Category: Super Recaps

Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 7

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Dennie Gordon

We’re over the hill and barreling down at lightning speed towards a conclusion that everyone is scrambling to get ready for. The last episode was certainly a lurch with how much they tried to cram in and how they tried to stitch it all together, but with that work out of the way, does this episode ramp up more organically as it takes us into the big finale? Let’s find out!!

With Chief and Cortana back in contact, there’s not much that can stand in his way as he gets revenge against Ackerson and finds his stolen armor. Of course, that ends up being small potatoes when it turns out that the Covenant fleet is within spitting distance of the Halo and the UNSC are still in bad shape after the attack on Reach. With little more than the barely trained Spartan IIIs to throw at the problem, Parangosky makes a fateful choice that puts Ackerson in a rather awkward position, and that’s before he runs into the mighty fists and burning wrath of Chief as well as Kai who is similarly ticked off about being lied to. Humanity’s hope may lie in what Halsey, Miranda, and Kwan have found in the caves of Onyx, if only they knew how to activate it, and time is running short as Makee and The Arbiter are on their way to the ring with little on their mind but salvation through utter annihilation. Can Chief put aside his anger long enough to save humanity now that the Covenant have their eyes on the celestial doomsday weapon? What secrets will we learn once Halsey, Miranda, and Kwan open the door to the long dormant secrets left beneath the surface of Onyx? I’m still unsure why ONI thought Chief was better suited as a dead poster than as a butt kicking warrior, but you do you, I suppose.

“Is it just me, or does the camera add ten pounds?”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 6

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

We are well over halfway through the season, and from the very start we knew that the destination was to have our characters arrive at the Halo ring before the end of it. The path to getting there, however, is still rather fraught as the show has made some bold moves in its breaks from canon, but we only have so long to replace it with a new status quo which isn’t getting any easier with the Spartan III program cramming itself in there as well. Still, the last episode got us back on track as far as I’m concerned, and I’m optimistic that they can get us over the finish line without falling flat on its face. Does this continue the upward trend of the season since the Fall of Reach, or are we falling back on bad habits now that we’re in-between set piece episodes? Lets’ find out!!

On the remote planet of Onyx, Kai (Kate Kennedy) is in charge of a new program spearheaded by Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) to create the next generation of warriors; the Spartan III program. Kai, being a Spartan II, is more than qualified for the role and is making great progress with the new recruits, including Perez (Cristina Rodlo), but the mission they’re training for seems hopeless, and the troops are far from ready for such a task. Things don’t get any easier for her when John (Pablo Schreiber) shows up and starts wrecking the place as he looks for answers and justice for what happened back on Reach. Meanwhile, the rest of John’s ragtag crew of misfits and outcasts are off doing their own thing with Soren and Laera (Bokeem Woodbine and Fiona O’Shaughnessy) searching for their son Kessler while Kwan Ha and Halsey (Yerin Ha and Natascha McElhone) are looking underneath the Onyx facility for something that will get them closer to the Halo ring. If that wasn’t enough drama, Makee (Charlie Murphy) and the Arbiter (Viktor Åkerblom) are having a tough time convincing the rest of the Sangheili crew that they know where they’re going; especially with the ship’s priest demanding that they turn around and ask the Prophet’s for directions. Will John get the answer he seeks from ONI and the UNSC, even if he has to go through Kai to get it? How much longer can Makee keep the Sangheili placated with promises of the Halo ring, and is Cortana going to help her out despite them being ostensible enemies? Maybe it’s a good tradeoff if it means she can actually get some screen time!

“If I could just get five more minutes-” “NO!” “I’ve got some killer knock-knock jokes!” “I SAID NO!!”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 5

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

The Fall of Reach has come and gone with some surprising changes to the status quo and many questions to answer before we finally get to that darn ring everyone keeps talking about. Still, a big event like that needs some time to decompress so it’s time for a budget-friendly talky episode that I tend to enjoy much more than the action. Sure, it’s there if you want it, but a show has to be more than that and this season has had a bad track record of developing its characters and establishing themes. Will this be the turning point for the series that I’ve been waiting for, or is it back to business as usual after the big mid-season blowout? Let’s find out!!

