Her so far only video release of a full-length concert, aptly named Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden is nothing but a piece of video documenting both a few of the happenings Gaga lived around the concerts and, of course, the concerts themselves, the final video being comprised of shots from different dates in her five-night engagement at the Madison Square Garden in NYC.

Being fully aware that she presents herself as a freak, – Something that other female artists did way before her, by the way, P!nk and Emilie Autumn being two perfectly fine examples of such acts – Lady Gaga set her second tour around that theme, the two hour concert being a constant reminder of how much of a freak both she and her following are, freak not being used as an offense in this case. During the whole of the concert, which is by the way filled with smoke and mirrors as one would expect from any current-day pop music concert, Gaga reminds her fans that it’s freaks like them who will rule the world, going as far as stating that for her during that night all the freaks are outside, not inside. Though a masterful step to be taken by her, considering everyone loves to be flattered and her fans are not the exception, the amount of times she repeats the same thing over the concert seem to at times make the music and choreography take a backseat to said comments, in a move that’s pretty hard to understand considering Gaga is much more of a singer and dancer (though not so much of an actress) than a motivational speaker.

Regardless of whether such an act consist a cheap call for attention or not, they do show one thing: She is an entertainer above all things and, if she manages to keep her career on track and steer a bit more toward being a serious artist, leaving her pretentiousness aside, she might one day rise up to fill the shoes of the queen herself: Though far from the status that Madonna has reached both musically and on stage, Gaga shows herself to be pretty good when it comes to dominating a stage, her constant stops to talk being engaging if repetitive due to the whole “We are freaks and proud of it” theme that permeates her speech.

Back to what truly matters – the show –, it is very well produced indeed. From the get-go, fans are treated to a nearly non-stop string of songs by the artist, the setlist containing both the stronger, iconic songs of her and, why not, several of the weaker ones that fans still seem to love. The performance is strong and well done, most songs having a setting of a sort on what seems to be an attempt to tell an overarching story through the concert that in the end doesn’t quite work – It instead gets a bit on the way of the music, the constant influx of both songs and freeform speeches by the artist doing a great job at making the audience forget there’s supposed to be a storyline being told.

Nevertheless, since Gaga’s strengths don’t lie in her acting, allowing the audience to forget just how terrible it is is indeed a good thing, giving the audience in the end exactly what they want: Music and dancing presented in the flashiest possible way from a stage. With a set that seems to change quite fast and – of course – a nearly ridiculous amount of costume changes, the scenario shows a variety that’s actually impressive, though nothing out of the ordinary for a character that’s known for wearing something new every time she goes out, each new outfit being more over the top than the previous ones.

As for the technical aspects, I’m quite satisfied with this release: Unlike in a few other concert recordings, Adele’s Royal Albert Hall concert being the main offender, the Monster Ball Tour presents a pristine, picture-perfect image on Blu-ray, the whole of the feature being filmed at 1080p with excellent video quality. The audio also has its own merits, most of it being well done though, I’ll admit, nothing to call home about. Nevertheless, considering this is a pop music concert and not an opera, the audio quality and the mix it has is fitting – If anything it is my own fault that I didn’t set the speakers high enough at times.

As for the editing done to the feature, it is a bit of a mixed bag. Though mostly excellent, with most shots working their own way to giving the viewers a good image of what a Gaga concert is meant to be like, there’s one big failure in the edition that seriously set it back for this reviewer: All of the interludes (and the intro) to the concert have been cut, giving the viewers a full look into what it is like to have Gaga on stage but cutting off several parts of the concert that are just enough to make it feel a little over edited. This is made more blatant by how Gaga herself addresses the interlude videos we never get to watch during the concert, stating that she can see the audience run to get drinks – In the video the time between sets is barely seconds and no videos are played at all.

Omissions and other flaws aside, however, Lady Gaga Presents the Monster Ball Tour: At Madison Square Garden is a very strong release from any point of view you take. Though she still has a long way to go in her career, Gaga is already more engaging than many performers and, if you manage to look beyond her crazed fanbase and publicity antics, a strong figure of her own, something this release strives to show.

Final Review Rating: 4/5

Availability: The recording is currently available on physical and digital form from Amazon.com

The extent of its success, however, is debatable. Though none can argue that Roth’s writing remains as engaging and easy to grasp as in the previous book, and even when I’ll admit the storyline keeps on being interesting, Insurgent suffers from several more pet peeves than Divergent had, with several of them getting in the way of the storyline and making a few points of it rather annoying.

