collection.

4½ Manly Tears shed for Mako out of 5