With the fall of Reach, humanity is on the brink of annihilation as few defenses remain between The Covenant and Earth. The UNSC is fighting amongst itself due to the machinations of Ackerson and the ONI, Makee (Charlie Murphy) managed to get one of the sacred artifacts off Reach before it blew up, and Silver Team lost Vannak (Bentley Kalu) in all the chaos. While Chief, Halsey, Soren, and Riz (Pablo Schreiber, Natascha McElhone, Bokeem Woodbine, and Natasha Culzac) were able to escape the planet with the help of Kwan Ha and Laera (Yerin Ha and Fiona O’Shaughnessy), there’s little hope to be found on that ship as they head their way to a remote mining planet where Soren and laera hope to find their son Kessler (Tylan Bailey). It’s a dark chapter for The Master Chief as the galaxy presumes him dead and the ONI did everything in their power to make it so. Chief is used to having his back against the wall, but with so much against him, can he get back on the saddle and finish the fight, wherever that fight may be? How is everyone else dealing with the fall of Reach and the loss of everyone there? Do you think maybe we can chill out on this planet for a while longer as it’s not bathed in constant darkness? I mean, it still doesn’t have sunlight but at least I can finally see what’s going on!

“Oh, wow! They got you good, didn’t they?”     “I know, right? Should have put on a helmet, at least.”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 4

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Craig Zisk

The Fall of Reach is perhaps the most significant event in the timeline; not necessarily for its impact on the Human Covenant War, but for its place in the fandom. If you just wanted to play the Halo games for their top notch gameplay and just let the story pass you by, that was perfectly fine and those kinds of players were the ones who drove the franchise to such dizzying heights of success and prestige. If you wanted to know more about the games, however, the first thing you learn is what happened to Reach. It’s the first book in the series, it takes place right before the first game, and it’s been poking around the more mainstream side of the franchise with the game in 2010 and the animated adaptation in 2015, so getting it right is going to be the biggest challenge for this season of the show. With so much at stake, can the new showrunners satisfy both fans of the games as well as fans of the show with their telling of this iconic chapter in the lore, or will Paramount be looking for yet another showrunner to try and correct the ship for season 3? Let’s find out!!

After trying to tell the UNSC that the Covenant were on Reach, John (Pablo Schrieber) is proven right as he and Corporal Perez (Cristina Rodlo) are caught in the opening Salvo of the invasion. With little time to spare, the two meet up with Riz (Natasha Culzac) and head to Fleetcom HQ to try and get a handle on things and hopefully find their power armor still intact. Sadly they won’t find it as Ackerson and the rest of the UNSC higher ups have taken all the good equipment and ran away while everyone else was still unaware that an invasion was imminent; leaving Admiral Keyes (Danny Sapani) and a small contingent of marines to try and hold the aliens at bay while they get as many civilians offsite as possible. If that wasn’t bad enough, Ackerson shows his sadistic side as he leaves the recently captured Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) and the long held captive Doctor Halsey (Natascha McElhone) to die in the basement prison of the Fleetcom building, and they have to find a way to escape as well. With so much death and destruction happening all around them, can this rag-tag crew of Spartans, Pirates, Mad Scientists, and Marines make a valiant last stand against such an overwhelming foe? What else did Ackerson and the UNSC leave behind that could prove even more fatal to humanity’s chances in this war than the destruction of Reach itself? How did the Covenant sneak this much firepower on the planet in the first place? They’re not exactly known for their subtlety.

“THEY’RE SHOOTING FIREWORKS AT US, SIR!”     “My god… our one weakness!”
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episode 3

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Craig Zisk

The season premiere left me underwhelmed, to say the least. For someone who genuinely enjoyed the first season and all its interesting creative choices, it was jarring to see so much of it thrown away in the pursuit of poe-faced solemnity. In any case, I said my piece last week and got it all out of my system so I’m ready to approach this episode much more on its own terms instead of comparing it to what came before. Well, okay. Maybe a little bit more griping, but hopefully it will be productive rather than simply nagging. Will this be the episode that turns me around on the season, or will my disappointment grow with each passing week? Let’s find out!!

With the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) certain that something is going on that Ackerson (Joseph Morgan) and the UNSC aren’t telling him, he takes his crew on an unauthorized mission to search for the missing Cobalt Team and find evidence of whatever it is that The Covenant are up to. Of course, you can’t rock the boat without getting wet, and this little excursion puts a significant wedge between him and the rest of Silver Team (Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, and Natasha Culzac) who are increasingly concerned about Chief’s erratic behavior; a feeling that Ackerson is happy to exploit as he continues to move all these pieces around in whatever game it is he’s playing. Reach isn’t the only place that’s having problems, however, as Laera, her son, and Kwan Ha (Fiona O’Shaughnessy, Tylan Bailey, and Yerin Ha) are now targets after Soren (Bokeem Woodbine) was taken prisoner by the UNSC. Without him around to play Pirate King, there are a lot of people looking to not just take the throne but whatever buried treasure Laera might know about. Can these three escape The Rubble without Soren’s past catching up to them? What can Chief do to stop The Covenant and save Cobalt Team now that the UNSC consider him unreliable and a threat to their secrets? I’m not convinced that the Master Chief is built for this kind of subterfuge. Did they even cover spy craft during his Spartan training, or did they look at this four hundred pound slab of meat and decide it was a lost cause?