Having reached the Amity compound after losing both her parents in the final chapters of Divergent, Triss starts learning about the reasons behind the attack on the Abnegation while the Dauntless faction gets split into two sides as a result of Triss having disconnected the simulations that started the attacks. This schism, though beneficial to some extent for Triss, starts a formal war between factions with the Abnegation having been all but wiped except for a few survivors, the Dauntless split into two warring sides and the Amity and Candor factions right in the middle. This makes several of the higher profile leaders try to plan around what’s going on, particularly Marcus, Tobias’ father, who is now the only remaining leader of the Abnegation left and the keeper of a dark secret that happens to be the reason why Jeanine plotted the attack against them.

However, a new group joins the war soon enough – The Factionless, who had kept themselves separate from society so far, join the war against Erudite under a new (and admittedly unexpected) leadership. However, it is readily apparent for Triss, though not so much for some of the people around her, that the Factionless have an entirely different agenda from everyone else, the only point where they agree with Dauntless and some of the people from Candor and Amity being the idea that Erudite needs to be put down for the good of society.

Though with an intriguing plot as just described with relatively few spoilers, Insurgent has its two main flaws fall a little too close to home. First, the protagonist isn’t nearly as charming this time around as she was back in Divergent, with Triss becoming a wreck of all sorts after the death of her parents, a good portion of the narrative dedicated to her suffering and constant attempts at sabotaging herself. Though perfectly understandable from a psychological point of view, the first person narrative that made the first book so enthralling makes Triss’ depression appear as pretty much the main theme of the book, turning the book into a downer of sorts with a protagonist who seemingly does all she can to avoid success of any kind.

The second pet peeve of the book, however, is the most annoying one. I mentioned in my review of Divergent that the relationship between Triss and Tobias seemed at points rather formulaic and had few reasons to be, though at the moment I simply blamed it on both characters being teenagers who can fall in love within an hour of meeting somebody. This gets far worse in Insurgent, where most of the interactions between both characters consist on quarrels, with Triss becoming a Mary-sue of sorts on this regard, every single conversation between them ending with a “You don’t understand me” of some sort. Though pretty close to what most teenage girls are like, there’s a flaw with that: Teenage girls are, by definition, needlessly dramatic and annoying. And sadly, by making the titular character fall so close to your standard teenage girl, the main character (And part of the narrative, since she’s the one telling the story) becomes just as needlessly dramatic and annoying from a relationships point of view. This is a very saddening fact because, ignoring this, Insurgent is actually quite the read and the amount of things going on in the world besides of Triss’ ridiculous romance with Tobias are interesting and enough to flesh out a plot properly.

Last, but not least, I’ll mention my thoughts on the ending of the book, which I won’t explicitly mention here for the sake of keeping the review relatively spoiler-free. From my point of view, the final reveal (which is actually the ending of the book, the few actions previous to it being mostly predictable, particularly when it comes to the real intention of the Factionless) was, though fitting, a little too predictable for its own good. The explanation given as for the reason why society was divided in several factions and left separate from the outside world is too much of a cliché and generally what you’d expect to read in a story written for ten year olds with the intention of teaching them about family values. To make matters worse, the reveal opens up several plot holes – The main one being a question regarding the reason why the plan that led society to divide itself like that would work, since it makes no sense at all – and, though it also creates a couple smaller mysteries, it really strikes as a very preachy ending to the book.

As for the situation besides the main reveal, it was simply predictable, though a fitting point to finish the book at. I wish a few more answers had been given before throwing us into the waiting game for the last book of the trilogy, but I guess I’ll have to wait until then for those answers.

Final Review Rating: 3.5/5

Availability: The book is currently available on physical and digital form from Amazon.com

The important parts that take place are, basically, dealing with who graduates and who doesn’t (One person doesn’t, a rather expected one) and what several of the cast mates are doing after graduation, along with some of the reactions people have to these. The smaller things are the predictable ones, particularly Quinn going on with her do-good spree that began in the senior prom episode when she gave Rachel the crown, which makes her go to Puck and confess to him that he was her first love in an attempt to get him to brighten up and pass his geography test (He does in the end, though his future is unceirtain).

However, there are several more interesting moments in the episode that, along with the interesting use of music through it (The finale is easily the best scene that’s been shot for Glee in a long time, if not the whole season). One of the questions that had been left open so far was whether Kurt or Rachel would be accepted into NYADA, and for the finale Finn’s fate is also added to the mix, with the three characters deciding to open their letters at the same time. The outcome, however, is a very mixed bag. Though it is understandable (And I for one praise the writers for following suit with reality… A little bit) that not everyone can get in, the choice of who to allow in is the most ridiculous and patronizing one since, as you probably realized already, Rachel gets into NYADA while Kurt, who not only didn’t blow his audition but was also wooed by the examiner doesn’t and Finn, obviously, doesn’t either.

The reason why this decision was such a hard one to take for me as a viewer was that, to put it simply, there’s absolutely no reason why Rachel would’ve deserved a place there more than Kurt other than having gone batshit insane and stalked the judge for weeks. Yet instead of a restraining order, she got an acceptance letter – I’m sorry but such a turn doesn’t have the slightest resemblance to what reality is like.

Another pet peeve of mine was Finn’s eventual decision of what to do with his life after he got rejected from studying acting. Though joining the army is many a young man’s dream (And I won’t get into details on my personal thoughts regarding it – I’m a pacifist, anti-militarist freak but then again I didn’t grow in the US, where the army is generally hailed), the storyline had already been explored before with, as I recall, Finn being talked out of it after learning exactly what had happened. Him choosing to go to the Army of sudden and having nobody do anything to stop it is ridiculous and, if anyone tried to stop him, not have it shown on screen reeks of terrible screenwriting.

A few other characters also have important things happen to them, though in smaller ways. Out of the rest of the cast, the only other storyline that seems important is Santana’s, who decides to follow her dream after she sees Mercedes get an opportunity to become a singer (Something that’s mentioned almost in passing, though then again Mercedes was never that big a character and she changed personalities like underwear). This has her discussing with her mother (Guest starred by Gloria Estefan, being the third guest star in the show that’s worth it, along with Whoopi Goldberg and Gwyneth Paltrow), who wants her to go to college yet eventually gives in and tells her to go to New York with some money she had saved for university.

Besides that, two smaller arcs appear – The first letting us know Mike Chang got accepted somewhere and the second letting us know Brittany wasn’t graduating, since her grades were an absolute 0. How the character was allowed to partake on a school club while having such horrendous grades is a testament to McKinley being an awful school (Though then again with the director it has it isn’t really a secret for anyone).

The episode ends as Rachel and Finn go to where they are supposed to get married. However, rather than taking her there, Finn takes Rachel to the train station, where he lets her know she’s going to New York to chase her dreams while he will enlist the Army, effectively breaking up with her. It is then discovered that apparently everyone knew about this but her, since all her friends were there to say goodbye to her. The episode ends as the spoiled girl who didn’t quite deserve a place in NYADA and who’ll always be in our memories for being one of the most annoying main characters in history (About as annoying as Roxie Hart, with the difference that Hart was meant to be annoying) sings a cover of Roots Before Branches, original by Room for Two, as she leaves Lima Heights and arrives at New York City.

Besides of the storyline, which was a good one even considering the glaring holes in its writing, the episode boosted a rather solid set of songs – None of them sounded horrible or overtly edited with the dreaded autotune. The set of songs is Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat, from Guys and Dolls in a scene that overlaps both the current performance and that from the Pilot episode; I’ll Remember, original by Madonna, sung by Colfer (Who does it quite well, the song fitting his voice in the way that Music of the Night didn’t); Forever Young, original by Rod Stewart (When I read the title I was hoping this would be another Meat Loaf cover, sadly it wasn’t); A reprise of the Single Ladies performance from season 1, this time performed by Mike O’Malley as Burt’s graduation gift to Kurt; You Get What You Give by the New Radicals; In My Life, original by The Beatles and Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen.

As for my final take on this finale, it is a simple one: This looked and felt a lot more like a series finale than a season finale and, in my opinion, it did nothing but showcase just how better the show would be were it to stop focusing on a show choir and try to actually become a musical – Something that happens beautifully in the bittersweet final scene of the episode. Not only that, but it also seems to put the original cast as (mostly) irreplaceable, giving the viewership a good look at just how much the show could evolve if it abandoned high school altogether and decided to follow the main characters to their adult lives. Alas, that is not to be and the fourth (And, unless the writing gets a LOT better, probably last) season of the show will retain the current format with a small twist. Whether said small twist will be enough to retain viewership and gain back a portion of the lost viewers remains to be seen, but I personally don’t hold a lot of hope regarding that.

Final review rating: 4/5

Things get sour pretty fast before the competition, however, as Mercedes gets sick and the whole team starts fighting each other due to some members underperforming in some areas, while the adults also find themselves over a lot of stress, all of them wanting the kids to win the competition so they can have a few different weeks as their last ones in high school. The tension between the students rises, as usual for them before competitions, but ultimately Will finds out a way to get them all to calm down and work together for their common goal.