There’s your first mistake! Any good spy knows not to eat anything offered to you!
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Super Recaps: Halo Season 2 – Episodes 1 & 2

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Debs Paterson

I reviewed the first season of this show and thought it was pretty great, but I also know that my opinion was in the minority, and was unsure if we would even get a second season after the lukewarm reaction from everyone other than me. Thankfully, Paramount is willing to give this show another chance to find its audience and the last season gave us a great starting point to finally move us to the Halo ring and everything else that fans wanted to see in the series. Will season two finally get the ball rolling and bring the fans on board with what I thought made the first season so special? Let’s find out!

Our story ended with the Master Chief (Pablo Schreiber) and his fellow Spartans Kai, Vannak, and Riz (Kate Kennedy, Bentley Kalu, and Natasha Culzac) managing to escape from the Covenant with the artifact, but not without incurring losses. Makee (Charlie Murphy), the human adopted by the Covenant to activate the artifact, was shot down in the firefight and Chief was forced to let his AI partner Cortana (Jen Taylor) take full control of his mind and fry his personality to manage the escape. It’s some time later and while Chief is verbal again, he’s not the warm cuddly bear he was by the end of the last season. He’s taciturn and stiff with his fellow Spartans and his questions about his past and the ethics of the Spartan program no longer seem to be an issue. The Covenant have escalated their war efforts and are now destroying whole planets, including Madrigal which Kwan Ha and Soren (Yerin Ha and Bokeem Woodbine) fought for half of last season to liberate, and the entire planet of Reach has come down with a bad case of Blade Runner depression, though whether these changes are part of the story itself as humanity is starting to lose hope or are just a creative change is still unclear. To make matters worse, the UNSC seems to have turned whole hog into the Office of Naval Intelligence (the Section 31 of this franchise for those Star Trek fans out there), and not only did they take Cortana out of Chief without a proper explanation, they are going all in on the propaganda with the Spartans being treated more like props than warriors. All of this chicanery from the ONI has left Chief and his crew feeling useless while the Covenant are seemingly making moves that will undercut all of humanity’s defenses and turn the tide of the war in their favor. Can Chief and Silver Team figure out the Covenant’s secret plans despite ONI’s insistence on remaining in the dark? What does this escalation of violence from the Covenant mean for those either liberating themselves from the UNSC or choosing to live on the margins and stay out of the war entirely? Why is everything lit so poorly!? Did the UNSC lose all its funding?

“Can we open a window at least?”     “YOU GET SLIGHTLY OPENED BLINDS AND NOTHING MORE!!”
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Super Recaps: One Piece – Episode 5

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

One Piece the live-action series is owned by Netflix

Directed by Tim Southam

The two-episode arc we just finished did start to show a few flaws in the formula as it strains to fit as much as it can into this first season, but I’m still very optimistic about this show and where things are heading. After all, we’re only four crew members in and Sanji was always a favorite of mine back when I watched the anime which gives me a lot of hope that they can pull him off in this. Will this be a better introduction to a crew member than we got for Usopp, or will this show ultimately buckle under the weight of the franchise’s lore? Let’s find out!!

With the Black Cat pirates roundly defeated and a brand new ship as their reward, Luffy and the Straw Hats set sail only to barely escape from an attack by Vice Admiral Garp and his crew of Marines. With their pristine ship now showing some wear and tear, they set anchor at a floating restaurant to get some R and R before figuring out their next move. Of course, nothing is as simple as that when it comes to the life of a pirate, and Luffy finds himself caught between the head chef Zeff (Craig Fairbrass) and his young protégé Sanji (Taz Skylar) who are butting heads over the menu; not to mention Zeff and Luffy’s fundamental disagreement on the efficacy of IOUs when it comes to paying for meals. Still, the rest of the crew get some time to relax and it’s nice to see them getting along as best they can! Oh, and also there’s a Vampire Pirate with a big sword trying to capture Luffy. Wait, what?