The moment of the competition arrives as three “celebrity” judges are in the competition and even Carmen Tibideaux assists to watch Rachel perform. Mercedes gets better suddenly thanks to Sue’s crazy treatment, allowing the whole team to participate in the performance. There, they perform three songs – The Troubletones open with a cover of Lady Gaga’s The Edge of Glory that’s pretty well done both vocally and on stage. The song is followed by It’s All Coming Back to Me Now, sung by Rachel (Lea Michele) – A version that’s pretty much the same that Céline Dion recorded back in the nineties, though much shorter than the original due to obvious time constrains. They close the show with what is probably (And sadly) the worst number they have performed for a competition by following up a Steinman song with another one, the poorly chosen Paradise by the Dashboard Light, originally recorded by Meat Loaf for his debut album Bat Out of Hell. This performance, though a visual delight, is a vocal disaster – Paradise is an amazingly complicated song from all points of view and both the ensemble recording and the fact that the producers decided to take away the hard rock core from the song, turning it instead into an almost choral version of it made the song a simply terrible one to endure.

After their performance, Kurt and Mercedes go see Unique to wish him luck and find him on a tizzy and saying he won’t go on stage due to stage fright. After a chat with him where he reveals he’s having issues dealing with having become the posterboy for kids who are different, Kurt and Mercedes get him to take on the stage. For their performance, Vocal Adrenaline present two pretty good songs – Covers of Nicki Minaj’s Starships and Pinball Wizard, original by The Who. Though both songs sounded fine and had good – Great in the case of Starships – choreographies going on, Alex Newell’s performance as Unique in both songs looked bland and uninspired, making it look almost as if the character didn’t really wanted to be there and were doing it just because he had to.

The episode then takes a wrong turn when the scene with the judges takes place – Two out of three judges are terrible, terrible actors and Rex Lee isn’t one of those. Whoever thought putting Lohan and Perez Hilton in the show was a good idea needs to get fired – Both delivered the worst acting job on the show ever with uninspired performances and clichéd lines. How exactly the producers can go from having Whoopi Goldberg guest star in an episode to having such talentless people on camera is something that should be investigated by sociologists in decades to come. They also gain extra points by actually having put Goldberg and those two in the same episode.

Before the winners are announced Jesse St. James, who’s been acting as coach for Vocal Adrenaline, stops Carmen while she’s on her way out of the building and, after reminding her of his own audition for the NYADA, tells her that Rachel is an amazingly talented girl – The most talented he’s ever met – And that if there’s anyone who will be a star and deserves a chance, that’s her.

As the competition comes to a close, the judges award the MVP trophy to Unique and then award first place to the New Directions, in a plot twist that amused – Wait, nevermind. Everyone saw that one coming a year ago when they lost.

As they go back to school, the New Directions are received as heroes and hailed by everyone in a clear display of terrible writing. The sole idea that the same group that was reviled was suddenly loved by everyone just because they won a loser competition in a high school setting is preposterous. To make things worse, the writers go on their own “make everyone happy” spree by dedicating the last scene to the “Teacher of the Year” award, where it is given to Will Schuester in yet another amazing plot twist that – No, wait, that one was also terribly predictable.

As I mentioned in the beginning of the review, Nationals was an excellent episode up until the scene with the judges. Even the horrible dismembering they did to Paradise by the Dashboard Light could’ve been overlooked simply because, well, they’re Glee and butchering songs is one of the things they do best.  However, the horrible scene with the winners of the golden raspberry for the lifetime achievement in terrible acting judges and the following displays of terrible writing that doesn’t even bother to try and look a bit like reality really brought down the quality of the episode. It was still one very entertaining episode to watch and a much better one than many in the season, but it also left a bitter taste since it began as what could’ve been a perfect episode and then spiraled down into a simply good one.

Final review rating: 4/5

Beginning with Tina throwing a fit over her always being on the background while Rachel hogs all solos for herself and then hitting her head and having a particularly odd hallucination where everyone in New Directions had switched places with somebody else, the episode at first seemed like it would be yet another “filler because of filler” episode. However, once the admittedly funny hallucination was over several proper plotlines started to appear.

First, Sue learns that Unique has gone on to become a phenomenon, making Vocal Adrenaline the favorite to win Nationals, something that puts Sue’s leadership over the cheerleaders at stake. Her idea to counteract them, however, isn’t exactly a popular one – She insists that Kurt should perform a number in drag as “Porcelina”. After that, she starts insisting that the judges simply love props and therefore they need to do something else if Kurt refuses to dress like a woman, giving the group all kinds of crazy suggestions, ending with Will deciding they’ll just practice their choreography rather than go with cheap tricks.

Trying to take one for the team, Puck offers to go in drag to Nationals to help them win after Kurt refuses, making Sue ditch the idea due to how terrible he looks. This act, however, has its effect on Pucks popularity, who now finds other guys picking on him at school due to him flunking senior year and dressing up as a woman for Nationals. After he threatens with killing one of the guys with a knife after a fight where he loses and is thrown into the trash, Beiste stops him and takes him to the dressers, where she explains him he could be arrested even when the knife was fake.

After that, Puck vents his frustrations with Beiste about feeling worthless. Beiste, who had recently been talked to by the cheerleaders to get her to leave her fiancé, sees herself in puck and soon enough decides to leave the guy after noticing just how much it all is affecting her and how she needs to stay away from the bad influence he represents.

Meanwhile, Tina convinces Rachel to go talk to the judge from NYADA after she doesn’t answer or responds to her calls. They take a trip to the school she’s teaching in to ask her, where they both board her and, though initially she refuses to give Rachel any special treatment, Rachel eventually gets through to her with her persistence and Tina’s help – The latter one admitting Rachel to be a pain in the ass, but also assuring she’s got what’s needed to triumph. However, what really makes her doubt her position is when Rachel states that she read somewhere she’d auditioned for Julliard four times – And though she doesn’t agree to go watch Rachel sing in Nationals, she stays silent with a doubtful expression.

After this, we see how Beiste decides to finally leave her fiancé – Going with New Directions to the nationals as a third chaperone at first, without any hint of what she’ll do later. Then, she joins with Puck and, after singing a song together, tells him she got him a second chance at the geography final he’d failed for the following week and that she’ll help him prepare for it. The episode closes as Tina and Rachel perform a song together, fulfilling a promise Rachel had made Tina during their road trip.

Musically, the episode was nothing special – though with nice songs overall, there wasn’t anything in the repertoire that actually shined and, though a few of the songs were sung by unlikely characters (Tina, Beiste, Puck) they did make me wonder just how much autotune went into those songs – Particularly after Dot-Marie Jones’ voice actually sounded decent while her previous attempt at singing (With Jolene) had been a disaster of all kinds.

Final review rating: 4/5

In other words, Garbage is back with a vengeance to show people how to rock.

That’s not to say it is such an easy task, however. Through its almost twenty years on the scene, Garbage has gone through more than a couple break ups, most lasting years on end, personal problems and all the kind of drama one would expect from a 90’s rock band. However, the hardest thing going against the success of the band’s new musical proposal was called Bleed Like Me, the band’s lackluster 2005 effort.

Thankfully, Not Your Kind of People comes off as a very different style than the rough-edged rock presented in Bleed Like Me, instead going for a complete throwback to the band’s roots and even Manson’s earlier material: Not Your Kind of People is, at its core, a homage to all the kinds of music that Garbage has produced over its nearly twenty years.

From the first track, the angsty, oddly-titled Automatic System Habit, Manson & Company show that they mean business when they decided to get back together, the album being made up of mainly upbeat or at least strongly backed songs, choosing the quirky sound that helped the band rise to fame back in the 90s when grunge was still the style of rock to play (For the younger people, Grunge was the nu-rock of the 90’s. No version of it has yet been featured this decade.) From there on, the album puts the listener on a musical rollercoaster that, rather than showing how much the band has grown since its creation, revives the types of sounds the band is most known for. That is how Big Bright World becomes highly reminiscent of Manson’s previous career with Angelfish and Blood For Poppies sounds like a mixture between Bleed Like Me and Beautifulgarbage, while the latter half of the album turns moodier and more electronically oriented while still keeping the Garbage flavor on itself.

For the latter half of the album the music, though darker, keeps the level of the first half, even when it does become a bit harder to get into due to its style being less mainstream. Nevertheless, it has its own jewels – Felt is a strong rock song with ethereal vocals that evokes a mixture between Garbage and Bleed Like Me, Sugar is reminiscent of the B-side Sleep while Battle In Me and Man On A Wire could both be considered the Boys Wanna Fight of Not Your Kind of People. That said, I shall give props to the album for its closing track – Beloved Freak is probably the only proper ballad of the record, the quietest song and without a doubt one of its highlights – A closing song that’s moody and becomes the So Like a Rose of the album, although it is much less depressive than the track it resembles, its lyrics this time around being based around strength rather than sadness.

All things said, Not Your Kind of People isn’t exactly the kind of album I was expecting from Garbage after all these years and, in all honesty, it sounds like the band has barely grown since their 2005 effort. Thought doubtlessly fun and a serious step up from their previous album, there’s still something missing from Not Your Kind of People, something the first three albums of the band had: Originality. Fourteen years after its release, I haven’t found a single rock album that does the perfect mixture of styles Version 2.0 did, the strong lyrics and odd, yet engaging mixture of pop and rock found in Beautifulgarbage eleven years ago or even the angsty rock from Garbage, released seventeen years ago. Garbage is today one of the strongest rock bands due to its own story and the amount of time they have existed, but the truth is they have had problems with crafting truly engaging material in the form of albums during the last eleven years and, sadly, Not Your Kind of People isn’t here to show the world Bleed Like Me was a misstep.