“The only things more precise than my blade are the angles on my mustache.”     “Yeah, how DO you maintain that? Is it a magic mustache or something?”     “My secrets are mine alone.”
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Super Recaps: One Piece – Episode 4

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

One Piece the live-action series is owned by Netflix

Directed by Emma Sullivan

The last episode of this show was the first one to feel the strain of fitting an anime story arc into a relatively small package, but even with it feeling overstuffed and unfocused it still succeeded due to the charm of its cast and the attention to detail in bringing the cartoon world of One Piece to life. Now that the stage has been thoroughly set, will this episode pay it all off in a satisfying fashion? Let’s find out!!
With the beloved butler Klahadore (Alexander Maniatis) being revealed as the bloodthirsty pirate Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates, it’s up to the Straw Hat crew (Iñaki Godoy, Emily Rudd, and Mackenyu) to try and stop him and his two co-conspirators (Bianca Oosthuizen and Albert Pretorius) from killing Kaya and stealing her family’s fortune! Then again, Zoro got thrown into a well and Luffy ate himself into a poisoned-food coma, so maybe it’s up to Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson) to save the day in real life instead of just in his made-up stories of heroism and adventure. Will Kuro’s grand scheme come to fruition even with this last-minute hiccup in his plan? Can Koby (Morgan Davies) and the Marines come to their aid against such an obvious foe, or will their pursuit of Luffy leave them oblivious to the threat standing in front of them? Is it just me, or does every show eventually do a Die Hard episode?

“Do you really think you have a chance against us acting like some sort of John Wayne cowboy?”     “What?  Screw that!  Errol Flynn all the way!”
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Super Recaps: One Piece – Episode 3

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

One Piece the live-action series is owned by Netflix

Directed by Emma Sullivan

I’m sure all the One Piece fans out there can breathlessly explain the question I’m about to ask, but what did Usopp actually contribute to the crew? As I’ve stated before, I’ve only seen about the first forty or so episodes of the anime and while I remember Usopp being a fun character with a solid origin story, nothing really sticks in my mind after that and since then he’s kind of felt like the Yamcha of the group, to pull a reference from an anime I actually know what I’m talking about. I know this isn’t the case as the series goes along, but I’m interested in seeing what they do with him in this version and if his contribution to the crew will have a more lasting impact on me. Will this be a great introduction to the character or were the writers scrambling to find a reason for him to exist in this? Let’s find out!!

Having escaped from the dastardly Buggy, the Straw Hat crew is on their way to Syrup Island in the hopes of finding a proper ship by which to travel to the Grand Line as well as outrun the Marines who are hot on their trail. Luckily for them, they meet a young ship cleaner on the island named Usopp (Jacob Romero Gibson) who assures them that he can get them in touch with the owner of the ship-building company and can get them a good deal on the boat. As we will learn with everything Usopp says, there’s only a little bit of truth in what he says as the owner in question is not quite the owner yet, but is still a good friend of Usopp’s named Kaya (Celeste Loots). She is being mentored and protected by her butler Klahadore (Alexander Maniatis) who has no patience for Usopp’s tall tales nor the ragamuffins he’s brought around to Kaya’s stately manor, but despite his protestations, Kaya invites them to dinner and to stay the night. After all, it’s her eighteenth birthday and she’s about to inherit her late parents’ company which will set her up for life! It’s not like anyone close to her wants to take that for themselves, am I right? Will the Straw Hat crew be able to convince Kaya to give them the boat of their dreams as Usopp had erroneously promised? What evil machinations are working behind the scenes on the cusp of Kaya’s corporate takeover, and how will the Straw Hat gang be sucked into these wicked schemes? Can Usopp finally show us a skill he has other than looking really good in bandanas and open shirts!?

“See, my uncle works at Nintendo and he showed me how to give Mario a bazooka in level four.”     “Wow, can you show me?”     “Uh… It’s a trade secret.  Legally, I shouldn’t even be telling you this.”
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Super Recaps: One Piece – Episode 2

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

One Piece the live-action series is owned by Netflix

Directed by Marc Jobst

Netflix’s adaptation of the long-running manga came out the gate swinging and delivered a fun opening episode that drew me in despite my apathy toward the franchise. Now that they’ve proven it can be done, will the rest of the season convince fans that it should be done? Let’s find out!!

The Straw Hat crew has barely escaped the clutches of the Marines stationed in Shells Town when they find themselves in yet another pickle! The famed pirate captain Buggy the Clown (Jeff Ward) has kidnapped our heroes and is demanding they turn over the map they stole from the Marines or they too will suffer a horrific fate much like the citizens of Orange Town who have also been captured by the ruthless Buggy. Luffy, Zoro, and Nami (Iñaki Godoy, Mackenyu, and Emily Rudd) have to find a way out of this terrifying, albeit whimsical, prison that they find themselves in and it may just require the power of friendship to do so! Will our heroes overcome their differences and put an end to the spooky clown’s reign of terror? What tricks does Buggy have up his sleeve, and can he possibly be a threat to the rubber man, Luffy? Is it everyone’s goal in Hollywood to one day become The Joker? I know that movie made a billion dollars, but it still wasn’t very good!

“What’s that?  You think Antonio Banderas should have won the Oscar?”     *GURGLE GURGLE*     “OH, SO NOW YOU’RE AN EXPERT ON METHOD ACTING!?”
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