Though still experimental to some extent, it shows the band is no longer trying to do new things or pull musical antics like the one where they recorded a chunk of Version 2.0 in an abandoned candy factory for its peculiar acoustics. Instead, rather than trying to rock out again, Not Your Kind of People is an attempt to show the world the way in which Garbage used to rock, something that, though not a bad thing, isn’t exactly how the band should’ve made its comeback after seven years of absence in the market.

Final Review Rating: 3.5/5

Availability: Currently available in physical and digital form from Amazon.com

With Bombshell, Smash finally did it. On its final episode of the season, the show delivered an amazing display of both drama and music that did just enough to make it the standout episode of the TV season for me and an example of how, sometimes, good season finales can be written as opposed to your standard finale episode that’s used simply to tie up existing plotlines and let everyone know people are fine, with the occasional hint at what will happen next season if the show has been renewed.

Instead of closing all plot lines, however, Smash barely resolved one of them – leaving the rest up in the air while also opening a few new ones over the episode. Though a bold choice for a series, I loved seeing a finale where I didn’t really know exactly what went on with everything and everyone. The only thing the Smash finale clears is who got chosen as Marilyn – The choice is, of course, the obvious one – while everything else is left up in the air, the viewer having but a clue of how the rest of the storyline went on.

As for what the episode was about, I can gladly let you guys know it wasn’t about who’d play Marilyn. With that choice being taken during the first five minutes of it, the real meat of the episode is the rush to get Karen to learn the whole play in roughly twelve hours while Tom and Julia also rush to write the new finale during that time.

The amount of drama thrown in, which includes Ellis attempting to take control of the show, Eileen doubting Derek’s ability to cast and, of course, Ivy’s way of dealing with not being chosen along with quite a bit of couples drama make for an episode that, when coupled with the terribly fast pacing it had, is nothing but excellent. The way how the writers found a way to put all of this in the episode while also making the episode never lose its focus on the race to get the show ready on time is simply beautiful, making up for the best episode of the series so far and an example of how most series should handle drama: Make it fast, don’t put situations that aren’t needed, get away from filler and if you need to make your season be only twelve episodes instead of the standard twenty three, do it.

The way in which the season ends (that is, how most questions are left up in the air) also works perfectly and coupled with the last few minutes of the episode help it rise above the rest of the episodes of the series: Bombshell is an example of how every episode in the series should’ve been, properly dealing with how fast-paced and sudden the life on stage can be.

Put this together with the music in the episode and not only does Bombshell become an excellent TV episode, but a cornerstone for musical TV: Though most of the music was made up of rehashes of songs sung in previous episodes the finale, consisting of a new song (The new closing number for Bombshell) and the video edition done to it, showing pieces of both Karen singing it and what was going on off-stage worked to create a dramatic height – One that was cut off abruptly as the song and the episode ended at the same time.

However, it’s that abrupt ending that made me love it since it gives both the audience and the producers lots to expect for season two. The only let down I have is the confirmation that season two will indeed continue with the storyline rather than have a revamped cast and setting, something I was hoping for. However, the way in which the finale set the stage for season two and the chance that there might be a time leap between both seasons means there’s a good chance Smash might come back stronger than ever come January.

Final Review Rating: 5/5

Alas, it was not to be. What had been hyped by the series itself as a huge finale where many things were at stake was presented as a two-part episode, an hour and a half special where all possible plotlines were explained and finished. Sadly, the endings given to the characters where mostly predictable and, almost in all cases, clichéd to no end. What I had expected to be a table-turner of an episode where a series known for its unexpected reveals and sudden turns would rewrite the future for its characters ended up being little more than a soap opera ending, wedding included.

That’s not to say that everything was bad about last night’s special episode. The first half of it – What could be considered to be episode 22 of season 8 – Was actually awesome. In the final episode dealing with Bree’s trial several things went by, her storyline being once again the focus of the episode with the other housewives taking the backseat. Nevertheless, during those 45 minutes –in which we first learned Mrs. McClusky was much closer to death than we had previously seen – the whole Bree trial storyline was resolved in the most outrageous way where at some point there were three or four people willing to take the fall for Bree, and in the end it was the old lady with cancer who confessed how she killed the bastard.

In fact, the way in which the main storyline was solved was actually compelling, with most things happening in episode 22 being pretty good, even when some (The expected scene where Lynette and Tom got back together) were horribly predictable. The main issue was with the latter half of the special – Episode 23.

When it comes to finales, TV series tend to get them horribly wrong and spend an hour describing all sorts of happily ever afters even for the darkest series. Desperate Housewives, sadly, was no exception, with most of the fourty-five minutes the episode lasting being a huge annoyance without any semblance of a plot to drive it that described the last adventure the housewives had together and how they kept messing with each other ‘til the end. Adding Katherine Mayfair to the mix made the whole thing worse, since the only reason from a plot standpoint why the character (Who was previously put on a bus after the writers decided to have her become a lesbian out of the blue) was brought back from the dead was to give Lynnette one last chance to quarrel with Tom, because clearly the audiences couldn’t have possibly had enough of that during the previous 179 episodes of the series.

Even more annoying is the situation Gaby and Carlos are put in; where Gabrielle pretty much becomes Carlos circa season one of the series, neglecting him completely in order to make money after getting a promotion at her job. Put this together with the most predictable moment for a woman to enter labor in the series’ history and the episode having begun with yet another flashback to when Mary Alice was alive and you have one annoyance of an episode that does its best to explain you exactly why the series needed to end when it did – Or actually, even earlier than it did.

There were, however, three things that were actually good from the last episode and that managed to make it easier to get on with. Susan’s storyline, for once, was set on something other than being silly, her connection with her daughter and her pain at leaving Wisteria Lane being visible in her.

Karen’s death was also a proper highlight of the finale, her final moments coming as a proper symbolism for the series, her insistence of leaving while listening to a record from her infancy having a strong resemblance on how the series seemingly ended just as it began. The way in which she faced death in a quiet, almost gleeful way while those around her grew increasingly worried as her final days went by. The reaction to her death – A reaction that only two characters seemed to have, delivered in a scene where her song played while both Bree’s and Roy’s grief are shown and compared to the then current wedding of Renee and the birth of Susan’s granddaughter made for an excellent, somewhat heartbreaking scene.

The icing on the cake of sorts, even when I admit it wasn’t a very good cake, was the last five minutes of the series, where the future of the housewives was explained – Perhaps it was a predictable move, but it was nice to show at least some details of their future lives though I believe the series would’ve kept much better ratings had they followed some of the storylines there described (Bree running for office, Gaby having her own business…) rather than stayed in the whole “mysteries” theme they seemingly loved.

As the episode ended, we saw the new inhabitant of Susan’s house moving in and putting away a box where she seemingly kept some horrible secret hinting that, though the series is over, there are still secrets and needless drama going around on Wisteria Lane.

Final review rating: 3.5/5

However, a few of the people differ from the norm. While most people are told of the factions they suit to the best at sixteen after taking a test, some of these people seem to be able to get into more than just one of them. Their personalities are such that they can’t be stereotyped and won’t follow the herd. Unlike most around them, they are divergent and considered a threat in a society that’s based entirely on the idea that people must be made to fit into molds.

Beatrice Prior, a girl who has been born and raised as a member of Abnegation with her family is, as she finds out after her own test goes awry, one of these people. Luckily for her, the woman who administered her test covers her up by reporting a different result than she got. However, the only information she’s told is that she is divergent and that this information she must keep to herself. Knowing this, she is forced to make a choice – Stay within her faction or join a different one, knowing that she belongs to several of them according to the test. And then, there’s the whole mystery about what she is and why it would be dangerous for society.

This is how Veronica Roth opens Divergent, the first book in a planned trilogy where Beatrice (later Triss) is made to figure out the world around her and, as the main mystery of the first book, exactly what is so wrong about being divergent. Though in some points apparently filled with cliché (The scene where Triss is told she’s divergent particularly made this reader feel like he was reading some badly written drama about the chosen one), Roth’s story is a lot deeper than it lets on at first. This is how several of the issues the storyline seems to have at first are cleared up later on, with many of the pet peeves I felt while reading it getting noticeably better as the book neared its end, making me feel much more comfortable with Roth’s dystopian society.

However, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist – Why, they of course do. And, as I just mentioned, the main flaw in the storyline is just how clichéd it is at some points, with many of the plot resolutions being predictable while others just feel formulaic. Though it clears up a lot on the latter half of the book, it is very hard not to see Triss as the chosen one, some kind of special entity who was born to change the world, and this simple issue works against the book. Another smaller problem in it includes a major plot character and his romance of sorts with Triss. Though it is ok to put romance in a book and thankfully Roth doesn’t go out of her way to make it appear in the novel, the way in which it begins is a rather odd one, since it just seems to be that they are attracted to and meant for each other from the get go, something that’s rather suspicious/formulaic, if a bit understandable since it’s teenagers we’re talking about and they do tend to fall for each other for no particular reason or sometimes even no reason at all.

That said, the main draw of the book for me was the narrative and how it was written: Roth successfully pulls out writing a whole novel in first person and making it work. The main reason why Divergent can actually draw a believable dystopia around it, rather than its setting and storyline, is the beautiful way in which the author can put it into words. The first-person narrative makes up for a simple, yet believable way to write the story that puts the reader right into the skin of the protagonist and the writing is such that it allows the reader to feel exactly what Triss does through the book – Not a small feat, all things considered. Though there are always things that must be forsaken in order to write a novel in first person, particularly how you can’t switch to scenes where the main character is and how you have to tell it in a specific order (No flashbacks!), if done well you gain a level of insight into the main character that’s hard to show in more traditional ways of telling the story.

The bottom line with Divergent, however, is that it is an achievement of its own: Though initially underwhelming from a storyline standpoint, the writing is strong enough to keep the reader interested through the whole of the novel regardless of its low or high points. It might sometimes not seem like such a huge story – And in fact it isn’t an epic, at least not the first book alone – But there’s just something to seeing the world from Triss’ eyes that makes the storyline compelling overall even on its least worked parts. As such, Divergent becomes the odd one out, one of the few books that shouldn’t be as interesting as they end up being, making it hard for the reader to separate himself from it. Divergent, as it stands, is a page turner like few and that alone is enough of a reason for me to recommend it – Because, even when you consider its flaws, it still manages to stand well above most of its competition and deliver an enthralling experience along with it.

Final Review Rating: 4.5/5

Availability: The book is currently available on physical and digital form from Amazon.com

As a means of continuing the dramatic arc, it worked fine – Though it did have a rather abrupt ending where the drama could’ve been extended to a few episodes. The final reveal, sadly, was too predictable and too much of a cliché for this reviewers’ taste, though the episode overall wall funny and entertaining, the added layer of light drama making it more compelling than previous ones. This was easily one of the best episodes of the season and one that certainly showcases the potential the series has while official news of a renewal or cancellation are announced.

The story begins as Carlene receives an invitation to set the first stone for her condos for Christian livings, which has her inviting Pastor Tudor and her friends over to Juarez to bless the construction of the site. Initially unable to go due to planning on visiting Luke, Amanda soon realizes he’s not really in Austin but in Juarez, prompting her to go after him to see exactly what’s going on.

Once in Juarez, the ladies act like the perfect bunch of tourists, being loud, outspoken and easily fooled by the local populace. While Carlene, Cricket, Sharon and Heather go off to check the local curiosity shops (Cricket being horribly angry at the attempts of her friends to look like businesswomen, believing herself to be the only real businesswoman of the group), Gigi and Amanda take a detour to the place where Luke is staying to learn exactly what’s going on. There they find Ripp being rather lovely with a young woman – young enough to be Carlene’s daughter, making Amanda want to tell Carlene while Gigi does her best to get her to keep her mouth shut.

Back with the other women, all of them and Pastor Tudor are taken to the grounds where the condos will be built (marked with a huge billboard with Carlene’s face) and proceed to bless the construction site. Afterwards, the men and the women leave in separate cars – With the women getting kidnapped by a local woman, descendant of the Aztec nation, who finds Carlene’s pretentions of building a purely Christian residence to be an insult to her and her ancestors. As such, she holds them hostage with a single demand to release them: Carlene handing her the ownership of the grounds where the condos are to be built.

After some negotiation, Carlene refuses to hand her the papers, making the woman leave them stranded inside of a shack in the middle of the desert. Though they find a way to free themselves, they find out they’re literally lost in the desert, with Gigi’s orientation sense being used to try and walk back to civilization. Using a bottle of alcohol to hydrate themselves (And forcing Amanda to drink from it or risk dying in the process) they find a way to make it back to the construction site, though not without having Amanda get angry at Carlene and tell her what she saw when she went looking for Luke. Thus, they arrive to the construction site with a very depressed and desperate Carlene who agrees to burn the billboard in order to attract attention to themselves and possibly get rescued.

This works just fine, mainly because Pastor Tudor and Zack were already looking for them. They help the group go back to civilization, where Carlene insists on confronting Ripp immediately. After they arrive at the house where Ripp was staying, Carlene goes to confront him – And finds out the young woman is actually Ripp’s daughter, and not her lover.

Amanda also has a chat with Luke, trying to deal with him having kept secrets from her. Though understanding Luke’s reasons, she breaks up with him due to him having lied so effortlessly. The episode ends as Amanda has a chat with Pastor Tudor after having ordered some drinks at a bar and being able to resist even tasting it.

Final Review Rating: 4/5